A fragment of rock of the Grotto of the Annunciation  of Nazareth – where the angel made the announcement to Mary and her “yes” to the design of God – was donated by the Custody of the Holy Land to the papal Basilica of St Mary of the Angels in Assisi.

A relic for the Porziuncola

On 25 March, the solemnity of the Annunciation and anniversary of when the first stone of the Basilica was laid (in 1569), the relic was exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the  Porziuncola, where St Francis of Assisi founded the Order of Friars Minor in 1209. It was in the same place that St Francis obtained from Christ, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the extraordinary indulgence of the Pardon of Assisi (1216).

The presence of the relic is also part of the event “Così abbiamo salvato la Porziuncola” (“This is how we saved the Porziuncola”), with which the Franciscan community “gives back” the place to the faithful who can see and visit it again after the consolidation work on the Basilica.

The “little Nazareth”

For the occasion, the Custos of the Holy Land, Fra Francesco Patton, sent a video-message from Nazareth, in which he emphasized the particular bond between the two places.

The grotto of the Annunciation “is the grotto of the ‘yes,’ we could say the door through which Paradise came down to earth. At the Porziuncola  an inscription reminds us that entering the Porziuncola is the door to Paradise, because through the experience of pardon, you have the experience o already being in Heaven. “Effectively,” the Custos added, “the Porziuncola is a sort of ‘little Nazareth’.”

A tangible bond

The relic was received by a very emotional Fra Massimo Travascio, custodian of the shrine. “Hosting here a relic from the Grotto of Nazareth means asking every pilgrim again, ‘what is our ‘yes’ to God today?” “This relic,” Fra Cornelio, who looks after the Shrine, added, “has a unique value: it takes us back to the very roots of Christianity.”

“The annunciation is central for the Porziuncola because it is the event of Mary’s ‘yes.’ And the Porziuncola is also the place where St Francis and St Clare said their ‘yes’. It was for all this that a relic from Nazareth was requested,” Fra Luca di Pasquale, in charge of the events related to Franciscan centenaries explained.

Nazareth, where it all started, and the Porziuncola, the heart of the Franciscan Order, are now linked together by a tangible bond.