EREMO S. LIBERATO

Continuing from S. Ginesio towards Sarnano, you ascend towards Mount Ragnolo. Halfway up, at an elevation of approximately 750 meters, you’ll find the Hermitage of S. Liberato. In 1289, the friars, originally from the Hermitage of Soffiano, relocated to the area of Monte S. Maria, which is now known as S. Liberato. Here, they also brought the bones/relics of the Holy friars from Soffiano: S. Liberato and the Blessed Umile and Pacifico. The location of Monte S. Maria was more suitable both for community life and prayer. It was characterized by a source of abundant water and the possibility to cultivate a small garden to provide the necessary products for the sustenance and life of a small hermitic community. They built a small church and a small cloister there.

In the areas of Roccabruna and S. Liberato, Brother Ugolino from Montegiorgio collected testimonies of the holy friars of the Marche of Ancona, the first disciples of Father S. Francis, during the decade of 1327-1337. He compiled these testimonies in the “Actus Beati Francisci et sociorum ejus”, which were later translated and condensed into “The Little Flowers of St. Francis” towards the end of the 14th century. The spirituality that pervades the pages of “The Little Flowers” still resonates in the areas surrounding these Sibillini Mountains, with their gorges, crevices, caves, meadows, streams, where it seems as if heaven and earth touch, where the life of the spirit merges with that of nature, and where the simplicity of dress finds refuge, and sustenance is found in the natural nourishment of the land.