Full Of Grace

The beloved 17th-century church on the site where St. Francis of Assisi died reopened Saturday, two years after earthquakes crumbled it and other priceless structures across central Italy. Firefighters helped with one of the last repairs before the reopening of St. Mary of the Angels. They put a gold-leaf-covered statue of the Madonna back atop the basilica. “a sign of hope,” the Rev. Massimo Reschiglian of the Franciscan order said of the reopening. Work is still under way at the hard-hit upper church of the 13th-century St. Francis Basilica in Assisi.