Santuario di San Francesco di Paola: A Pilgrimage Sanctuary in Italy
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian, Kingdom of Naples, Spanish
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Sanctuary
On this page7 sections
History
The Santuario di San Francesco di Paola is a Catholic pilgrimage sanctuary in Paola, Italy, founded by Saint Francis of Paola in his birthplace. Its first construction phase began in the second half of the fifteenth century, and the old basilica, a late-Renaissance church, was completed and consecrated during the sixteenth century. The sanctuary belongs to the Order of Minims, a religious community founded by Francis whose members follow a strongly ascetic form of religious life, and lies within the Archdiocese of Cosenza-Bisignano.
Hermitage and foundation
The earliest monastic nucleus was the hermitage dated to 1436, where Saint Francis and his fellow brothers established their first community. Francis was a fifteenth-century Italian Catholic hermit and religious founder associated with asceticism, or a demanding life of religious self-denial. His movement became the Order of Minims, and his connection with Paola gave the sanctuary a central place in the religious history of Calabria.
The sanctuary became a pilgrimage destination for southern Italy, particularly Calabria, whose patron saint is Francis of Paola. It preserves part of his remains, while the rest are kept in Tours, France. The complex also retains traditions connected with Francis’s religious life, including the route to the hermitage and places associated with his penance and miracles.
Basilica and modern development
In October 1921, Pope Benedict XV granted the sanctuary the rank of minor basilica, a papal distinction recognizing a church’s religious, historical, or devotional importance. A new basilica was built in the late 1990s, and its liturgical hall, designed by Sandro Benedetti, opened for worship in 2000 during the Jubilee.
On 3 March 2020, the Calabrian Episcopal Conference recognized the Basilica of San Francesco da Paola as a regional sanctuary, a formally designated pilgrimage shrine serving a wider territory. The elevation marked the five-hundredth anniversary of Saint Francis’s canonization.
Remains
The sanctuary stands 178 metres above sea level in the upper, hilly part of Paola, within a vegetated valley bordered by a stream. Its large forecourt reaches the main facade. The principal entrance leads into two semi-open spaces: the first contains memorial plaques dated from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, commemorating events and anniversaries associated with the sanctuary, while the second forms the pronaos, or entrance porch, of the old basilica.
Old basilica and cloister
The old basilica is a late-Renaissance building with a broad, relatively plain main hall and one side aisle on the right. Four small chapels open from the aisle, which terminates in an elaborate Baroque chapel containing relics associated with Saint Francis, including clothing, bone fragments, and a tooth. The cloister is enclosed from outside by glazed windows and contains the saint’s former rose garden, now a dense garden. Frescoes on its interior walls portray principal episodes from his life, including scenes linked with legends. The bell tower stands between the cloister and the old basilica.
Via dei Miracoli and the hermitage route
An arch beside the old basilica’s entrance marks the beginning of the Via dei Miracoli, which follows the side of the church. Opposite the arch stands a furnace traditionally associated with Francis’s baking of the bricks used to build the sanctuary. Tradition also holds that workers threw into it the bones of his lamb Martinello, which the saint later resurrected. Along the route lies a bomb dropped by Anglo-American forces into the stream in August 1943, during the Second World War, which failed to explode.
The route also includes the Fonte della cucchiarella, where pilgrims traditionally drink, and the Devil’s Bridge, which crosses the river and bears a footprint identified by legend as that of the Devil. Beyond the bridge is the Cave of Penance, where Francis is said to have spent five years in complete isolation. A path beside the stream leads toward the hermitage and passes places traditionally associated with his washing and self-punishment when he experienced impure thoughts.
New basilica
The new basilica is a postmodern structure whose interior contains works created in 1997 and 1998 by the neo-Mannerist painter Bruno d’Arcevia. They include a fresco of about 20 square metres, three oil paintings measuring approximately 200 by 250 centimetres, a canvas measuring 440 by 214 centimetres, four triangular sail vaults measuring 4 by 3 metres, and an altarpiece measuring 250 by 150 centimetres.
The new sanctuary also contains an electronic organ built by the Mascioni company in 2004. Designed by Franco Nicora, the computer-controlled instrument uses radio transmission and has 44 stops, approximately 2,900 pipes, three keyboards, and a pedalboard. Its pipes occupy a large raised niche with a multi-field facade at the right end of the hall.
