In the mid-17th century, Bartolomé Estebán Murillo chose to paint a miracle that had become legendary in Franciscan circles: the levitation of Blessed Egidius of Assisi before Pope Gregory IX. This episode, set in the early 13th century, was said to have occurred when Egidius, a humble companion of Saint Francis, visited Rome and was so overcome by spiritual fervor that he rose into the air during an audience with the Pope. Murillo’s painting is one of the earliest Spanish depictions of this event, created around 1645, at a time when the cult of Franciscan saints was being fervently promoted in Seville. Murillo captures the moment Egidius, eyes uplifted and body suspended, hovers before the astonished Pope and his retinue.

The painter’s use of light isolates Egidius, bathing him in a gentle radiance that separates the miraculous from the mundane. The Pope, richly robed and seated on a dais, gestures in awe, while cardinals and attendants recoil or lean forward in wonder. The contrast between Egidius’s plain habit and the opulence of the papal court underscores the Franciscan ideal of humility.

Unlike the more theatrical levitation scenes painted by Giovanni Lanfranco in Rome, Murillo’s treatment is intimate and restrained, focusing on the quiet dignity of the friar rather than the spectacle. The precise circumstances of this painting’s commission remain unclear, but it was likely created for a Franciscan institution in Seville, where Murillo was emerging as the leading interpreter of religious subjects. The painting reflects the artist’s early style, marked by soft modeling and a tender, human approach to the miraculous. Though its original location is not definitively known, works of this type often adorned sacristies or cloisters, intended to inspire devotion among the friars.

Today, Blessed Egidius of Assisi, in levitation before Pope Gregory IX is recognized as a significant example of Murillo’s engagement with Franciscan themes, a subject he would revisit throughout his career.