The patron saint of Montefalco is Saint Fortunatus, celebrated on 1 June. Legend says the saint was parish priest of the pieve dedicated to him, less than a kilometre from the town, which preserves works by Benozzo Gozzoli and Tiberio d'Assisi: the interior has devotional frescoes, including 15th-century ones by Giovanni di Corradduccio and Bartolomeo da Miranda, and an early-18th-century painting by Giampiero Canotti depicting the Madonna appearing to Saint Philip Neri.
Alongside Saint Fortunatus, Montefalco venerates with great devotion Saint Clare of the Cross, whose body is kept in the church dedicated to her, together with the chapel of Santa Croce, decorated with 14th-century Umbrian-school frescoes: on 17 August her feast is celebrated, that of the «Montefalco patron saint», while the day before the Procession of the Lamps is held, carrying her relics through the town's streets lit by torches. Not far away stands the church of Santa Illuminata, rebuilt on the site of the original reclusorio inhabited by the Blessed Giovanna and Saint Clare herself. Montefalco is today also the heart of the Sagrantino wine region, one of Umbria's finest red wines.
