The Body Worth Stealing: Why Medieval Cities Fought Over Francis of Assisi’s Corpse

About this episode

The episode discusses the significance of St. Francis of Assisi's corpse in medieval Europe and the events surrounding its burial and rediscovery.

When St. Francis of Assisi was near death in 1226, he joked with companions that his corpse would be practically as valuable as gold. And he was right: In medieval Europe, relics, or the physical remains of saints, weren't just symbols, they were the center of an entire economy. Cities, inns, and travel lodgings were built up around a saint’s remains, because the faithful believed they could heal diseases, end droughts, and protect cities from invasion. The blind and frail Francis was forced to travel an arduous route home to Assisi so rival Perugia couldn't capture and display his dead body for profit, and when his entombment procession finally arrived, a riot erupted as crowds attempted to dismember him for holy souvenirs. To prevent the theft of such a valuable spiritual asset, Assisi authorities buried him in a secret reinforced vault so well-hidden that after 52 nights of grueling excavation through solid rock and iron bars in 1818, workers finally rediscovered his sarcophagus—600 years after his exact location was lost to time. Today's guest is Kathleen Brady, author of Francis and Clare: The Struggles of the Saints of Assisi . We discuss what the 1818…

People in this episode

Host: History Unplugged

Guest: Kathleen Brady

Topics covered

• medieval history
• relics
• St. Francis of Assisi
• economy of saints
• excavation
• spiritual assets

Keywords

• St. Francis of Assisi
• relics
• medieval cities
• excavation
• holy souvenirs
• Assisi
• Perugia
• Kathleen Brady

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Francis and Clare: The Struggles of the Saints of Assisi

Places: Assisi, Perugia

More episodes of History Unplugged Podcast

• How 10 Whalers Survived Three Years Shipwrecked in the South Pacific · June 11, 2026 · 54 min
• The Nobels Built Russia’s Oil Industry, Invented Dynamite and the Oil Tanker, But Were Still Crushed by the Bolshevik Revolution · June 9, 2026 · 45 min
• The American Revolution Went Way Outside of America, Pulling in Caribbean Colonies, African Forts, and Chinese Trading Houses · June 4, 2026 · 53 min
• Ford’s Auto Domination Came From a 1909 Race Across America Through Mud-Choked Roads · June 2, 2026 · 53 min
• Al Capone’s Missing $100 Million, and the TV Journalist Who Embarrassed Himself to Find It · May 28, 2026 · 53 min
• How the Dollar Created America (Part 2) · May 26, 2026 · 52 min