Santa Maria della Portiuncula
(10th or 11th century)
The site on which the tiny church now stands was referred to as the Portiuncula (little portion) from at least 1045. The earliest surviving documentary reference to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli dates to 1145, when it belonged to the Abbazia di San Benedetto. However, it was probably already old by this time, and it had fallen into disrepair by the early 13th century.
St Francis and the Portiuncula
The Portiuncula was among the churches that St Francis rebuilt in 1205-6 after his vision before the Crucifix in San Damiano. It was here in ca. 1208 that he heard the sermon on a text in the Gospel of St Matthew that set him on the course of evangelical poverty.
In ca. 1209, after Pope Innocent III had confirmed the proposed form of life of St Francis and his early followers, the little group needed a church in which to worship and near which they could bury their dead. They settled on the Portiuncula: Abbot Tebaldo of San Benedetto tried to give it to them but St Francis (who did not want to own anything) insisted on paying an annual rent of a basket of fish. (The Portiuncula remained formally a possession of San Benedetto until at least 1244).
The Portiuncula provided a base for the early Franciscans, and was the place at which they met periodically when they returned to Assisi from their evangelical missions. In 1211, St Francis received St Clare here and so initiated the Order of the Poor Clares.
As the Franciscan Order became increasingly institutionalised, the Portiuncula became the location for their annual General Chapters.
Brother Jordan of Giano, one of some 3,000 friars who attended the General Chapter at there in 1221, recorded that the friars there still "lived, ate and slept in tents of branches".
- When some 5,000 friars were expected to attend the so-called Chapter of Mats in the following year, the people of Assisi built a house for them. St Francis was furious and tried to demolish it with his own hands until a bystander mollified him by asserting that the house belonged to the commune of Assisi and not to the brothers.
St Francis appointed Peter Catanii as his Vicar when he
relinquished administrative control of the Order in 1220. The Portiuncula served as his base of operations, and his monument was placed on the external left wall of the church when he died in 1221.
As long as St Francis lived, the Portiuncula remained a simple hermitage. When he returned here in 1226 knowing that he would soon die, a simple hut (now the Cappella del Transito) served as the infirmaryin which he died. He would have liked to have been buried here, but his relics could not have been secure so far from the city.
St Bonaventure summarised the importance that the Portiuncula had for St Francis in his "Major Legend of St Francis" (1263):
| This place the holy man loved more than other places in the world; for here he began humbly, here he progressed virtuously, here he ended happily. This place he entrusted to his brothers at his death as the most beloved of the Virgin. (Chapter 2, paragraph 8) |
The Portiuncula in the 13th century
By 1230, the friars had begun to erect more substantial buildings around the Portiuncula, and it became their second convent in Assisi. As part of this development:
the wooden ceiling of the Portiuncula was replaced by the present stone vault; and
a chapel was built on the site of the infirmary in which St Francis had died, later to be incorporated into the Cappella del Transito.
The church became an important place of pilgrimage from the late 1260s, when people came to receive the Portiuncula Indulgence on the 1st and 2nd August each year.
Pope Nicholas IV enlarged the convent in 1288 and mandated that the alms of pilgrims visiting the Portiuncula should subsequently be devoted to the needs of San Francesco in Assisi.
 Fresco (ca. 1290) of the verification of the stigmata after the death of St Francis at the Portiuncula Upper church, San Francesco Photo courtesy of Paolo Rossi |
Brother Francesco da Sangemini commissioned the important Portiuncula Altarpiece for the back wall of the chapel in 1393.
The Portiuncula and the Observant Franciscans
The convent at the Portiuncula took on a new lease of life in 1415, when it passed to the Observant Franciscans. A number of families and confraternities built oratories on the surrounding land.
In 1485, the friars built an adjoining choir behind the apse of the Portiuncula. They commissioned frescoes from two important artists at about this time:
in 1485, Perugino painted frescoes on the external wall of the apse (see below); and
in 1492, l' Alunno a fresco of the granting of the Portiuncula Indulgence on the facade.
 St Francis proclaims the Portiuncula Indulgence (detail showing the Portiuncula in the early 16th century) |
The building of the present church of Santa Maria degli Angeli over the Portiuncula began in 1569.
The original chapel that St Francis restored is preserved under dome of Santa Maria degli Angeli. This church was devastated by the earthquake of 1832, but the damage to the Portiuncula limited. However, the tabernacle on its façade was destroyed, and a neo-Gothic tabernacle now takes its place. The statue of the Madonna del Latte (ca. 1400) that is now in the Museo della Portiuncula probably came from the original tabernacle.
Frescoes on the External Walls
Apse Wall
The frescoes (ca. 1485) on the apse wall were painted shortly after a choir for the friars had been built here against it.
The fresco above the apse, which survives in situ, is by Perugino and depicts the Crucifixion, with St Francis at the foot of the Cross and a group of women, including the swooning Madonna. It survived the earthquake because it had been plastered over when the choir chapel was demolished to make way for the present church. It was re-discovered in 1830 and heavily restored, although another restoration in 1998 has reversed some of the damage.
Detached frescoes (ca. 1485) of the figures of the Annunciation that came from the walls to the sides of the apse, which are attributed to the Perugino workshop, are now in the Museo della Portiuncula.
Facade
The fresco (1829) by Johann Friedrich Overbeck is the third depicting the granting of the Portiucula Indulgence to be painted on the facade:
the fresco (1492) by L Alunno mentioned above was destroyed in the 16th century during the construction of Santa Maria degli Angeli; and
its successor (1639) by Girolamo Martelli was plastered over to make way for the present work.
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