Eremo delle Carceri – San Damiano – Santa Maria degli Angeli

Durata Itinerario : circa 3 ore

Eremo delle Carceri

The Eremo delle Carceri is a small hermitage nestled in a steep forest gorge on Monte Subasio. Originally donated by the city of Assisi to the Benedictines, they then sold it to St. Francis, so that he could be in isolation while in meditation.  Expanded in 1400 by St. Bernardino of Siena with the construction of the church of Santa Maria delle Carceri, it incorporated a primitive chapel that preexisted St. Francis, and a small monastery, surrounded by caves and small chapels in the woods where pilgrims still come to retreat in contemplation. (fonte wikipedia)

San Damiano

In 1205 St. Francis had been praying at San Damiano, which at the time was a very run down church.  He saw the figure of Christ crucified come alive and say to him, “Francis, don’t you see my house is crumbling apart? Go, then, and repair it!” Afterwards Saint Francis took action to repair San Damiano, although he eventually realized that God’s message to him was to restore the Church as a whole rather than literally repair this physical church. It then became the first monastery of the Order of Poor Clares, where Saint Clare built her community of cloistered nuns who resided there until1260. (fonte wikipedia)

Santa Maria degli Angeli

The town takes its name from the sixteenth-century basilica, which dominates the plain at the foot of Assisi. In 576, a small chapel was built by the Benedictines of the Monastery of San Benedetto of Monte Subasio. Around 1000, the area was known as the Cerreto of Porziuncola, due to the presence of a large wooded area. The chapel was restored by St. Francis in the twelfth century, and this is where he died in 1226; it has since been called the Chapel of the Porziuncola. (fonte wikipedia)