Saint Francis Archives - Catholic Herald

Saint Francis

Pilgrimage standoff: Assisi v. Santiago de Compostela, which comes out on top?

February 18, 2024

Can one commit pilgrimage “adultery”? In the months of planning leading up to taking a group of Catholic Herald pilgrims along a portion of La Via di Francesco—the Way of Saint Francis—to Assisi in Italy, I felt a strange sense of unease about how I might be engaged in a form of betrayal. For my peregrino pilgrim

Is the Pope after an ‘Assisi on the Tiber’ to promote his spiritual vision

January 23, 2024

Mikhail Gorbachev once declared that while he remained an atheist, he had to admit that Soviet Communism had never produced anyone quite like Saint Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi, and his universal humanistic appeal. The former Soviet premier, who visited Assisi in 2008, is one in a long list of global figures who’ve been

Following St Francis

October 02, 2021

On 4 October 2003, the Feast Day of Saint Francis, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela, having completed the Camino Frances, the pilgrimage route which crosses northern Spain from the Pyrenees. After queuing for our certificates of completion, my walking companions and I hurried to the midday pilgrims’ Mass at the magnificent Gothic cathedral. It

Do we really need to canonise our popes? Who counts more, St Francis, or the pope of the day?

September 30, 2013

The Catholic Church 'thinks in centuries' and this phrase rests on the received wisdom that time needs to pass before we can make a judgement on someone