‘Saint Francis of Assisi’ at the National Gallery
PRESERVED on a splayed window in a small Kent church is a little-known image of St Francis made only a few decades after his death. This fragment in the chancel of Doddington parish church is unique among English 13th-century wall paintings in that it depicts the saint with his stigmata. St Francis, wearing his emblematic habit and triple-knotted girdle, stands on bleeding feet with hands raised in prayer. Overhead is a wing of the celestial seraph, who is described as having hovered over him, ‘fiery as well as brilliant’, imprinting his body with the wounds of the crucified Christ. The unprecedented miracle, which was revealed on his death in 1226, elevated Francis into a Christ-like figure; he was canonised two years later.
The radical integrity of Il Poverellohumble, compassionate, pacifist–shines out
The Kent mural is testament to the saint’s early reach, together with drawings of the friar with his brothers made on the manuscript by Matthew
