hello welcome to mosaic. i am tom burke. our guest today and her family have been anchors of san francisco since its earliest beginnings, we are so happy to have angela here. >> good morning tom. >> i have to say at the out set if your name were not angela it would be francis. >> francesca. probably. >> st. francis is indeed your best friend you are a major mover in establishing a major shrine for st. francis in north beach. you brought it here and had it constructed do you want to tell

us about the video you made. >> we made a video because so much of it was prove den shall. so much of it was going to happen no matter what we humans had to say about it i absolutely believe that. one part of the video i say you know it dawned on me in the middle of creating it, what a servant i was. it is so true. we were just total servants creating this amazingly sacred little space in the heart of our city. >> tell us briefly it is what? >> it is the little coo bella that st. francis himself rebuilt in 1206. >> in racy sei. >> i call st. francis francesco because he is my best friend he left town after he had a discussion, an argument with his father and the mayor of the

town and he befriended his bishop. he goes down the held and starts building san domiano. he said go rebuild my church it is in ruins he rebuilt it and goes down further into the valley to santa maria, dangele and rebuilds the ben deck tin chapel of the portuncula. he creates his order, lives and dies inside it. it was his little corner of the world. >> now we have that corner of his world in north beach. >> that's right the only one in 800 years that has been allowed one of the many reasons i

believe that is prove den shall. it is identical i open it every morning 10:00 a.m. and just shake my head it is amazing and on top of the amazingness of the portuncula we have the knights of st. francis there every day, volunteers, keep it open 6 days a week 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and these are incredible human beings. >> and a lot of people coming to see it every day. >> up to a thousand people a day on saturdays and sundays especially the busy days and weekends in north beach, september, october, november. hundreds come daily. >> how many knights? >> 145 knights, 90 knights who are extremely active, we have a lot of knights that are active on the internet for us in other words we don't mandate a

presence we do mandate four hours a month of giving you've got to give if you don't understand the concept of giving, okay, then you don't understand francescos whole life. >> if anyone knows of giving you do angela. >> but these knights. >> you have given your heart and soul to the portuncula. we have a video you have made here we go. ♪ [ music ] near the turn of the 13th century a young man sat in intense prayer in a small church just outside the town of assisi. he was discovering his faith, praying for guidance when the figure of jesus on the cross came to life, and gave him a simple instruction. francis, rebuild my church which has fallen into ruins.

thinking christ meant for him to rebuild the old church where he sat he immediately got to work. so began the remarkable spiritual journey of the man we call today st. francis of assisi. he not only rebuilt the church at san domiano including a small chapel he called his potuncula his little portion. he rebuilt not a church but the church the people of god who saw in francis the light and peace of christ driven by the same call to serve the lord, rebuild the church literally and figuratively the people of the national shrine of st. francis have followed in the footsteps of their patron this is the creation of the recreation of the portuncula in the heart of the american city

named for st. francis, san francisco. we are back with angela alioto. it is funny as the video was running you almost cradled it in your arms. >> well, you know, i look at it and i just still can't believe it. i have been francis can since i was 18 years old i became a member of the secular order in florence the same place the divine poet. >> you were a wild teen. >> i was a wild teen but he literally entered my heart in assisi. i have been going august 2nd for 40 years for pardoning. we recreated this here in his

city in america and the pope named it a holy place. neuristor january realizes when a place hat nuova. we are no long era replica we are recognized. can you show us the breeds of the number of people involved. the art on the portuncula. >> you said bobby kennedy junior. >> the drawings that is not the art on it. it is identical to the original but my friend bobby kennedy junior wrote a book for children on francescos life. i said can you come out and

give a speech it would be great if you could come and sign your book. do a book signing he said you are doing what? i said building a little chapel just can you come? i will send you a ticket he said i don't need a ticket it is for st. francis i will be there. he came and we used some of the photographs from his book on the life of st. francis for this video. >> we have to sneak away we will be back with angela allioto and more. stay with us

