Paths of St. Francis in the Marca Anconetana

Ancona, City of the Sea, was for Francesco the port to leave and reach the East, the Holy Land.

The birthplace of Jesus: Nazareth is unfortunately also the place of struggles and battles between Crusaders and Saracens.

St. Francesco wanted to visit the Holy Places of Faith and meet the Sultan Melik el Kamil and experience martyrdom, but also - according to a different interpretation of his travels - impersonate a pacifist mission after a century of fervor of the Crusades.

The itinerary starting from Ancona reaches Senigallia in an unusual and sometimes very scenic and suggestive route. In this sense, not only can the path of faith be defined for the mysticism of the places visited by St. Francesco: Ancona, Sirolo, Osimo, Staffolo, Apiro, Fabriano, but also an unusual discovery of art, culture and environment of rare beauty.

There are countless anecdotes, legends that this land has nourished and the memory still preserves.

According to a widespread oral tradition, St. Francis embarked in the Port of Ancona (or Numana) for the East in 1219 and stopped at both the outward and return to Sirolo, founding here a convent of Franciscan rule.

It is believed that this convent was located in the locality overlooking the sea, now occupied by the villa called Vetta Marina.

To consolidate this legend there is the testimony - in the present church of the Confraternity of the Rosary of Sirolo, which presents traces of ancient medieval structures - of the remains of Blessed Peter of Treia. The religious is mentioned in the "Fioretti"; and belonged to the community of the original Franciscan convent whose foundation is attributed to St. Francesco.

Another evocative legend tells that St. Francis predicted the coming of the "Sacrosanct House of Maria".

Documents translated from Latin report that one day the Poor Man of Assisi, looking from the convent at the valley and the forest towards Loreto, defined it as a "lucky valley";, preaching the coming of the "sacrosanct House of Maria". The small house (i. e. the stones of Maria's house) would have been transported by the Angels and laid on the hill where the Lorraine Sanctuary now stands.