The Mother of All Churches, the Lateran Basilica in Rome, where the Pope celebrates Mass and sits enthroned, keeps a veritable collection of Christian relics

The Mother of All Churches, the Lateran Basilica in Rome, where the Pope celebrates Mass and sits enthroned, keeps a veritable collection of Christian relics. In a small museum, tucked away between the chapels, lies this fragment of the tunic of Saint Francis of Assisi, which is tied to one of the more talked-about stories of our day. The fact is that the Catholic world knows of four complete habits attributed to clothing that Saint Francis genuinely wore. Some years ago the Franciscan Order commissioned a radiocarbon analysis of the so-called Tuscan habit of Francis, and the dating showed that the relic was made no earlier than a hundred years after the saint's death. The examination of the Order's second habit, from Cortona, however, confirmed its antiquity. As for the two remaining garments of the saint, the Church has preferred not to subject them to radiocarbon dating.