Monument (1642) to the

Blessed Francis Beccaria of Pavia

Convento di San Francesco di Monteluco

Francis Beccaria was a soldier in the service of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan before he became a Franciscan hermit on Monteluco in ca. 1417.  The grotto in which he lived still survives outside the Convento di San Francesco di Monteluco (see Walk IV). 

He was a close follower of St Bernardino of Siena (died 1444, canonised 1450) and was revered for his gift of prophesy and his celestial visions.  When he died in 1450, Andreola, the mother of Pope Nicholas V, arranged for his funeral to be held with great solemnity in SS Simone e Giuda. 

A new chapel (now the Cappella di San Bernardino) was built to house his body in what is now in the courtyard of San Francesco di Monteluco.  The relics were moved to to a new monument (illustrated above) in the  church of San Francesco di Monteluco in 1642.