urch of Santa Chiara, in the crypt, behind a glass screen, where
candles are kept perpetually burning. Lina Gordon Duff, writing the
history of Assisi, says of this curious spectacle:--

"As pilgrims stand before a grating in the dimly lighted crypt, the
gentle rustle of a nun's dress is heard; slowly invisible hands
draw the curtain aside, and the body of Santa Chiara is seen
lying in a glass case upon a satin bed, her face clearly outlined
against her black and white veils, whilst her brown habit is drawn
in straight folds about her body. She clasps the book of her Rule
in one hand, and in the other holds a lily with small diamonds
shining on the streamers."

[Illustration: SANTA CHIARA, THE DUOMO, ASSISI
Amalia Dupre
_Page 375_]

In all these churches--the great convent church, upper and lower, of the
Franciscans elaborately adorned with frescoes by Cimabue and by Giotto;
in the ancient Duomo; in Santa Chiara and in Santa Maria degli
Angeli--statues of the two saints, Francis and Chiara, are placed side
by side. She shares all the exaltation of his memory and the fulness of
his fame.

The strange problem of the stigmata has, perhaps, never been absolutely
solved. Canon Knox Little says that as to the miracles of St. Francis
generally speaking, there is no intrinsic improbability; that "his holy
life, his constant communion with God, the abundant blessings with which
it pleased God to mark his ministry, all point in the same direction."
Latter-day revelations of psychic science disclose contemporary facts
of the power of mental influence on the physical form that are, in many
instances, hardly less wonderful than this alleged miracle of St.
Francis. Whether the story is accepted literally or only in a figurative
sense does not affect the transcendent power of his influence. His
entire life and work illustrate the beauty of holiness. "Art in its
widest sense gained a marvellous impulse from his work and effort," says
Canon Knox Little. The French and Provencal literature and the schools
of Byzantine art preceded the life of Francis; but his influence
imparted a powerful wave of sympathetic and vital insight and awakened a
world of new sensibilities of feeling. Indeed, it is a proverb of Italy,
"Without Francis, no Dante." Certainly the life of Francis was the
inspiration of the early Italian art. Cimabue and Giotto drew from the
inspiratio