OSIMO

We continue on to Osimo, an ancient Roman city, later a stronghold of the Goths, and a thriving municipality during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In Osimo, St. Francis, accompanied by a little lamb, encountered and moved the Bishop of the city. As you follow the ancient road leading to Osimo, you can visit the Church of the Holy Martyrs, where, according to tradition, St. Francis and Friar Paolo met the shepherd and his sheep and received the little lamb as a gift. You can also visit the Romanesque Cathedral with the crypt that houses the remains of one of the early Franciscan Bishops, St. Benvenuto, and the Church of St. Francis, now the Sanctuary of St. Joseph of Copertino, along with the rooms where the “Flying Saint”, the patron saint of students, lived. The origin of the Convent and the church is believed to date back to 1234, after an initial residence at a chapel dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. The church still retains its ancient Gothic apse but was entirely reconstructed in 1774-1967.

The Friars Minor had their Convent of the “Santissima Annunziata” in the current cemetery. They had to abandon it in 1865 due to the laws related to the formation of the Italian state.

The “Polittico dell’Incoronazione della Vergine e Santi” by the Vivarini brothers (1464) once belonged to this church and served as the altarpiece. It is now housed in the Civic Museum of Osimo. They were welcomed into the parish church of St. Mary of Mercy, an ancient place of capital punishment for those condemned to death, which was transformed into a place of mercy and grace. Today, the parish church and the Convent, under the same name, were newly constructed in the 1970s and house a vibrant Christian and Franciscan community.

Osimo boasts five Clarisse Monasteries. The first was that of St. Michael, dating back to the 13th century, but it was suppressed in 1510 due to a lack of vocations. A second Monastery, of Tertiaries, was established in 1490 in a house dedicated to St. Margaret, near the Parish of St. Gregory. Of great historical, religious, and artistic significance is the Monastery of the Poor Clares of San Nicolò, originally a Benedictine Monastery and, from 1536, a Poor Clares Monastery. Inside, you can find an ancient crypt and two chapels with 14th-century frescoes. A Monastery of Capuchin Nuns, established in 1708, was dedicated to the Sorrowful Virgin but closed about twenty years ago.

Finally, the Monastery of San Rocco and Santa Rosa, founded in 1806 by poor tertiaries in the Capuchin tradition, was closed in 1951 due to economic difficulties and a lack of vocations (G. PARISCIANI, Santa Chiara e le Marche, Ancona, 1995).