Andrew Peach

Fr.

Marco Moroni, custodian of the Sacred Convent, is one of those lucky few who's done just that.

It's a celebration.

It's a wonderful joy to be able to share an experience.

It's especially so for me because I had the experience of meeting, getting to know and seeing the remains of Francis 10 years ago during a reconnaissance that had been carried out.

And so the desire born from that to be able to share all of this.

He was a significant figure in the church.

Yeah, Alex, I think incredibly significant.

He was one of the most venerated figures in Christianity.

He was canonised by Pope Gregory IX in 1228.

He came from a wealthy family, but he renounced his fortune to live a simple life as a friar, receiving what he said was a vocation to rebuild and reform the church.

And so now, hundreds of thousands of people expected to descend on this town to see the remains.

Assisi is actually already one of the world's most popular pilgrimage destinations.

So the influx of a potential half a million pilgrims over just one month...

you know, through those cobbled medieval streets is going to be quite a task.

And they've already roped in or they've got around 400 volunteers, a small army of volunteers to usher people through the streets to view the bones from a bulletproof glass box.

So you don't have much time to do it if you want to get there.

Pete Ross reporting.

An annual folk festival dating back to the 1400s has been taking place in Belgium, but without its centuries-old tradition of drinking tiny live fish from an antique cup.

And not everyone's happy about it.