The Last Communion of Saint Francis

The red curtains that frame this scene have been lifted back to enable the viewer to partake in this intense, devotional moment during the final days of the life of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). Saint Francis and his brother monks congregate around an altar where a priest enacts Communion, the moment during Christian worship where bread and wine are consecrated and consumed. Above the altar, a work of art depicts the Virgin Mary and Christ surrounded by angels. This work reflects the name of the church in which this scene takes place: the church of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy. It was there that Saint Francis took himself when he felt that the end of his life was near. 

This painting derives from a composition by the Italian painter Camillo Procaccini (c.1555-1629), which was recorded in an engraving by the Flemish artist Anton Wierix (1555- 1604). Where the Bolognese painter Agostino Carracci’s (1557-1602) composition differs from the original is in the conflation of the moments of Saint Francis’s death and the last Communion. During the Counter Reformation (1545-1648) - a series of reforms within the Catholic Church made in response to the Protestant Reformation - there was a quarrel over the subject of Communion. Paintings like these re-emphasized the importance of Communion by conflating them with other important moments in Christian tradition.