The (apocryphal) standing corpse of St. Francis. Unrecorded woodcut.
[Saint Francis] / [Relics]. Visitavit Sacrosanctam Patriarchalem & Papalem Assisiensem Basilicam S. Francisci, Ordinis Minorum Caput & Matrem, a Fratribus Minoribus Conventualibus hactenus custoditam; insigni Sacrarum Reliquiarum thesauro, Indulgentia plenaria, quotidiana, perpetua, Cordigerorum utriusque sexus Archiconfraternitate, aliisque plurimis & maximis Privilegiis ditatam: in qua ejusdem S. Francisci Corpus integrum & incorruptum, quinque D. N. J. C. Stigmatibus gloriosum, & mirabiliter stans, asservatur. Ibique Sacrimentaliter confessus, Eucharistica de Communione refecit. Ita est, Ego Frater [Candidus Haberler] Assisii die [29] mensis [Novemb.] anni [1776.]. S.l. [Assisi?]: s.n., s.a. [signed 1776]. [20.8 x 14.0 cm], [1] f. woodcut. Folds, short separations at folds with mend to horizontal fold at right, staining, edge wear, contemporary annotations in ink.
Unrecorded 18th-century woodcut ‘form’ certifying that the holder—here a certain “Sebastianus Aster Germanus”—had visited the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, made his confession there, and then received the eucharist (in this case, on 29 November 1776). Of special note is the image, which depicts the crypt at the Basilica, showing the preserved corpse of Saint Francis miraculously standing upright, attended by friars.
The text—cut from the woodblock in imitation of letterpress—refers to “the whole and incorrupt Body of St. Francis, glorious with the five stigmata of D. N. J. C. [Our Lord Jesus Christ], and miraculously standing [mirabiliter stans].” This false claim about the body of Francis requires some explanation.
Jeannine Baticle provides a fine introduction to the matter in reference to Francisco de Zurbarán’s famous life-size painting of the standing Saint Francis (c. 1650-60). I quote her here at length:
“The image of the founding saint uncorrupted, in an ecstatic pose and standing upright in his tomb, corresponds to a singular tradition transmitted orally since the thirteenth century, which made its first appearance in art in the early seventeenth century. In his Legenda maior (1266), Saint Bonaventure states that Saint Francis was interred in the basilica at Assisi. Not long thereafter, the conviction grew that his body remained uncorrupted and standing upright, and many who had visited the crypt swore to having seen him thus. The discovery of the saint’s true relics in 1818 proved the tales unfounded, but they had once been believed by even the most objective chroniclers of the Counter Reformation, such as Luke Wadding, the author of the monumental Annales minorum. The first volume of Wadding’s history of the Franciscans, published in 1625, tells of some of the visits, notably of those of Nicholas V (1397-1455) and Sixtus IV (1414-1484), who witnessed the body ‘intact and standing,’ in rapt devotion even after death. The visit of Nicholas V in 1449 is also recounted at length in volume two of the Acta sanctorum (Antwerp, 1748).
“A description furnished by a cardinal in the escort of Nicolas V appeared in Spanish in 1562 in the Chrónicas of Fray Marcos da Lisboa. The description was reprinted in the Chrónica de nuestro seráfico padre San Francisco (Seville, 1589), by Luis de Rebolledo, and it turned up again in Ribadeneyra’s Flos sanctorum (Madrid, 1624): ‘He was standing upright … He had his eyes open, like a living person, and calmly raised to heaven. The whole and entire body was without corruption … His hands were covered with the sleeves of the habit and in front of his chest,’ This precise description of the saint’s miraculous appearance in death served as the model for many seventeenth-century artists in their representations of the subject. An especially popular theme was the witnessing of the saint’s body by Nicholas V, as in the engraving by Thomas de Leu of about 1600-1610 [as well as Laurent de Hyre’s 1630 painting]” (Jeannine Baticle, pp. 306-9, no. 69).
The woodcut ‘form’ offered here is a rare survival from the material culture of 18th-century pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi, and I have encountered no other items like it. The Assisi tomb was at that time not an especially popular pilgrimage site (unlike, e.g., Loreto or the various churches of Bavaria/Austria, which generated a huge quantity of printed souvenirs for the consumption of pilgrims). Vauchez remarks that, “In 1818, on the occasion of archeological digs that were being done in the basilica at Assisi, [Francis’s] tomb and his relics, lost since the fifteenth century, were rediscovered, and in 1850 those of Saint Claire, which had also been hidden in the great church dedicated to her, were also found. This helped relaunch pilgrimages to the two saints, whose cult had become purely local since the Middle Ages” (Vauchez, p. 232).
Remarkably, however, there survives a 1786 letter written by Ubaldo Tebaldi, the famous historian/chronicler of the Order, in which he discusses the commissioning of a new engraved plate to print “visitavit” forms like the one offered here. He objects strenuously to the inclusion of the phrase “mirabiliter stans” (“miraculously standing”) in reference to the body of St. Francis, stating that, despite claims to the contrary, no one had ever truly observed the body in such a posture (“Lettera autentica transcritta dall’ originale dal P. M.ro. Ubaldo Tebaldi al Rev.mo P. Generale Barbarigo,” pp. 94-5).
Note that in our woodcut, below the depiction of the body of Francis, are the letters “V. S. C. A.” (i.e., “Viro. Seraphico. Catholico. Apostolico.”) and the date “M. CC. XXVIII.” These are quoted from the stone epitaph of St. Francis commissioned by Gregory IX. The form is signed and certified by brother Candidus Haberler.
This item is not located by OCLC, KVK, or ICCU/OPAC, not have I encountered it in the literature on the relics/tomb of St. Francis.
*Jeannine Baticle, et al., Zurbarán (ex. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Sept. 22 - Dec. 13, 1987), pp. 306-9, no. 69; André Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint; “Lettera autentica transcritta dall’ originale dal P. M.ro. Ubaldo Tebaldi al Rev.mo P. Generale Barbarigo,” Miscellanea francescana di storia, di lettere, di arti, vol. 17, fasc. II-III (1917), pp. 94-5.