Dream of Pope Innocent III
Scenes from the Life of St Francis (Scene 5), by Benozzo Gozzoli
Francis led this joyful and carefree life when the first divine revelations began to call him to something higher. Praying one day in the church of Saint Damian, he heard the Crucified One asking him to restore His ruined house. Taking the words literally, he committed himself to renovating not only this temple, but also two others. The Divine Redeemer then told him to restore not the church buildings, but the Church itself as an institution.
And he showed him how to do it: “If you want to know my will, you need to despise all the things that until now you have loved and desired materially. When you have done this, everything that is unbearable to you will be pleasant to you, and everything that you desire will become unbearable”.
It was then that Pedro Bernardone intervened, as his son gave everything he had as alms, starting to lead a life considered senseless by the world. At that time, the well-known episode occurred in which the father appealed to the bishop to put an end to the “extravagances” of his son, who hurried to take off even the clothes on his back to make amends for his father's greed. After that, Francis gave himself entirely to what he called Lady Poverty, following the advice of the Gospel to the letter.
This image is a public domain image, which means either that copyright has expired in the image or the copyright holder has waived their copyright. Franciscan Gallery charges for the access to high resolution copy of the image. Manually restoration was necessary in order to improve quality, without covering the original image.
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