Following a 247-2 parliamentary vote, Italy will again celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi as a national holiday, beginning next year.
“The national holiday will be an opportunity to celebrate an extraordinary man and to remind us, each year, who we are and what unites us,” said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Italy celebrated the feast of St. Francis as a national holiday from 1958 to 1977, when the holiday was eliminated amid an “austerity drive,” according to Reuters.