Patron saint of Italy
Hand-painted icon of Saint Francis of Assisi
The first images of Saint Francis are not paintings but icons: panels on gold ground in the «Greek manner», painted a few years after his death. To paint Saint Francis as an icon today is to return to those origins.
The 13th-century panels
In 1235 Bonaventura Berlinghieri signed the Saint Francis panel in the church of San Francesco in Pescia: the saint standing, frontal, with the stigmata, surrounded by scenes of his miracles. The structure comes directly from Byzantine icons of saints with scenes from their lives. The panels of Pisa, Assisi, Siena and Florence followed, as did Cimabue's fresco in the Lower Basilica of Assisi. Saint Francis thus entered art through the language of the icon.
How the icon is painted
- The saint standing or half-length, in his habit, with the cord and the stigmata visible on his hands.
- The Gospel book or the cross; the face hollowed by penance and luminous.
- On request, scenes from his life around the central image: the sermon to the birds, the crib at Greccio, the stigmata at La Verna.
- Inscriptions in Latin («S. FRANCISCUS») or in Greek.
For whom
Saint Francis is patron of Italy, together with Saint Catherine of Siena, and of ecology; his feast is 4 October. The icon is given to those named Francis or Frances, to Franciscan communities and parishes, to those who love Creation. Like every icon by Concetta Basile, it is fully gilded with 23¾ karat gold, with inscriptions in Greek or Latin, and is commissioned with an offering proportionate to the time and materials of the work.
Frequently asked questions
Can Western saints also be painted as icons?
Yes: many saints of the Latin Church, from Saint Benedict to Saint Francis and Saint Clare, have been painted in the language of the icon since the Middle Ages. The iconographer depicts them with their own garments and attributes, according to the canons of the Byzantine tradition.