The Blessed Angelus of Foligno founded the Augustinian convent at Montefalco in 1257, only a year after the “grande unione” had given rise to the order. He acquired what had previously been the ancient parish church of Santa Maria del Popolo (also known as Santa Maria de Plateola), which stood on the opposite side of the Corso from the present church, inside Portone di Santa Maria (towards the viewer in the photograph above). This promoted the settlement of a new suburb that became known as Borgo del Castellare.
In 1275, the Commune gave the Augustinians the nearby church of San Giovanni Battista, which they demolished to build the present church.
The Augustinians abandoned the church and convent in 1978. The church, which now serves a parish, has been recently restored.
Exterior
Interior
Relics
The church preserves:
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✴the relics of the Blessed Illuminata and Chiarella, in the 2nd bay on the right; and
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✴the relics of a pilgrim known as “Beato Pellegrino”, in the 4th bay on the right.
Blessed Illuminata was a colleague of St Clare of Montefalco, and gave important evidence in the process for her canonisation. She died in 1310 and was buried in Sant’ Agostino. Blessed Chiarella joined the same nunnery as a child, just months before St Clare of Montefalco died (in 1291). She subsequently founded an Augustinian nunnery in her native town of Giano dell’ Umbria, where she died in 1345. When this nunnery closed, her relics were moved to join those of Blessed Illuminata.
Tradition has it that an unknown pilgrim died while venerating these relics in the 14th century. The Sacristan found his body with its head pressed forwards against the wall. He duly buried it, but he found it again, in its original position, when he returned to the church on the following day. The body of the pilgrim was therefore kept in the church, so that it could continue to venerate the relics of the two holy nuns. It remains essentially in tact and in its original position in its glass-sided case.
The relics of the Blessed Illuminata and Chiarella (and presumably those of the pilgrim) were originally in the Cappella della Beata Chiarella, to the left of the presbytery). This chapel was demolished in 1714. They were presumably moved to their present locations at that time. The relics of the Blessed Illuminata and Chiarella were placed in the current reliquary in 1882.
Coronation of the Virgin (14th century)
Frescoes (14th century)
These frescoes on the arch of the presbytery depict, from the left:
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✴the Annunciation;
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✴the Presentation of the Virgin;
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✴the Lamb of God; and
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✴the Nativity.
Frescoes (early 15th century)
These frescoes, which are attributed to Giovanni di Corraduccio Mazzaforte, depict:
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✴the Madonna della Misericordia (on the counter-facade, to the right of the portal); and
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✴a fragment of a Nativity (in the nearby niche on the left wall).
Frescoes (15th century)
These frescoes on the left wall include:
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✴the upper part of the Madonna and Child enthroned with St Clare of Montefalco; and
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✴the upper part of the Madonna and Child enthroned and St Catherine of Alexandria.
Madonna del Latte (15th century)
Frescoes (15th century)
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✴the Crucifixion with saints;
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✴the Madonna and Child with SS Severus, Paul, Peter and Fortunatus in a fictive polyptych;
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✴stories from the lives of SS Fortunatus and Severus (of which only one survives); and
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✴the doctors of the church (in the vaults).
Madonna and Child with saints (15th century)
Frescoes in the Cappella di San Nicolò da Tolentino
The fresco fragments in this chapel (to the right of the apse), which belonged to the Confraternita di San Nicolò da Tolentino, include:
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✴part of a fresco (15th century) of the Madonna and Child with angel that is attributed to Pierantonio Mezzastris.; and
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✴fragments (early 16th century) attributed to Francesco Melanzio, which depict:
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•the face of the Virgin; and
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•the Madonna and Child.
Other works from this chapel by or attributed to Francesco Melanzio are now in the Pinacoteca (see below).
Madonna della Cintola (1522)
Painted niche (1529)
Art from the Church
Monument to a Knight (late 14th century)
Crucifix (ca. 1461)
Coronation of the Virgin with saints (15th century)
Works by Francesco Melanzio
A surviving document (1514) records the commission of frescoes from Francesco Melanzio for the Cappella della Beata Chiarella (to the left of the presbytery), which was demolished in 1714.
Francesco Melanzio also worked in the the 6th chapel on the right, which belonged to the Confraternita di San Nicolò da Tolentino. As noted above, surviving fresco fragments in this chapel is attributed to him. Two other works from this chapel are now in the Pinacoteca:
Madonna and Child with saints (1487)
A surviving document records that Pietro Paolo di Giovanni Marino commissioned this panel from “Francesco pentore” in 1486. The inscription along the top of the frame again records Pietro Paolo di Giovanni Marino, and gives the date 1487, while the inscription at the bottom identifies the artist as Francesco Melanzio. This is his earliest known work.
Pietro Paolo di Giovanni Marino was the prior of the Confraternita di San Nicolò da Tolentino, and he commissioned this panel for the confraternity’s chapel. The document in which he commissioned the work prescribes that it should depict the Madonna and Child with SS Sebastian, Peter, Paul and Domenic, with other saints, including St Nicholas of Tolentino in the predella. If the predella was ever painted, it was subsequently lost, while St Nicholas of Tolentino replaced St Domenic in the panel itself.
Madonna del Soccorso (1504)
The surviving inscription along the top of the frame identifies the subject as the Madonna del Soccorso (of Succour). As is usual in this iconography, the Virgin clubs a devil that tries to possess a child. A female supplicant (presumably the mother) kneels under the Virgin's protective cloak.
St Agnes (17th century)
This altarpiece on the counter-facade, to the left of the portal is from San Clemente.
