Brother Wolf

The famous story of the taming of the wolf is found in the “Little Flowers of Saint Francis” (“Fioretti di San Francesco”), specifically in the tale known as “The Wolf of Gubbio.” This account tells how Saint Francis, through his deep faith and remarkable charisma, was able to bring peace to a fierce wolf that had been terrorizing the people of Gubbio. Saint Francis spoke to the animal and convinced it to stop harming others in exchange for a promise that the townspeople would care for it. The wolf accepted the pact and, from that moment on, lived peacefully among the citizens until the end of its days.
This story has become a powerful symbol of peace and harmony between humans and nature—one of the pillars of Saint Francis’s teachings. Tradition holds that this event took place near the “Church of La Vittorina” around the year 1220. Saint Francis received use of the church from the Bishop of Gubbio, Blessed Villano, in 1213, to establish the first Franciscan settlement in the city. The small church is also known as the “Eugubine Porziuncola.”
It’s a beautifully frescoed chapel located just outside the city walls. A charming park with a playground surrounds the church, and here you’ll also find a bronze bas-relief created in 1973 by the Bolognese sculptor “Farpi Vignoli”.

The Tomb of the Wolf

Was it a wolf? A she-wolf? Or perhaps a metaphor for a human being (a thief, an outlaw, a misfit)? The story has sparked countless studies and has been interpreted in various ways (some closely follow the version in the Fioretti, while others adopt anthropological, symbolic, allegorical, ecological, or philosophical perspectives). It is said that the wolf was fed by the community of Gubbio for two years after its taming, and that when it died, it was given a proper burial. In fact, during restoration work in 1873, a small tomb was discovered containing the skeleton of a canine (still today the only known case of an animal buried inside a church, with a tombstone that remains visible).

The tomb of the Wolf of Gubbio is located in the crypt of the Church of San Francesco della Pace, also known as the Church of the Stonemasons.