Holy Thursday in Assisi: An Evocative Tradition Lives On

As you enter the 13th-c. Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi, head to the right to see the baptismal font where St. Francis and St. Clare were both baptized; following this tradition, all the Assisi children are baptized in this church but in a side chapel.

A bouquet of lilies crowned the baptismal font during Easter week:

On Holy Thursday evening, a Mass is said at the main altar under the dome….

….a choir to the right accompanying the Holy Thursday religious ceremony:

Half-way up the nave on the left, the venerated Cristo Crocefisso overlooked a stairway – as the Christ would soon be detatched from the Cross and placed solemnly on a funeral bier for the veneration of all: that sacred ceremony, la Scavigliazione (“de-nailing”):

Many gathered along the staircase, waiting in anticipation for the priest and his assistants to climb the ladder towards Cristo. The anticipation was palpable.

I was there too but unable to take photos as I had decided on a video and here it is.

(But…here is my note with photos from a past Giovedi Santo: https://www.annesitaly.com/2021/03/12/holy-thursday-ritual-in-assisi/)

On the other side of the nave directly opposite the Cristo Crocefisso, many were gathered under the 17th-c. statue of la Madre Dolorosa (Sorrowful Mother):

This Madonna would be the second protagonist in the Good Friday nocturnal procession: she would be carried through the dark Assisi winding alleyways in search of her Son. The two would be reunited at the altar of the lower Basilica di San Francesco for the Cristo Morto would be carried there in solemn procession on Good Friday morning. The two sacred images would then be carried in procession back to the Cathedral of San Rufino.

After the Cristo Deposto (“Christ taken down from the Cross”) had been laid on the funeral bier at the end of the nave near the door, the faithful stopped to pay tribute, each in his/her own way: