23. _The Mourning of the Nuns of San Damiano._ "Passing by the church of St. Damian, where that noble virgin, Clare, now glorious in heaven, abode with the virgins her sisters, the holy body, adorned with celestial jewels [the marks of the Stigmata], remained there awhile, till those holy virgins could see and kiss them." This, the loveliest of the last nine frescoes, recalls the one in St. Nicholas' Chapel of the three prisoners imploring the saint's protection; even to the basilica which forms the background of both. Considering that it is the last farewell of St. Clare and her companions to St. Francis the artist might have given a more tragic touch to the scene, but all is made subservient to the rendering of graceful figures, like the charming nuns who talk together as they hasten out of San Damiano, whose humble façade of stone the artist has transformed into a building of marble and mosaic almost rivalling the glories of such cathedrals as Siena and Orvieto. St. Clare stoops to kiss the saint while priests and citizens wait to resume their hymns of praise, and a small child climbs up a tree and tears down branches to strew upon the road in front of the bier.[100] 24. _The Canonisation of St. Francis._ "The Sovereign Pontiff, Gregory IX, ... determined with pious counsel and holy consideration to pay to the holy man that veneration and honour of which he knew him to be most worthy ... and coming himself in person to the city of Assisi in the year of our Lord's Incarnation, 1228, on Sunday the 6th of July, with many ceremonies and great solemnity, he inscribed the Blessed Father in the catalogue of the saints." This fresco is so ruined that it is impossible to form any idea of its composition; about the only object clearly to be seen is the sepulchral urn of St. Francis, represented beneath an iron grating in the church of San Giorgio. 25. _The Dream of Gregory IX, at Perugia._ "On a certain night, then, as the Pontiff was afterwards wont to relate with many tears, the Blessed Francis appeared to him in a dream, and with unwonted severity in his countenance, reproving him for the doubt which lurked in his heart, raised his right arm, discovered the wound, and commanded that a vessel should be brought to receive the blood which issued from his side. The Supreme Pontiff still in vision, brought him the vessel, which seemed to be filled even to the brim with the blood which flowed from his side." We are here left with an impression that the artist was hampered by not having enough figures for his composition, and the four men seated on the ground and guarding the Pope, compare unfavourably with Giotto's fresco of the three grand watchers by Innocent III, upon the opposite wall. 16. _St. Francis cures the Wounded Man._