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As the Coronation procession swung through Admiralty Arch and past Trafalgar Square on Saturday on its way to and from Westminster Abbey, it came close to the National Gallery, a place that has had a mixed relationship with King Charles III. In 1984 he lambasted its planned extension as a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend. But in 2016, he became its first royal patron. Saturday, Coronation Day, was the opening day of the Gallery’s new exhibition dedicated to one of the most popular subjects in the history of art: Francis of Assisi. It was a stroke serendipity. The medieval saint who gave up his party-loving ways to follow Christ and found an order of friars, became known especially for two things: a love of the natural world and an all too rare attempt at that time to dialogue with Islam. As gallery visitors looked at great works of art featuring Francis and learning about him, there was a strong connection with those passions of his at the Coronation. There were the decorative aspects surrounding the service, reflecting the King’s interest in the natural world. And for the first time ever, leaders of other faiths, including Islam, took part in a procession and greeted the King and Queen. The ideas of a thirteenth century Italian friar, then, seem to have as much relevance now as they did 800 years ago. When Pope Francis – who took his papal name to honour the man from Assisi – sent a greeting to the National Gallery’s director about the exhibition, he said the message of St Francis matters today. It was marked, said the Pope, “by a thirst for spiritual wisdom, a more just and fraternal society, and a renewed covenant with the earth, our common home”. Fraternity – the fellowship between people, working for one another – was another link between Francis of Assisi, with his calling from God to serve him and the poorest in society, and the Coronation, with its theme of ‘called to serve’’. But a calling is not just for Francis of Assisi or a king but for everyone, as today’s Big Help Out highlights. People are getting involved in all kinds of volunteering from litter-picking to cooking meals for the homeless to beach clean-ups. As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in his coronation sermon: Service is love in action….. Each of us is called by God to serve.” Or, as Francis of Assisi put it in his famous prayer, Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace: Oh, Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console To be understood as to understand To be loved as to love.