Assisi celebrates Saint Francis: Mattarella and the authorities remember the message of peace

With the festive ringing, at 11.59pm yesterday, 3 October, of the bells of the Basilica of Saint Francis, the celebrations for the patron saint of Italy began in Assisi, on the eight hundredth anniversary of his death. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, took part and spoke to the nation from the Loggia del Sacro Convento. This year the guests of the party are all the Regions and not just one as per tradition. Umbria offered the oil for the lamp on the saint's tomb lit by the mayor of Assisi Stoppini.

«In this season we are tempted and seduced by the culture of power, vulgar and invasive, deceptive, the result of misplaced emphasis and of brazen and enormous economic interests, of nationalisms that ruin nations, of campaigns that create the enemy instead of seeking what unites». Cardinal Matteo Zuppi said it: «His and ours - he adds - is a world marked by terrible wars» but «Francis reminds us that war is not a destiny. There is no time to waste, the divider cheats and makes people believe that we find peace with weapons and not with dialogue and law."

The head of state, Sergio Mattarella, is on the same wavelength: «In these times marked by senseless and cruel wars, by so much violence, manipulation, arrogance, as Leo Mattarella added: «Today terrible conflicts are bloodying many parts of the world, and even in some parts there is a return to blessing weapons and placing armies under religious insignia: Francis teaches us that there is no greater sin than that of killing other men in the name of God. We would not be doing justice to the saint of Assisi if his figure were exhausted in that of an ecologist, pacifist and charitable worker ante litteram». «His poverty, so sought and desired, was a concrete break with the idolatry of money; his humility had nothing naive about it, it was born from a demanding thirst for truth; his obedience was not submissiveness, but a tiring, thoughtful search for the superior reasons for the unity of the Christian people and the Church".

For Prime Minister Meloni «Today we celebrate our Patron Saint, Saint Francis, the most lovable, the most poetic and the most Italian of our saints. Today we remember a man who left everything to find everything, a Saint who taught the world the joyful simplicity of love, an Italian who forged the identity of an entire people."

«800 years after the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, his message of faith, peace, brotherhood and respect continues to speak to Italy and the world. In a time still marked by wars, conflicts and divisions, his example reminds us of the importance of building bridges, promoting dialogue and taking care of each other", writes Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani in a post on