[Gocamino] Saint Francis; Leon Cathedral; life-changing revelations

[blaroli at aol.com]

Hello you all,
Visiting the Cathedral of Leon Museums there are two options: One may visit the cloisters and the museum with "new" (less than 500 years-old)  works, or the ancient works museum that its kept, and rightly so,  under lock and key, and can only be visited with a guide. Both are priceless; the ancient works  enthrance and fascinate art/history connoisseurs, who come from all over the world, and  gifted people whose  appreciation for exquisite and extraordinary things surpasses my modest wide-eyed admiration. 
The "new" works museum, however,  is  more than special for me because of Saint Francis.
While theoretically and intellectually seeking to follow such admirable pursuits as Saint Francis' "Lord, let me be an instrument of your justice", t reported details of Saint Francis'  life, such as taking all his clothes off in a public square, talking to "brothen sun", "sister moon", "best friend fire", and so on,  and preaching to the birds, were the very things that my hippie friends used to do in Tompkins Park back in college days....(and got arrested for).... and those friends of mine, I knew, were not, in the least,  devotionally inspired... far, way far, from it.
Because of that mental and fond connection with my hippie friends I had a hard time understanding the tremendous personal devotional commitment that Saint Francis has  inspired in  hundreds of thousands of human beings throughout the length and width of this planet of ours. The hippie connections in my memory never failed to override any possible reverence.  
Well... in the "new" museum of the Cathedral of Leon there is a quiet and simple oil painting of Saint Francis walking down the Pyrenees at the beginning of his Santiago pilgrimage.  It shows his back, walking down, in a beautiful intense simplicity of a merely human undertaking
Seeing that picture I understood, and felt, for the first time, the profound clarity of the simple acts that define one's soul, and the magnificent significance, as a drop of water in the ocean, of one's time on this earth, and the of some of the things we do.....like going on a pilgrimage.
And I am now a reverent Franciscan. 
It could be that the long walk to Leon from Roncesvalles conditioned  my heart and mind to recognize, and receive, the star-like inspiration of Saint Francis; nevertheless, it was the painting in the Museum that opened my eyes and my soul to it.
 
Alas, there are no copies of the painting. While photographs are not permitted at the Leon Cathedral museums, after much pleading I was allowed  to take a couple of pictures. But because I'm not a good photographer and I was too emotional, the pictures aren't very good. 
Nevertheless, I'm going to send them to our List-serv guru, Dave, to post here, if possible.
They must inspire you to go see the mesmerizing 1 1/2 meter by 1 meter painting.
I, myself, keep going back to Leon, irresistibly drawn by that simple depiction of the treasures of being alive.  
Big hug!
Rosina
p.s. The author of the painting is now living at the Escorial. In my next visit to Spain I shall go visit him and try to get permission for a full size professionally made copy.  Such wonders really, really, are of the entire world.  
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