La Verna

Basilica Major
Basilica of the Sanctuary of La Verna.
Basic information
Location	Chiusi della Verna, Italy.
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Rite	Western
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Papal minor basilica
Architectural description
Architectural type	Church
Architectural style	Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance
Groundbreaking	1348
Completed	1459
Direction of façade	SW

Other uses of La Verna include: La Verna cave and Laverna.

La Verna, in Latin Alverna and geographically known as Monte Penna, is a locality on Mount Penna, an isolated mountain of 1,283 m situated in the centre of the Tuscan Apennines, rising above the valley of the Casentino, central Italy. The place is known especially for its association with Saint Francis of Assisi (he is said to have received the stigmata here) and for the Sanctuary of La Verna, which grew up in his honour. Administratively it falls within the Tuscan province of Arezzo and the comune of Chiusi della Verna, Italy.

The Sanctuary of La Verna, located a few kilometers from Chiusi della Verna (Arezzo), in the National Park of Casentino Forests, Mount Falterona and Campigna, is famous for being the place where St. Francis of Assisi would receive the stigmata on September 14, 1224. Built in the southern part of Mount Penna at 1,128 metres (3,701 ft) high, the Sanctuary is home to numerous chapels and places of prayer and meditation In August 1921 Pope Benedict XV elevated the church to the status of minor basilica.

A sanctuary was built atop a place of worship site of the ancient goddess Laverna, Father Salvatore Vitale, a Franciscan scholar of the seventeenth century wrote:

The ancient pagan worship of the goddess Laverna, was the protector of refugees. The municipality of Chiusi della Verna in the valley is also named for the goddess. The crevices and other hiding places in this territory, suggest such a purpose. The same meaning associated with the worship of the god of the mountain Pen, from which the Apennines and Mount Pen are named.