we're back on mosaic talking with angela alioto. your family anchors of the city during the break you are

correcting my pronunciation of your favorite place. pour tune coo la. what are we talking about in the pardon? >> st. francis believed angels slept in his portuncula every night. the angels slept there and the poor people who slept in the valley of assisi. these people didn't have birth certificates when they went in it would be the same if they were in jerusalem or rome going to the vatican because poor people can't travel so he went to pope honoras the third he said i had a vision of jesus and mary they came to me kneeling at the altar and jesus asked what do i want and he said i want everybody to go to paradise which is why it says

in i tail january on our stairs in north beach, [ speaking in italian ] >> translate for us. >> i want everybody in paradise. i want everybody to go to paradise. so he tells the pope i want you to give us the pardon of racy is he. i want everybody to be -- assisi to be pardoned of their sins and everybody can go to heaven. the pope gave it to him here is this ragged little guy dealing with all these poor people but he is very disciplined and he is called the all time political genius. he went back to racy ski and had the pardon of assisi. i brought the artist with me

and the most amazing donor of this whole experience nancy klein of klein vineyards she is the most giving person i debt emotional when i talk about her because -- i get emotional when i talk about her because i needed to raise a lot of money one morning when i was not going to be able to get the contract signed. i said i hate to do this, it is not easy to beg like that and yet i needed to get this done it was a tore meant. so i got to my computer and there is an e-mail from nancy saying i just sent you for the exact amount i was going to ask her for. thank you. we have this expression, quel francesco. >> you were on a roll. >> yes, i took her with me out of nowhere i am telling you

this is so to me i said cardinal it would be fantastic we have 15,000 homeless people in san francisco and 3 and a half thousand are chronically homeless if we could have a place they could come and be pardoned it would be so fantastic so the father was writing everything down. he -- the cardinal said i will send it to the committee there is a committee of cardinals who decide these things so i guess he did because three weeks before we opened the portuncula i received this document from the pope making our little portuncula. >> crossing it forgives your sins. >> first holy place papally

decreed in the united states. our lady interseds all the time. >> you get some souls moving we are going to take another look at the video right up to the break. ♪ [ music ] >> it is an exact scale replica of the revered little chapel in assisi italy where st. francis found his faith heard his lord and established his order and insisted on dying when his time came. this is how such a unique piece of history came to be located 800 years and 6,000 miles away in san francisco california. the story begins appropriately with a vision of rebuilding a

church. >> this was the first church in the town that became san francisco, so in that sense we thought of making a shrine of st. francis our patron is st. francis after all and not reopen it as another parish church but a shrine church. >> 1998, st. francis of assisi church in north beach became the national sign but 7 years later the francis can order decided to reassign the friars who ran it. >> in 2005 we were worried when the friars were leaving. i went the to the archbishop who is now cardinal and i literally sat with him for four hours and i plotted out we will build the portuncula in the

gymnasium and then do a political thought in the directory and then a piazza. >> the cardinal got excited he said i am going to let you do that. >> the key would be to form the replica of the chapel and be the center piece and draw visitors from all over the world. angela visited the fortune coo la when she was just 15 years old. when she got the idea to build a replica, there was a problem. no one was allowed to take pictures inside. builders came with me we decided ourselves up by two and went in and measured with dental floss we got on our hands and knees as though we were saying the rosary and measured and then we would go out and dave murphy's son gavin was sitting there with a

artists pad and he had it drawn out and he would measure the dental floss and put the me injuriments on the drawing immediately we couldn't mark the dental floss. >> word of what was going on got back to the head of the friars and angela got a phone call to come explain herself. >> he said to me, who gave you permission. how dare you measure our portuncula i just looked at him and did. i think he saw my love of st. francis and gee sues and he says to -- jesus and says to me you know during the earthquake we had three rocks fall off the eastern elevation we believe they were used by st. francis himself in the rebuilding we would like to give you one, the cornerstone of our new little sister in america. i am like having a heart attack inside i am so excited i can't

stand it. i have been visiting this little place my whole life and all of a sudden i am rebuilding the only replica allowed in 800 years it was mind boggling and on on the we will have the highest francis can rock, every single symbol throughout this experience has been one of this is going to happen.

