Sanctuary of Saint Francis of Paola

Festivals and dates

• Liturgical memorial of Saint Francis of Paola: 2 April (Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La Basilica · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La festa del 4 maggio)
• May patronal feast: early May, culminating on 4 May (Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La festa del 4 maggio)
• Spring

From hermitage to basilica

Francis was born in Paola on 27 March 1416. After a year spent as an oblate with the Franciscans of San Marco Argentano, around 1435, at about nineteen, he chose the hermit's life on a family plot, sheltering in a small cave in the woods along the Isca stream. His first followers soon gathered around him, and around 1436 a tiny oratory was built; now beneath the friary, it is regarded as the place where the Order of Minims took shape.

Around 1452 Francis began building a church dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi; between 1469 and 1474 it was enlarged with a broad nave and dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli. Many of the wonders recorded in his canonisation trials date from these building works.

In 1555 the complex was plundered by Dragut's corsairs and then repaired. In the seventeenth century the church was covered with Baroque stucco, removed after 1963 to reveal the fifteenth-century lines again. Nineteenth-century suppressions drove the friars away more than once; they returned in 1901. In 1921 the church was declared a minor basilica, a title solemnly proclaimed in 1928.

Sources: Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Vita del Santo · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La Basilica

The saint of charity

Although he lived as a hermit, Francis stayed close to the people of Paola: he came down to the town on feast days and gave the alms he received to the poor. His reputation for holiness spread across the Kingdom of Naples and reached the ailing King Louis XI of France, who wanted him at his side. In obedience to Pope Sixtus IV, at about sixty-seven Francis left for Tours, where he remained for the rest of his life. He died in France on 2 April 1507, a Good Friday, and was canonised by Leo X in 1519.

The Order's motto, Charitas, also greets pilgrims in the statue on the portal of the new church. Francis is patron of Calabria, and the basilica's votive lamp burns with oil offered in turn by the Calabrian provinces. He is also patron of Italian seafarers: his cloak, kept among the relics, is tied to the tradition of his miraculous crossing of the Strait of Messina.

Pilgrims come to pray before the relics, to walk through the places of the miracles and to drink from the Cucchiarella spring, using the ladle that everyone shares.

Sources: Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Vita del Santo · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La Basilica · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Nuova aula liturgica · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La festa del 4 maggio

Basilica, hermitage and the area of miracles

From the square with the obelisk you enter the old basilica through the Gothic portal commissioned by Francis himself, with fifteenth-century frescoes; the facade in local stone was only completed in the late seventeenth century. At the end of the side aisle is the saint's chapel, which corresponds to the first church: beneath the altar an urn holds bone fragments that survived the Huguenot burning, brought from Tours in 1935, while a niche keeps the silver bust, the cloak, the rosary and other belongings of the saint.

From the porch you reach the Gothic cloister, whose lunettes are painted with scenes from Francis's life, and the old hermitage, rediscovered in 1929. The friary holds the saint's cell, the wooden choir of 1658, a sixteenth-century panel of the Virgin enthroned and an eighteenth-century library with carved walnut shelving; much of the friary, however, is enclosed.

Between the old and new churches runs the area of miracles: the kiln where the saint saved the lamb Martinello, the Cucchiarella spring, the Devil's Bridge, the Grotto of Penance and the Miracle Stones. The new liturgical hall, designed by Sandro Benedetti, is shaped like a ship and has a mosaic by Giovanni Hajnal and an altar holding the relic of the skull.

Sources: Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Italia.it · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La Basilica · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La zona dei miracoli · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Nuova aula liturgica · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Area conventuale

From 2 April to the May feast

The saint's liturgical memorial falls on 2 April, the day of his death in 1507: during this celebration the sanctuary displays the urn with the bone relics for veneration each year. Tradition also remembers his birth, on 27 March.

The town of Paola, however, celebrates its patron above all in the first days of May. On 2 May the votive lamp is lit to recall the saint's patronage of Calabria; on 3 May the blessing of the sea with the saint's cloak honours the protector of seafarers; on 4 May, the high point, the silver bust is carried in procession on the shoulders of the faithful through the town streets. Alongside the rites there is a civic programme with fairs, concerts and fireworks.

The May date has old roots: Francis was canonised on 1 May 1519 and the news reached Paola three days later. The feast took on its solemn form from 1904, partly to celebrate the return of the Minims to the friary.

Sources: Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La Basilica · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - La festa del 4 maggio

Getting there

The sanctuary is in Largo San Francesco, about four kilometres from Paola railway station, from where you continue by taxi or town bus. Those flying in can land at Lamezia Terme airport, about sixty kilometres away, and reach Paola by train from the nearby Lamezia Terme Centrale station.

Cars and coaches reach the car park in front of the sanctuary; on the busiest days the terraced car park at the back is used, with direct access to the area of miracles. The sanctuary has removed most architectural barriers and lends wheelchairs from the sacristy. It is also the end point of the Via del Giovane, a stage of the Way of Saint Francis of Paola.

Pilgrim reception is handled by the Secretariat of the Regional Sanctuary of Saint Francis of Paola, reachable through the official website santuariopaola.it. Groups can be accompanied through the saint's places by the sanctuary's volunteers; groups with their own external guide must instead book the visit in advance, following the rules published on the site.

Sources: Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Italia.it · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Come raggiungerci · Santuario di San Francesco di Paola - Prenotazione obbligatoria per gruppi con guida esterna

Walks that reach it