Virgo Ecclesia Facta (The Virgin Made Church): The Presence of Mary in the Crucifix of San Damiano and in the Office of the Passion of St. Francis of Assisi, by Johannes Schneider, OFM (Academy of the Immaculate, New Bedford MA 2004).  

This well-researched, scholarly work is quite readable despite its in-depth scholarship. Father Schneider delves into the Marian aspect of Saint Francis’ charism and concludes that it began with his conversion before the Crucifix of San Damiano. The Crucifix of San Damiano is an icon, and, like all icons, invites the viewer to contemplate what he or she sees. Thus, one enters into the message of the icon as into prayer, and the icon beckons the viewer to act on what is contemplated. 

Francis prayed before the icon of San Damiano during the period of his conversion. He visited it whenever he returned to San Damiano. Saint Clare and her sisters were housed at San Damiano and had constant access to this icon. Father Schneider explores the influence that this icon had on both Francis and Clare and their followers. 

The Crucifix of San Damiano is based on the Gospel of John. Father Schneider goes into detail explaining how various elements of John’s Gospel are portrayed on the crucifix. Specifically he shows how St. Francis understood, by contemplating the message of the icon, that Jesus gave His Mother Mary to all of us when He entrusted her to Saint John. And, in doing so, she became our spiritual Mother. As the Church births her members and is our Mother, so is the Blessed Mother ours, given to us from the cross by Our Lord. Saint Francis recognized Our Lady as a prime architect in rebuilding the Church and wanted his Order to be under her protection. Father Schneider shows how Marian Francis was in his spirituality and how that emphasis was to come down to us through his followers. Pope John Paul II praised Virgo Ecclesia Facta as the best Mariological study published in 1998. The book has been translated into English and was published in its English version in 2004. 

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