St Francis of Assisi Church

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St Francis of Assisi Church, dedicated to St Francis of Assisi (in Maltese: San Franġisk t'Assisi), in Valletta (the capital city of Malta), was built in 1598 and was completed by 1607. After a few decades, however, the church developed structural defects and in 1681 it was built anew through the "munificence" of Grand Master Gregorio Carafa, whose coat of arms adorns the façade.

St Francis of Assisi was born in Pietro di Bernardone. A prominent bussinessman. One of seven children. He is known as the patron saint of animals and ecology. St Francis took the gospel literally by following all Jesus said and did. He really didn’t know which way of life to live. He didn’t know if he should devote his life all to prayer or a life of preaching of the Good News. He lived both ways at any chance that he got. For the last couple of years that he lived he was very ill and half blind. Two years before he died he received the stigmata. The stigmata were the same wounds that Christ got in his hands, feet, and sides. St Francis died at age 44. On his casket he had the words “Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death.” These words were the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun. He always sang the words of Psalm 141, and when he died, he asked his ruler to have his clothes took off of him and to lay naked on the Earth, to imitate the Lord.

The church was enlarged in the 1920s following plans by Emanuel Borg, which also included a dome. This implied the removal of some of the frescos by Giuseppe Calì, which were replaced with others by Gianni Vella.

However the church still hosts precious works of art including paintings by Mattia Preti, Pietro Gagliardi and Filippo Paladini, as well as the titular statue of St Francis.