Not many would know that the highly venerated St Francis of Assisi visited Egypt. That was back in 1219 when he attempted to work peace between the Fifth Crusaders and the Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt. His heroic effort did not succeed in bringing peace, but it nonetheless had some lasting influence.
According to the Vatican News: “When St Francis made his journey to Egypt in 1219, he was wearing the humble tunic which went on to become characteristic of his followers. Now, 800 years later, part of that tunic has made a return to the country.”
The relic arrived in Cairo on 23 May 2024, and went on to tour Alexandria in the north, then Minya, Assiut, Qena and Luxor in the south. On 2 June, it returned to Italy.
The Franciscan Friars Minor opened the celebration with Mass on 23 May in Cairo.
Reliquary bust
The reliquary in which St Francis’s tunic was placed came in the form of a bust of the Saint, sculpted by Saher Elamery, a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Minya University.
Mr Elamery told Watani that he was introduced to the Franciscan Fr Mourad Migallah and Fr Farid Kamal by Mayer Magdy, who is in charge of the Franciscan theatre in Cairo. “I learned about the upcoming event of the Saint’s relics coming to Egypt from Italy,” he said, “with the suggestion that I create a statue for the reliquary.
“The difficulty I faced most was that there is no ‘image’ of St Francis to rely on; only a number of works by artists who depicted the Saint through their personal inspiration. So, I collected some pictures of the Saint, and researched works of him depicted by Italian artists. This helped me develop my own vision of St Francis of Assisi.”
Mr Elamery thus created a bust which he says focused on the spirituality and simplicity of the Saint. The bust shows a gently smiling St Francis, his head slightly bowed to the right.
The bust’s size is 55cm tall, made of polyester, and coated with a layer of fibre. It is coloured with a burnt tone inspired by the Franciscan tunic.
“When the bust was completed,” Elamery said, “I felt so happy to hear the positive comments by the Franciscan fathers who praised it and asked me to create a cavity in the bust in which the relics of the saint would be placed in; this was part of the sculpting plan.”
Man of peace in times of war
St Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was a man of peace. He was the privileged son of a wealthy Italian merchant but gave up his possessions and adopted a life of peace, poverty, compassion and nonviolence.
In a moment of conversion, while praying on his knees before a crucifix in 1205, Jesus spoke to him from the image on the cross: “Francis! go, repair my house which is falling completely to ruin.” Francis saw this as a request to transform the entire Christian Church. He was reborn as a peacemaker and was convinced that God wanted him to bring the world a message of peace.
He adopted the signature greeting “May the Lord give you peace” and constantly opposed warfare, arrogance and the violent culture of his day.
In 1217, armies from all across Europe gathered for the Fifth Crusade and headed for Egypt. The Muslim and Christian armies camped across the Nile. War raged on over two years, and thousands were killed on both sides.
Sultan al-Kamil Muhammad al-Ayyubi, ruler of Egypt and a nephew of the great Kurd warrior Saladin, repeatedly tried to negotiate peace by returning Jerusalem to the Crusaders but the Pope rejected the offer each time.
In Italy, Francis gathered his community of brothers. He heard of the terrible war and, yearning to be a peacemaker in the name of Christ, he took a few brothers with him in June 1219 and sailed to the war zone.
Upon reaching the banks of the Nile, Francis was deeply grieved to see the horrific sight of casualties of war on both sides. He retreated into deep prayers and contemplation and began to preach vigorously against the war, but no one listened to him.
Finally, Francis decided that he would act, and he and brother Illuminato would venture out to meet the Muslims in their own camp. Francis understood the risks; death or imprisonment were the likely outcomes of his plan to cross the enemy lines during wartime. But this did not dissuade him.
At Dumyat, at the height of the Crusade war, Francis and a companion crossed no man’s land between the two opposing armies, from the Christian camp to the Sultan’s camp. He spent days there meeting and discussing with the Sultan and his court. Sultan al-Kamil Muhammad al-Ayyubi was inclined towards a moderate Islamic Sufism, so when a monk came in speaking of peace, love, end of wars, coexistence and rapprochement, he listened intently. This remarkable encounter, and the commitment to peace of the two individuals involved, changed the relationship between Muslims and Christians for the better. And even though war did not end, Francis’s words fell on sympathetic ears.
St Francis’s visit to Egypt and attempted rapprochement with the Muslim World had far-reaching consequences, long past his own death. After the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, it would be the Franciscans, of all Catholics, who in early 14th century would be allowed to stay on in the Holy Land, and later be recognised as Custodian of the Holy Land, on behalf of the Catholic Church.
Watani International
12 June 2024