Dateline: June 2017, Saint Francis and Assisi

We are in the office Monday - Friday and some Saturdays.  Saturday is our day to shop, clean, take in the sights or just sleep in and relax.  One Saturday some weeks ago we visited the city that Saint Francis made famous, Assisi.  As I understand it, he was born into a wealthy family but after a vision he renounced the riches of his family and took upon him a life of poverty and obedience.  We toured a house where tradition says his father locked him in a room to try to force him to return to his family and wealthy lifestyle.  Every city in Italy has a patron saint.  The country of Italy has two patron saints, Francis of Assisi being one of them.  

Assisi is one of dozens of hilltop cities in this part of Italy; built upon the hill to keep invaders at bay.  We walked by many churches.  The last church dedicated to St Francis is huge with two levels and many frescoes.  We took a Rick Steves walking tour of the town and the main cathedral starting near the top of the town.

A narrow road leading down into the middle of the town.

We just happened to stumble past this out of the way but beautiful doorway.

This was in front of one of the churches.  According to Steve Ricks, a lion eating a Christian.

A lot of the notable churches in Italy have bell towers.  

It was surprising to find two of them in such a small town.  

Last, but not by any stretch least, the cathedral of Saint Francis.

I am afraid it is difficult to grasp just how huge this cathedral is.

When they were doing some restoration work years ago, 

one fresco fell from an upper wall and killed two of the workers.

Dateline: September 2017, Big Bread, Big Smile

Every once in a while, you meet someone exceptional, someone who sticks out from the crowd.  Italo (eat-ah-lo) is one of those individuals.  He stuck out because of remarkable friendliness, and because he always has a warm, sincere smile on his face.  He told me what I already knew, he told me that his last name, Panone means big bread.  But I don’t think big bread when I think of him, I think big smile.  He always has a big smile, enough so that I talked with him about it.  He told me that the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ was the reason behind his smile.  He said he wakes up every day with that smile.

This is his story as he related it:

Italo was born in Berlin during WW II into a very religious family whose values were anchored in the Bible and in their diversity of faith.  His father and grandfather were Italian and Catholic.  His mother was Protestant.  His grandmother was Jewish from a large and wealthy family.  He related that many of her family died in concentration camps during the war. 

When he was just a young boy, five or six years old, Catholic priests introduced him to Jesus Christ.  Christ became the center of Italo’s faith.  Some years later his mother convinced him to become Protestant.  As an adult he still had unanswered questions and continued to research different religions and philosophies.  He was attracted to Buddhism but could not commit to it because Jesus was missing. 

He moved to Italy and developed a successful business in film and television.  But despite financial success he said his spiritual life was at an all-time low and he was not a happy man.  He would enter the beautiful churches in Rome and pray to be guided to the truth and to happiness. 

One day, two young missionaries with black nametags rang his doorbell.  Like so many of other faiths before, he invited them into his home.  Over a period of many months, he listened to their message and asked them question after question – questions he had accumulated over many years.  He said they worked together intensely.  As he met with them, he felt that the Savior accompanied them, that He was there beside them.

Through his prayers and through reading the Book of Mormon he was convinced that he had found God’s church and the church for him.  He had searched for many, many years and finally found what he was looking for.  Upon being baptized he said he felt like he had been given a new life.

That is his story.

I enjoy a good piece of bread, I am fond of big bread; it is hard to beat warm homemade bread straight from the oven with honey on it, but each Sunday I find Italo’s ever present, big smile even more compelling.