Saint Francis of Paola built this church himself, during the years he spent in Milazzo between 1464 and 1467. It is the only sanctuary in Sicily named after him — every other place of worship on the island is simply a church dedicated to his memory. Raised on the San Biagio hill over the ruins of a small church to Saint Blaise, the complex and its attached friary of the Minim order first honoured Jesus and Mary; it took the founder's name only after his canonisation on 1 May 1519.
What to see
The tribune-style front rises across two orders, framed by two towering pilasters with Corinthian capitals and pinnacles. On the lower level the doorway, flanked by Ionic columns, sits between two oval windows crowned with coats of arms; above it opens the central loggia-balcony. A curved stone stele carries a sunburst medallion with the motto “CHARITAS”, closed by a triangular pediment and a cross. Inside, the high altar of polychrome marble is the work of Giacomo Amato and Gianfranco Arena, commissioned by baron Paolo Lucifero in 1751; allegories of Faith and Hope stand at its sides, and a niche holds the effigy of the Saint carved by Gaetano Recupero in 1916. The wooden statue of Francis is attributed to Filippo Quattrocchi. Most of the original frescoes were lost in the fire of 10 May 1908 and the Messina earthquake that December: the present cycle — the “Glory of Saint Francis of Paola” on the vault, and his meetings with Ferrante of Aragon and Pope Sixtus IV — was repainted by Raffaele and Vincenzo Severino between 1910 and 1915.
Visiting
In the presbytery, the apse vault carries a fresco of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, painted by Vincenzo Severino in 1914; two eighteenth-century roundels beside it show the blessed Nicola Saggio da Longobardi and Gaspare de Bono. A walnut choir of fourteen stalls, made in 1759 and 1760, runs along the walls. Outside, where the western entrance once stood, a coloured majolica panel depicts the Saint — a reminder that the church's axis was reversed in the early seventeenth century, during repairs that followed the earthquakes of 1613 and 1638.
Our editors' tip
Climb up to the San Biagio hill and take in the façade from a distance before stepping inside: it is one of the most theatrical Baroque fronts in Milazzo, and the carved shell — an emblem of pilgrimage — rewards a look upward. Once in, find the “CHARITAS” motto and remember that almost nothing of the original decoration survived 1908; what you admire is the patient work of the Severino brothers.