On the morning of Good Friday the Procession of the Dead Christ takes place: the little church with the statue of Christ is carried in procession to the Basilica of San Francesco. Along the way, the cloistered convents are visited.
The procession is very suggestive for the presence of penitents who dressed in a very humble way, hooded, with a crown of thorns on their heads, follow the procession barefoot carrying wooden crosses on their shoulders. In the evening before it gets dark, another procession starts from the Cathedral of San Rufino with the statue of the Madonna delle Sette Spade accompanied by the brotherhoods and penitents directed to the Basilica of San Francesco where it is recomposed for the morning procession of the Dead Christ, the procession then starts again. for the cathedral. This is the most evocative part of the long procession with the statues of the Madonna delle Sette Spade and the dead Christ returning to the cathedral, accompanied by a drum that plays dead, in the darkness lit only by torches.
This tradition of the city of Assisi goes back to a reminiscence of a dramatic lauda, the Lauda della Passione, which is mentioned in the statutes of 300 of the Assisan brotherhoods which represented one of the devotional duties of the confreres.
Photo courtesy of Andrea Cova