The Cross of San Damiano - Information
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​The San Damiano crucifix is possibly the best known and venerated crucifix in the world.  In 1206 it was probably hanging above the altar in the apse of the abandoned Chapel of San Damiano, just outside Assisi, in the Umbrian region of Italy.  It would have been the central feature in the small, neglected chapel in which the Blessed Sacrament would not have been reserved.

A young man, Francis Bernadone, entered the chapel.  Kneeling to pray, he heard a voice coming from the crucifix say three times, "Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling completely into ruin."  It was a moment  of ecstasy and great consolation for Francis.  He had received from God a mission, a vocation.  He left the San Damiano Chapel irrevocably transformed.