A VISIT TO LA VERNIA 



great convent church. As we entered, two monks 

 were officiating at the high altar, while another played 

 the organ, and from the choir at the easternmost end 

 of the church came the rich, full voices of the Brothers 

 Minor chanting the office. 



Immediately service was over, a courteous and 

 intelligent friar advanced to greet us, and finding we 

 could not accept his offer to spend the night at La 

 Vernia, conducted us at once over the convent in 

 company with the peasants who had arrived that 

 morning. 



The chief conventual buildings are grouped round 

 a paved courtyard which we enter by a narrow gate- 

 way. Near this spot is the chapel of S. Maria degli 

 Angeli, the first church raised on the mountain, and 

 begun in the days of Francis, from whom it received 

 the name of his own beloved Porziuncula at Assisi. 

 The ancient wooden desks at which the monks recited 

 their offices are still to be seen here, and a Delia 

 Robbia relief representing the Virgin when she ap- 

 peared to St. Bonaventura and gave him the measure 

 of the chapel which was built in exact accordance 

 with her directions, and has to this day remained 

 unaltered. 



When the community became too numerous to 

 worship in this small chapel, another Count of Chiusi 

 began the great church, which was completed in 1445 

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