We are updating our San Damiano crosses and gifts in honor of the 800th Anniversary of St. Francis’s death
~~~
In the early 1980s, a small Franciscan ministry in Steubenville, Ohio, began working to make the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi more widely known in America. At the heart of that effort was the San Damiano Cross—the beloved image of Christ that, according to Franciscan tradition, spoke to St. Francis with the words, “Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin.”
At the time, authentic reproductions of the San Damiano Cross were difficult and expensive to obtain in the United States. Through Franciscan connections in Assisi, a professional photograph of the original cross was obtained and used to begin reproducing the image for students and faculty at the College of Steubenville.
Working by hand in a small garage woodshop at the Holy Spirit Friary, the first crosses were produced locally. They quickly became popular on campus and among Catholics attending the College’s summer conferences. In 1985, the workshop was commissioned to create the large San Damiano Cross for Christ the King Chapel, where it remained for nearly 40 years.
As devotion to the San Damiano Cross spread, the small ministry continued to grow. In 1994, Mark Nelson purchased the business and continued its work of making the San Damiano Cross available through crosses, gifts, holy cards, and other devotional products.
For over 30 years, we used the original scan from Assisi as the basis for all our San Damiano items. However, in 2024, Mark and Gretchen went on a tour of Italy with close friends and were able to see the original San Damiano cross in the Basilica di Santa Chiara. Mark at that point realized that the scan did not do the original justice and was surprised to discover that in the original cross, Christ’s head is tilted forward. He spent several hours photographing the cross in order to replicate what he encountered in Italy.