San Francesco di Monteluco (1218)


According to tradition, the monks of San Giuliano gave the little church of Santa Caterina here to St Francis in 1218.  Some of his followers were already settled inside the walls of Spoleto, near Sant' Apollinare (see Walk I) and others now established a small  convent  beside Santa Caterina. 

The earliest surviving document relating to the convent on Monteluco dates to 1350, when it was one of four hermitages that Pope Clement VI allowed to follow the reform movement of Gentile da Spoleto, a follower of Angelo Clareno.  This early attempt at Franciscan reform was reversed in 1355 when Gentile da Spoleto was accused of heresy and imprisoned.  San Francesco di Monteluco was  placed under the control of another reformer, Blessed Paoluccio de' Trinci in 1374, and the convent took on its present form at that time. 

St Bernardino of Siena stayed here in 1430, and the friars here always belonged to  the reform-minded branch of the order.   When the Blessed Francis Beccaria of Pavia died in 1450, the year of the canonisation of St Bernardino, a new chapel which was built to house his body was dedicated as the Cappella di San Bernardino (see below).  The convent passed to the Observant Franciscans as soon as this branch of the order was formally constituted in 1517.

The hermitage received new life in 1788 when the Provincial Minister, Blessed Leopold of Gaiche, chose to retire here.  In 1798, he famously castigated a group of Napoleonic soldiers and their Spoletan sympathisers (including a number of women!)  who erected a tree of liberty outside the hermitage on the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille and profaned the sacred wood by their raucous celebrations under it.   The convent was suppressed in the following month, but Blessed Leopold managed to stay until 1811.  He was able to return in 1814 and was buried here when he died in the following year at the age of 83.  Pope Leo XIII beatified him in 1893. 

In 1831, in the period of anti-papal revolt in Spoleto, Bishop Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti (the future Pope Pius IX) precipitously left Palazzo Vescovile disguised as a priest and walked up Monteluco to San Francesco.  One of the friars then took him to a safe inn, from which he was able to escape by mule to Leonessa. 

San Francesco di Monteluco was suppressed in 1860 but the Commune passed it to four friars in 1866 on condition that they used it in part for the education of local children.  It was re-organised as a Franciscan convent in 1949.

Layout


This plan (adapted from one on the wall of the convent) provides a schematic of the convent before the enclosing wall was built.  Today, the grottoes of Blessed Francis Beccaria of Pavia and St Antony of Padua are in the woods outside (see Walk III).

As you enter the courtyard (illustrated above):

  • the Cappella di San Bernardino is to the left and behind you;

  • the entrance to the original convent is under the portico, to the left of the "new" church of San Francesco, which is on the right;

  • the grotto of St Francis is now an oratory (Oratorio di San Francesco) inside the original convent; and

  • the Chiesetta di Santa Caterina is reached from the convent cloister.  According to tradition, the well in the cloister is fed by water that St Francis released from the bare rock.

The church is usually open.  To see the rest of the complex, ask in the modern wing of the convent, opposite the church.

Cappella di San Bernardino (1450)

This chapel was built to house the body of the the Blessed Francis Beccaria of Pavia.  His relics were moved across the courtyard to San Francesco (see below) in 1642.


San Francesco (16th century)

This new church replaced Santa Caterina (see below) as the focus of the regular life of the friars.  The walls are covered by wooden cupboards that were built early in the 17th century to house a collection of relics that Bishop Maffeo Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII) gave to the friars.

 
Monument to the
Blessed Francis Beccaria of Pavia
Relics and altar of the
Blessed Leopold of Gauche

The chapel on the right contains:

Original Convent (1218)

  


Five small cells from the original convent survive, along the left of the corridor that leads to the Oratorio di San Francesco.  

Oratorio di San Francesco (1218)

This oratory was established in the grotto in which St Francis is said to have lived for a short period in 1218.  It took on its present from in 1673.  The frescoes (17th century) depict:
  • the Nativity (on the altar wall);
  • SS Francis and Bernardino to the sides of it; and
  • St Antony of Padua and Blessed Francis of Pavia holding the city of Spoleto in their hands on the right wall.

The Crucifix above the altar is a copy of that from San Damiano, Assisi (now in Santa Chiara there) that spoke to St Francis soon after his conversion.

Chiesetta di Santa Caterina (12th century)

  


As noted above, the monks of San Giuliano gave this little church of Santa Caterina to St Francis in 1218.  It subsequently became the focal point for a group of friars who lived as hermits in the surrounding woods.  They would meet here to recite the hours and to say Mass.

Return to Walk III.