Santa Illuminata, Montefalco
Sant'Illuminata is a Renaissance-style, Roman Catholic church located at the corner of Via Santa Chiara and Via Severini just south of the historic center of Montefalco, in the Province of Perugia, region of Umbria, Italy. The church, originally founded alongside a female monastery, was dedicated to Illuminata of Todi, putatively a martyred saint from the 4th century who lived in a hermitage between Massa Martana and Todi, and gained veneration in this region of Umbria. The church is noted for its early 16th-century frescoes by Francesco Melanzio and others. History and description In the 13th century a reclusorio, or female hermitage for young girls preparing for a cloistered nunnery. By 1280, the community had moved to the Monastery of Santa Chiara in town, and the monastery at this site was granted to an order of Augustinian nuns in 1302. These in turn would also be joined to the Franciscan nuns of Santa Chiara. A church was begun at this time, but work remained unfinished. In 1492, the monastery became populated by observant male Riformati Franciscans. They generally completed the church and its decoration by 1500. This community was suppressed in 1653 and absorbed by the Collegiate church of San Bartolomeo.