David Gagrčić first set eyes on the Italian sanctuary of La Verna on a school trip in 1994. Raised in Croatia to an Italo-Croatian family, Gagrčić was just 14 years old at the time, but it was there at this friary nestled in the mountains of Tuscany that his life changed forever.“It filled my heart,” he says. “The scent of the wood inside has always stayed with me. God spoke to me.”

Gagrčić felt a calling inspired by La Verna. He took vows as a Franciscan friar and spent a year in training at the sanctuary in 2001. After two decades of postings to friaries around Tuscany and a year in Jerusalem, he returned to the mountain as Brother David, a Franciscan friar and vicar of La Verna.