Description

Montesanto convent stands halfway between the Lupaia hill and the southern part of the Santa Scolastica upland plain, amid woods of oak and hornbeam.

The small church, in the hamlet of San Pellerino, goes back to the 14th century, and according to popular history it was built following the apparition of the Virgin Mary among the branches of an oak to a young girl who was grazing her sheep in the area.

Construction began in 1309 and was paid for by the community, which entrusted its care to the Clareni friars. Later, in 1517, it was taken over by the Observants and again, in 1610, by the Protestants. It was closed for good in 1910. Above the door, which opens into the entrance hall, there is a fresco of St. John of Capestrano (17th cent.), and some letters and two ornaments are carved into the stones of the arch (14th cent.). There is a 17th-century canvas of a person praying at the altar, various votive offerings and a mannequin of St. Paschal Baylon wearing a habit (protector of shepherds). The image of the Madonna and Child had been on the high altar since the time of the original construction, a small 14th-century wooden statue. Behind hangs a canvas dated 1708 of the Immaculate Conception and two Franciscan saints (one of whom is St. John of Capestrano, who was in the area in 1445).