The Bishop of Rome and Santa Croce, Florence

edited by Giulio Conticelli
with a preface by Giuseppe Card. Betori
texts by Cristina Acidini, Gabriel-Marius Caliman, Giulio Conticelli, Giancarlo Corsini, Eleonora Mazzocchi, Claudia Timossi

On the occasion of Pope Francis’ visit on February 27, 2022 to the Basilica of Santa Croce, the Opera di Santa Croce offers an important review of texts and images as a tribute.

They unfold along the common thread of the relationships of the popes with Santa Croce itself and with the Franciscan Order, and go through the centuries-old history of the architectural complex: starting with the first Vicar of Christ, St. Peter, to ideally reach the conclusion of the Conference of Bishops and Mayors of the Mediterranean.

The basilica of Santa Croce lives in the heart of Franciscanism. It is the place where the approval of the Rule by Honorius III took place (November 29th 1223) and at the same time it is home to the leaders of sacred and civil art of all times (from the architecture of Arnolfo di Cambio to the paintings of Giotto, up to the sepulchral monuments of Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Galilei
and, Alfieri).

Reported here in full, an important document on Peace among People: the one on human brotherhood for world peace and common coexistence signed in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019 by Pope Francis and Imam Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad al-Tayyib.

The volume contains numerous illustrations of the most important masterpieces in the building and
photographic evidence of the historical figures who chose it to share their message of peace: Pope John Paul II, Giorgio La Pira, and Paul VI, who wanted to pray in the night in front of Cimabue’s Crucifix, damaged by the flood in 1966.