05081213 Count Orlando de Chuisi OFS gives Mount Della Verna
Count Orlando de Chiusi gave La Verna to Francis and his brother friars as a special retreat for prayer and contemplation. Five years later, in 1218, Count Orlando built the chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of the Angels) for the friars.
It is for this reason, as Fray Antonio Arbiol O.F.M. in the year 1706, that the heraldic symbol of the 05 wounds of Christ, is embroidered on the Scapular of the Secular Franciscans, since it was a Tertiary, Count Orlando de Chiusi, who gave Saint Francis of Assisi Mount Alvernia, place where later he received the Sacred Stigmata.
Even during a brief visit it is possible to get to the idea of its artistic, cultural, historical and, above all, religious interest. At the top of Monte Alverna there is a Sanctuary, which receives many visitors every year (Christians and not) because Saint Francis is one of the most revered saints in the world. Upon entering through the old main door you can see a small porch that houses the entrances to the guest rooms, the cloisters and the small church of St. Mary of the Angels. Going up some steps is the large paved square with access to all other areas of the Sanctuary. A large wooden cross dominates the valley, taking into account that the Sanctuary is located 1228 meters above sea level. The Basilica with its bell tower, the stone roofs of the monastery with chimneys that were built by the friars themselves, and the well to serve guests and pilgrims, are some of the elements present in this square.
St Mary of the Angels is the temple around which the monastery was developed, and in general the whole complex known as Alverna Sanctuary. The church was built after the apparition of the Virgin Mary to St Francis. The bell tower still has the original bell donated by San Bonaventure in 1257. Inside the altar is a canopy made of glazed ceramics by Andrea della Robbia in 1485, which represents the Assumption of Mary.
Near the entrance there are two other altarpieces: the Nativity with St Francis and St Anthony, and the Pieta by della Robbia. Inside the Chapel of the Relics inside a glass reliquary, there are several objects that belonged to San Francisco: a tablecloth, a bowl and a glass, a piece of rope, its cane. Inside a reliquary, the blood of the Saint: it is a linen cloth that used to bandage the wound in its ribs and, therefore, stained with its blood.
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