Convent, church, and caves.
A now-vanished plaque once recorded expansions carried out at the convent, which began in 1649 and concluded in 1666. The structure, built against three large caves, spans three levels. The church features an entrance door topped by a rectangular window, flanked by two more rectangular windows with sandstone frames and lintels. A trabeation crowns the door’s lintel. The interior consists of a single nave with a wooden truss roof. However, as noted in the Castelli Visit, some devotional practices also took place in the cave adjacent to the church. Additionally, since the legend that St. Augustine founded this hermitage had taken hold in the early modern period, pilgrims visited the entire complex.
**Description:** The wooden sculpture of the Virgin was moved to the parish church of Ripafratta about thirty years ago. The sculpture, dated between 1321 and 1347, is attributed to Andrea Pisano. In 1475, the sculpture was clothed. In recent times, it wore a blue silk mantle embroidered with golden stars.
**Usage period:** Between 1350 and 1399
**Epiphany:** In 1937, an apparition of the Virgin occurred, drawing a significant influx of pilgrims.
**Image:** Statue
**Type of ex-votos:** Other
**Current preservation:** Inside the “Grotto of the Drop,” where pilgrims prayed to receive a drop of water on their heads (believed to cure migraines), a scratched depiction of the Madonna and Child, made with a knife, is preserved. This graffiti dates to 1622 and is likely an ex-voto.
The first definitive mention of the hermitage dates to September 13, 1214, when the Da Ripafratta family (whose heirs later became the Gaetani and Roncioni families) endowed the church of Santa Maria di Lupo Cavo, which was then overseen by a hermit. Between 1570 and 1587, the hermitage lost its independence when it was annexed to the convent of San Nicola in Pisa. This annexation was reaffirmed in 1749.
According to tradition, St. Augustine visited this site to write *De Trinitate*. It is said that the saint composed the treatise inside the so-called “Infernal Cave,” located beneath the Grotto of the Drop. Here, the saint was fiercely attacked by a devil, who struck his hands with lightning to prevent him from writing.
*Cf.* F. Becucci, *Lupocavo. Storia e tradizioni del popolare santuario*, Pisa, Lisci, 1987, and A. Pellegrini, *La leggenda di Lupo-Cavo*, *Rivista delle Tradizioni Popolari Italiane*, I (1894), p. 587.
Legends claim the hermitage hosted illustrious saints such as St. Bernard, St. William of Aquitaine, and St. Francis of Assisi. During the conflict between Pisa and Florence, which led to Pisa’s definitive loss of independence in 1509, the hermitage was burned, and many artistic and archival records were lost. During the Napoleonic suppressions, the hermitage was stripped of its landholdings, which included numerous plots in the Valdiserchio.
Notable visitors to the sanctuary include Grand Duke Ferdinand III, who visited in 1814 with Prince Rospigliosi, and Charles Louis, Infante of Spain and Duke of Lucca, on September 24, 1832. The church was deconsecrated in 1991. This entry was compiled by Roberto Boldrini and Isabella Gagliardi.
For the current Jubilee, the competent clergy has requested an indulgence.
From 1570 to 1587, the hermitage lost its autonomy and was used as a grange by the convent of San Nicola in Pisa. Before the Apostolic Visitor Castelli’s inspection (1576), the hermitage and chapel were exempt, but afterward, they began to be visited by the archbishops of Pisa.
In 1749, a priest from the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine officiated at the hermitage and assisted the parish priest of Ripafratta. After its annexation to San Nicola in Pisa, the friars officiated there until the Napoleonic suppression. After this, only sporadic records mention officiating priests.
The right of patronage by the Da Ripafratta family was established only after numerous legal disputes with the Hermits of St. Augustine. The family claimed the role of donors of the land on which Rector Guglielmo had built the church, consecrated on September 13, 1214. In any case, the Da Ripafratta’s patronage rights were upheld, and in 1619, they passed to the Roncioni family, their heirs. The patronage was further confirmed by a postscript added to a copy of the 1213 deed on September 24, 1795.
56017 San Giuliano Terme, Province of Pisa, Italy
