Visitors to San Francisco can view an 800-year-old relic believed to bear the blood of St. Francis of Assisi. The artifact is being shown outside Italy for the first time, at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption through Nov. 28.
The exhibition marks 800 years since Francis’s death, around 1226. He founded the Franciscan Order and is widely known as the patron saint of animals.
Alongside a painted panel of Francis dating to about 1290, the display features a cloth known as the Bandage Relic of the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi. The centuries-old bandage is believed to contain his blood, which still looks strikingly red in photographs.
The relic’s arrival has special meaning in a city named for the saint, said Candida Moss, a theology professor at the University of Birmingham. Francis is revered not only by Catholics but also by Orthodox Christians, Anglicans and Lutherans, she said, adding that the cathedral may become a temporary pilgrimage site.
Moss said Francis’s appeal is tied in part to the dramatic change in his life: he was born into wealth and once hoped to become a knight, then turned to serving the poor. Stories of him preaching to birds have also helped make him a familiar and beloved figure.
Another central part of his story concerns a vision of a six-winged angel, or seraph. Francis was said to have received the stigmata—wounds resembling those of Jesus during the crucifixion—and to have carried them for the rest of his life. For believers, Moss said, the wounds connected him spiritually with Christ.
The exhibition also highlights the challenges of confirming and preserving religious relics. Moss said records trace these objects back to the monastery where Francis died, though other items once associated with him have proved questionable.
A tunic kept in Florence, for example, was long thought to have belonged to Francis. Carbon dating placed it roughly 150 years after his lifetime, suggesting it may have been a devotional forgery that was later misidentified.
Some other relics linked to Francis have been carbon-dated to the right historical period, Moss said. The bloodstained bandage now on display has not been tested, however, and its unusually vivid color remains unexplained. Some may see its preservation as miraculous, she noted, but without closer examination, there is no firm answer.
Even with those uncertainties, Moss described the exhibition as an unusual chance to see objects of major importance to church history. The relics cannot be bought or sold under church protocols, she said, and their trip to San Francisco is their first departure from Italy.
