After 1029, that is, after the construction of the second basilica called the Ugonian, the church became a cathedral, and the architectural complex, including the house of the canons, was added to the structure. Description: This is the body of the Saint, placed under the main altar, transferred at the end of the 8th century from the church of San Rufino in Costano, his first dwelling. From the same church, the marble funeral urn, which is now in the crypt, was taken in the 11th century. This sanctuary is also linked to Saint Clare and Saint Francis as the place where important episodes of their lives occurred (an altar and an underground chapel called the Oratory of Saint Francis are dedicated to Francis). Additionally, the miraculous image of the Madonna del Pianto is venerated, as well as the body of the martyr Saint Rufino of Arce and that of Saint Vitalis. In the past, countless relics were preserved here, which were later removed. Type: Object of worship not classifiable as an image or relic
Collection of ex-votos: Data not available Notes on the collection: The ex-votos were removed from this church, as in other churches of Assisi, around 1930.
In the Archive of the Cathedral of Assisi, there is a 14th-century codex where, in addition to the passion, other writings concerning Saint Rufino are contained, including a treatise listing and describing the miracles of the Saint: they are of various kinds – from fire that does not extinguish to the liberation of the possessed and the healing of lepers. In a codex of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Spello, now lost, there was an elegy invoking the protection of the Saint for the salvation of the grape harvest and crops against devastating hail, devouring fire, famine and pestilence, war, and vain disputes (Arnaldo Fortini Nova vita di San Francesco Assisi, 1959, I,I p.42).
The first archival evidence of the existence of the church of San Rufino in Assisi consists of a parchment from 1007 preserved in the Archive of the Cathedral concerning a donation in its favor. In various sources, the church is remembered as the parva basilica; it was built to house the body of the first bishop and martyr of Assisi, transferred, according to a legend, from the now-disappeared church of San Rufino in Costano, which some traditions consider the place of his first burial (see sanctuary sheet: San Rufino of Costano). Numerous hypotheses exist about the date of this transfer: the most reliable is the one identifying the event with the Lombard invasions, supported by the archaeological remains of the parva basilica, which various art historians consider to belong to the 8th century. These remains were reused as construction material in the new basilica built by the Bishop of Assisi Ugo – and for this reason called the Ugonian – this church was built a few years before 1029 (the date of the first evidence of its existence). The Ugonian Basilica was made larger to accommodate the increased influx of pilgrims, and its crypt remains under the current Cathedral of San Rufino. During the same period, the splendid pagan sarcophagus from the church of Costano was transported – according to Saint Peter Damian – it served as the burial urn of Saint Rufino and can now be admired inside the crypt. In 1035, a parchment from the Archive names the church already honored with the title of Cathedral: before then, the Cathedral of Assisi had been the church of Santa Maria. The analysis of the documents by Canon Don Aldo Brunacci, to discover the reason for this change, did not yield satisfactory results, but based on some sources in which the Church of San Rufino appears as the center of city life, he ventures the hypothesis that the population of Assisi wanted to give great prominence to the place dedicated to its Patron, because they saw in the figure of the Saint a symbol and aid against the oppression and limits imposed by feudal lords, in an era that was a prelude to communal freedoms. A little over a century later, in 1140, the construction of a third cathedral, corresponding to the current one, much larger than the existing one, was begun. The work took a long time, and as attested by a plaque preserved in the Archive of the Cathedral, only in 1228 did Gregory XI consecrate its altar. The sanctuary, in addition to Bishop Saint Rufino, is linked to the figure of Saint Clare and Saint Francis, who were baptized here, and to some important episodes of their lives, such as the appearance of the Chariot of Fire, remembered in the Franciscan Sources. From the sacristy, one can access an underground chapel called the Oratory of Saint Francis, where the Saint retired to pray. Next to the choir, to the right of the main altar, there is the Chapel of the Madonna del Pianto (see sanctuary sheet: Chapel of the Madonna del Pianto); the cult began in 1494 when the image of the Madonna, sculpted in terracotta, miraculously began to cry (the story is narrated by Antonio Cristofani, Delle storie di Assisi, Arnoldo Forni editore, Bologna 1980, p.304). In the cathedral, Blessed Rufino of Arce, more commonly called San Rufinuccio, is venerated. The cult began in 1585, the year of his transfer from a suburban church dedicated to him (see sanctuary sheet: Church of San Rufino of Arce), whose legend is reported in the work of Egidi of 1654. He is dedicated the altar in the left transept; under the altar in an urn, his remains are preserved. In the right transept, the following year, on September 19, 1586, the remains of the hermit Saint Vitalis were also brought from the sanctuary dedicated to him in the village of Viole (see sanctuary sheet: Saint Vitalis). The remains of this Saint, at the express request of the Parish Priest and the Pastoral Council of the Parish of Saint Vitalis in Viole, on May 26, 2001, were returned with a solemn procession on foot from the Cathedral to the primitive sanctuary of Viole, in the place where he sanctified himself and rested for over two centuries. The pilgrim guide of Egidi of the seventeenth century and others of the following centuries indicate the Cathedral as a pilgrimage destination, where, in addition to the remains of the Saints and the places linked to Franciscan and Clarist memory, listed above, countless relics were preserved. The church is still a destination for devotees and tourists.
The legend of the passio, handed down to us by the Umbrian Lectionaries, was written no earlier than the 9th century and no later than the 11th century. According to this fanciful tale, Bishop Rufino, from the city of Amasia in Pontus, after converting the proconsul, would have passed with his son Cesedio into the region of the Marsi (Abruzzo). There he would have consecrated a church, leaving his son in custody, while he went to preach the Gospel in Assisi. Discovered by the proconsul Aspasio, after having in vain undergone various kinds of torture, he would have consummated martyrdom submerged with a stone around his neck in the waters of the river. Tradition indicates as the place of the martyrdom of Saint Rufino the village of Costano located on the bank of the Chiascio river a few kilometers from Assisi, where anciently there was a church in his honor from which, later, the body of Rufino was taken and transported to the parva basilica of Assisi.
The second basilica called the Ugonian was built by the will of the Bishop of Assisi Ugo.

Piazza San Rufino, 3, 06081 Assisi PG, Italy