Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels (Porziuncola)

The Story

The Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, on the plain below Assisi, encloses within its vast nave a tiny stone chapel: the Porziuncola, the 'little portion,' the cradle of the Franciscan movement and one of the most tenderly loved places in the Catholic world. The ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels, was in ruins when the young Francis of Assisi restored it with his own hands in the early thirteenth century. Here, according to the traditional accounts, Francis heard the Gospel call to leave everything and preach; here he gathered his first brothers and founded the Order of Friars Minor; and here in 1211 or 1212 he received the young Clare of Assisi, beginning the community that became the Poor Clares. Francis loved the Porziuncola above every other place and asked his brothers never to abandon it. Tradition also connects the chapel with the Pardon of Assisi: Francis is said to have asked, and Pope Honorius III to have granted, a plenary indulgence for all who visit the Porziuncola with a contrite heart — an extraordinary grace for ordinary pilgrims, celebrated each year on August 2. On the evening of October 3, 1226, Francis died a few steps from the chapel, in the infirmary cell now venerated as the Chapel of the Transito. To shelter the Porziuncola and receive the crowds of pilgrims, Pope St. Pius V ordered the construction of a great basilica, built between 1569 and 1679 to designs of Galeazzo Alessi. Today the papal Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, in the care of the Franciscan friars, remains a place where pilgrims from every nation kneel in the little chapel where the Franciscan family was born and where mercy is asked and received.

Church Recognition

St. Mary of the Angels is a papal basilica in the care of the Friars Minor, and the Portiuncula Indulgence of August 2, rooted in the tradition of St. Francis's request to Pope Honorius III, remains formally granted by the Church to pilgrims under the usual conditions.

Catholic Teaching

The Porziuncola illuminates the Church's teaching on indulgences — the remission of temporal punishment for sin, drawn from the treasury of Christ and the saints (CCC 1471–1479) — and on God's mercy freely offered to every contrite heart.

Plan Your Visit

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Practical

1 Additional Information ▾

The site of the Pardon of Assisi indulgence, below the town of Assisi.

Go Deeper

See the sanctuary's official website at https://porziuncola.org, CCC 1471–1479 on indulgences, and the early Franciscan sources on the Porziuncola and the death of St. Francis in the Chapel of the Transito.