Miraculous Supper at Santa Maria degli Angeli

The subject of this oil painting is a charming story found in The Little Flowers of St. Francis, a fourteenth-century collection of legendary anecdotes about the hallowed mendicant. According to the account, St. Francis once permitted St. Clare and a chaperone from her community to visit his burgeoning friary at St. Mary of the Angels. After providing a tour of the grounds, the friars prepared supper for their guests, which was laid out “on the bare ground.” Yet the narrative relates that “as a first course St. Francis began to speak of God,” and they soon became so enrapt in spiritual discussion that they scarcely touched the food.

Meanwhile, local villagers witnessed what appeared to be a roaring blaze emanating from the vicinity of St. Mary of the Angels. Fearing the worst, men rushed to the friary to fight the flames. The bucket brigade arrived, however, only to discover that the conflagration was no physical inferno but a metaphorical fire enkindled by the two saints’ pious conversation! The sight was highly edifying to the astonished peasants, who “departed with great consolation in their hearts.”

George and Polly’s captivating depiction of the memorable scene was commissioned as an altarpiece for a family’s private chapel. Accordingly, the 5x4’ canvas draws out the Eucharistic imagery latent in the story, balancing in its vertical and horizontal axes the supernatural grace and fraternal communion engendered by this extraordinary encounter between the beloved saints of Assisi.