A first transformation into a convent occurred in 1328.
In the fifteenth century, the convent was expanded: of this reconstruction phase, a corridor remains inside the current convent, with one of the cells marked by the Bernardinian monogram and now transformed into a chapel, in memory of the residence of the Sienese Saint.
In a description we have from the late 16th century, the church still had a single nave. At the beginning of the 17th century, the church underwent significant renovations:
the floor was lowered, the roof raised, and the vault rebuilt. On this occasion, a new smaller nave was opened on the right, initially dedicated to San Diego, then to Blessed Antonio Vici. Description: A fresco dating back to the 1400s (partially damaged) depicting the Virgin (of the Madonna del latte type) enthroned with the child holding a scroll in his left hand with the inscription “Ego sum Lux mu(n)di”. To the left of the throne is represented Saint Francis, and on the sides of the backrest, two small kneeling angels are depicted. It is currently placed on the second altar of the right nave. The church underwent significant renovations at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the fresco was removed on that occasion (with a part of the wall on which it was painted) from its original location: before then, the image, intact, perhaps presented, based on what can be deduced from some documents dating back to the mid-16th century, three other figures of saints (Anthony of Padua, Louis of Toulouse, and Clare of Assisi). Entered into use: in the year 1400 Image: Painting
Original location of the Sanctuary: They were kept near the cult image. Type of ex-votos: Luminaries, Tablets or plaques with inscriptions, Jewelry items Current conservation: The ex-votos have been lost.
The first document attesting to the existence of an altar dedicated to the Virgin is the indulgence granted by Nicholas IV to those who visited the altar where the “most devout” image was venerated on the main feasts of the Virgin and some saints. Tradition holds that the church of San Francesco (originally dedicated to Santa Maria) was founded by the Saint during a visit to Stroncone in 1213: the Seraphic Father would have stopped to venerate a small Marian shrine very dear to the people, located on the modest hill opposite the town of Stroncone, along the road leading to the inhabited center. There, the saint, to give proper prominence to that sacred image, would have founded a small church dedicated to the Virgin: this first building would constitute the original nucleus of today’s church of San Francesco. A legend would have it that the current sacred Marian image (depicting the Virgin with the Child and Saint Francis) is still the one venerated by Francis. In 1328 it was expanded and became a convent; in 1388 it was granted to Paolo Trinci, reformer of the order (then some chroniclers began to call the convent “The Hermit of Stroncone”, while still in the bulls and briefs it retained the name of Santa Maria). The current image dates back, with documentary certainty, to 1400: it is therefore deduced that it constitutes a ‘replica’ of the original painting: the fact that at the beginning of the 15th century there was still a need to ‘repeat’, to ‘renew’ its presence within the church testifies to how its cult was still deeply felt. In the 17th century, however, the image underwent a ‘displacement’, not to acquire a renewed centrality in a more worthy location but, a clear symptom of a diminished intensity of its cult, to end up on the side of the new right nave, where, slowly, the presence of a new cult (linked to the ‘growing’ presence of Blessed Antonio Vici) ended up ‘overtaking’ the veneration of the Virgin. To this day, it cannot be said that Marian devotion has completely faded: among some faithful, there is still a particular ‘affection’ and a lively devotion towards that image.
Before the construction of the church by Saint Francis, there was a Marian chapel on the site venerated by Francis himself. Tradition holds that, at the saint’s death, his most faithful portrait was depicted next to the image of the Madonna: the current fresco depicting the Madonna with Saint Francis (plausibly a fifteenth-century reproduction of the original) would be, according to tradition, the one present in the shrine venerated by the saint.
On June 5, 1291, Pope Nicholas IV with a brief given from Orvieto, granted indulgences “to any of the faithful who had visited the altar where the same most devout painting is located on the four major feasts of the most blessed Virgin” and of Saints Francis, Anthony, and Clare. On August 8, 1327, eight Bishops granted 40 days of indulgence to the faithful who, on the feasts of the Virgin and those of Saints Francis, Anthony, Louis, and Clare, had fulfilled particular religious practices there.”
05039 Stroncone TR, Italy
