We wanted the location of our wedding ceremony to reflect the spiritual commitment at the center of our relationship. In 2024, we traveled to Italy together, and the trip was transformative in many ways. Every morning, we sat in one of the old churches or monasteries found in every town visited, and over the course of those days, we felt the deepening sense that our relationship was part of something so much bigger than us—that our being together reflected a calling we both needed to pay attention to.

In similar and different ways, St. Francis and St. Clare have been guiding forces in our lives. We met, after all, in the city named after St. Francis! More deeply, Francis’ and Clare’s total devotion to God—to listening to where their hearts felt most moved—speaks to both what brought us together and why we’re joining our lives together in marriage.

For these reasons and more, we chose Assisi as the destination for our wedding. We feel immensely grateful to celebrate with our loved ones in such a sacred place. It is our hope that these days of gathering together will reflect the spirit of Francis and Clare, and that our wedding might be an occasion to collectively slow down, to be inspired, and to savor the beauty around us.

With this intention in mind, we will be journeying to Assisi on foot from Firenze along the Via di Francesco. If you’d like to learn more about this pilgrim’s route, click here. We invite you to enter the weekend in a spirit of pilgrimage by spending some time in Assisi before the wedding.

Camogli, August 2024

Assisi is a small hillside town located in the central Italian region of Umbria, nested on the slopes of Monte Subasio. This bucolic town rose to prominence in the early 1200s through the works of two of the world’s most well known saints, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi. Francis’ embrace of radical poverty and peacemaking ignited the Franciscan movement, the Order of Friars Minor, which gathered around him to share in his work. St. Clare, who was deeply inspired by Francis, founded the women’s branch first known as the “Poor Ladies of San Damiano,” later called the Poor Clares.

The spiritual footprints of Francis and Clare can be found throughout Assisi’s sacred geography – the Basilica of San Francesco that anchors the city’s Franciscan identity, the church at San Damiano where Francis converted, and the Basilica of Santa Chiara, which is dedicated to Clare. These sites tell the parallel story of contemplative poverty, prayer, and service that shaped medieval and modern spiritual life and imagination. To this day St. Francis, St. Clare, and the town of Assisi itself continue to inspire with their profound and simple beauty.

Assisi’s splendor is inclusive - it is spiritual, architectural, artistic, and agricultural. St. Francis and St. Clare are synonymous with their home and to visit their place of birth is to give thanks for what brought them into the world, and their effect on it.

If you’d like to learn more about the life of St. Francis, we recommend Reluctant Saint, a biography by Donald Spoto

There’s also this lyrical film from the 70s, Brother Son, Sister Moon.

To learn more about Umbria’s beautiful traditions of agriculture and cuisine, click here

Sermon to the Birds, Frescoe by Giotto di Bondone (found in the Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi)