Today we celebrate an authentic “giant” of holiness. At age 20, a slow process of spiritual conversion began within him. The famous episode of the message from the Crucifix in the small Church of St Damian, dates from this period. Three times Christ on the Cross came to life, and told him: «Go, Francis, and repair my Church in ruins». Francis lived as a hermit, until, in 1208, he felt called to live in poverty and dedicate himself to preaching. —In 1224, Francis had a vision of the Crucified Lord in the form of a seraph and from that encounter received the stigmata from the Seraph Crucifix, thus becoming one with the Crucified Christ.