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On the top of the rocky spur of the Verna rises the great Franciscan sanctuary, which includes, with its severe and massive aspect, the places and membries associated to the stay of the saint of Assisi. It was Count Orlando dei Cattani who, being the owner of the mountain, the solitary and wild, donated it in 1213 to St. Francis, who went there after two years with some disciples of his and built huts of cly and twistd branches. Francis went back to the Vernain 1216. It was on that occasion that, while wandering on the mountain, found a grotto, where he used to pray and rest sitting on a rock. In the following years the saint visited sometimes the hermitage and on September 17, 1224 he received there the Stigmata. The spot where the miracle is supposed to have taken place, is marked by a bronze grill on the pavement of the chapel fo the stigmata, erected in 1263 |
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