Scenes from the Life of St. Francis

In the cloister of the Franciscan Monastery in Dubrovnik, Croatia, is a series of frescoes of the life of St. Francis. Some of them have been painted over earlier frescoes, and all are in less than perfect condition. Some are easily identified from Brother Ugolino's Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi and Thomas of Celano's first and second Lives of the saint. But many are unrelated to any work I have read on the saint.

Francis renounces his life of ease (view in full resolution)


He goes to the Bishop of Assisi to confirm his new life (view in full resolution)


Unidentified (view in full resolution)


Unidentified (view in full resolution)


A newer fresco (possibly Brother Bernard's ecstasy, Ugolino chpt. 28) has chipped away, exposing part of an older fresco (possibly the death of Francis, note the man weeping on the left). View in full resolution.


Unidentified: A Journey of St. Francis (view in full resolution)


Another case of an older layer being exposed to view. In the newer fresco the saint embarks on a sea voyage, most likely to visit the Caliph in Syria. The scene in the underlying fresco is unidentified. (View in full resolution.)


Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, as in Ugolino chpt. 21 (view in full resolution)


Francis Receives the Stigmata (view in full resolution)


Death of St. Francis (view in full resolution)


Francis Welcomes a Franciscan into Heaven (view in full resolution)


Francis Intercedes for the Souls in Purgatory (view)

Read more about images of St. Francis of Assisi.

Photographed at the site by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.