we are back on mosaic talking about north beach, portuncula. this took place on two continents, europe and here all these goings on you said you

were surprised the friars took you under their wing because many times you have been on a do not fly list -- but a do not pray list they escorted you out. >> they have many times. i bought my home outside of rome in 75, so i started visiting the pour tune coo la in the late 60s. i would go every august 2nd for four days for retreat at 24 years old i had four children i would bring my four children especially my son joe, i would push him in and out of the door. i wanted the lord to take care of my son joe he was a handful i would want to take photographs of my children there. they don't let you take photographs of the pour tune coo la. i would get busted and escorted out. so when the friar, now 40 years, 2006, the friar the

provincial finds out i me injuried it with dental floss he calls me in and has a meeting by the end of the meeting he is giving me a rock st. francis himself used to build his portuncula. you have to understand i am a tough trial lawyer he is sitting there, st. francis used to build the church, that rock saw him laugh, cry, dance, sing his songs and it saw him and 800 years later that is amazing. >> he was on their shoulder when they decided to make this decision to love you and keep you in. >> he looks at me and said we are willing to give you this rock and i am saying to myself you've got to be a tough trial lawyer and i said to him of course you are. of course you are going to give it to him. i had my granddaughter with me and i said kiara nonina is

going to sit down and cry and i was shocked and when it arrived at the airport it was amazing. >> we are going back to the video. so much to say so much to do here we go. the design process for the portuncula took place in two continents at the same time. she took her design team to assisi while back in san francisco, they considered construction options. >> the first thing we do as architects look at what drawings are available and then go in and reme injury the building, -- remeasure the building then we do the schematic design angela is gathering all the information, pictures, documentation. >> what happened after my meeting in assisi was a

partnership he sent us all the drawings original archived drawings from not only the portuncula but the ones in the vatican archives. a new building built a new structural standard, new architectural standard but that is where the relation to new construction ends. >> obviously we are in a earthquake prone area we had to make this resistant it took extra work to make sure this little chapel fit inside this building and we made it three quarter scale you want it to look architecturally correct but you want to walk through it because if you scale down the way it was you would hit your head going in. we had to do several design studies how to break the panelling system down so you could still walk through into

the door ways yet make it look like the original. >> we worked on lots of historic buildings but never anything quite like this i have to imagine we probably never will build anything like this again. >> we look at everything is short term in the united states but when you look at the quality of this building it will out last many generations. we are excited to know after we are gone there already a great little chapel we had an opportunity to put into place.

today is a special day. today, we gather as a nation and as an international community to recognize the selfless decision of one of the most influential women of our time. she's been recognized by religious figures, and politicians around the world. to us, she's just rachael, but to the rest of the world she's the woman who, after having one too many drinks, chose not to drive home buzzed. here today to honor rachael is the family whose lives she spared.

welcome back our guest is angela. we don't have a long time but tell us a new video starting. >> it will explain the pardon of san francisco, details of the rock at the airport with the mayor and archbishop how they couldn't find it and also talk about our new website

www.knights of st. francis of assisi. >> the video is available at the bookstore. >> francesco rocks, 1300 grant avenue. >> st. francis of assisi she brought him here today. thank you how would i make school a better place? field trips to the zoo! more basketballs. soccer balls. and a museum! [ growls ] more basketballs. soccer balls! more books. yeah. like just a ton of books. [ girl ] and books about soft things. soft and slimy. [ female announcer ] now clip double box tops for education. from totino's pizza rolls and party pizzas. and make their school a better place.

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