RELIQUARY SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Rare reliquary in silver with a glass front, containing the relics of Saint Camillus de Lellis, Saint Francis of Assisi and the Blessed Leonard of Port-Maurice.

The relics are fixed at the center of a refined decoration. They rest on a deep red fabric background, a color omnipresent in Christian liturgy, symbolizing the blood of Christ and his redemptive sacrifice.

They are identified in Latin on handwritten labels as follows:

• At the top: « S. Camill. Lell. » — referring to Saint Camillus de Lellis (1550–1614), founder of the Camillians.

• In the center: « S. Franc. Ass. » — referring to Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), founder of the Franciscans.

• At the bottom: « B. Leon. A. Port. Maur. » — referring to the Blessed Leonard of Port-Maurice (1676–1751), Franciscan, famous missionary and preacher in Italy.

The reliquary is accompanied by an original authentic document issued by Joseph Justiniani in 1812, certifying the authenticity of the relics contained inside.

"JOSEPH JUSTINIANUS
Doctor of Canon and Civil Law, Apostolic Protonotary,
Canon of this Metropolitan Church,
The Most Eminent and Reverend Lord Cardinal Joseph Spina,
Archbishop of Genoa, Vicar General.

To all and to each who will see these present letters, we testify with full certainty and faith that, for the greater glory of Almighty God and for the increase of the veneration due to the saints, we have authentically extracted from safe and faithful places the sacred relics described below, namely:

• a particle of the bones of Saint Camillus de Lellis, Confessor,

• a particle of the garments of Saint Francis of Assisi, Confessor,

• a particle of the garments of the Blessed Leonard of Port-Maurice, Confessor.

We have devoutly deposited and placed them in a silver oval reliquary with crystal, closed and bound with red silk threads, and sealed with our small red Spanish wax seal.

We grant and bestow them with the faculty to keep them, to give them to others, and to expose them publicly for the veneration of the faithful in any church, chapel, or oratory.

In witness whereof we have ordered these present letters to be issued, signed by our own hand and provided with our seal.

Given in Genoa, at the archiepiscopal palace, on January 12 of the year 1812."

Good condition with its original glass.
Unopened.
Ecclesiastical seal and silk threads present.

PERIOD: 1812
DIMENSIONS: 4 cm X 3.5 cm
SIZE: 1.6" X 1.4"

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) is the founder and source of Franciscan spirituality, marked by poverty, humility, and universal love. His example has endured through the centuries and inspired countless reforms and devotions. The Blessed Leonard of Port-Maurice (1676–1751), an Observant Franciscan, carried on this heritage through his fervent preaching and the spread of the Way of the Cross, which he introduced into hundreds of churches, offering the Christian people a concrete form of Passion meditation. Even Saint Camillus de Lellis (1550–1614), though founder of the Camillians, shares in this Franciscan spirit: his service to the sick and dying shows the same evangelical radicality, directed toward the weakest and the suffering. To unite their relics in a single reliquary in 1812 was to affirm the power of the Franciscan tradition, which combines poverty, charity, and preaching as three complementary paths to holiness.