{"id":97552,"date":"2026-05-08T13:38:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/festa-della-provincia-italiana-dellimmacolata-concezione-nella-citta-di-castelbuono-francescana\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:43:42","slug":"festa-della-provincia-italiana-dellimmacolata-concezione-nella-citta-di-castelbuono-francescana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/festa-della-provincia-italiana-dellimmacolata-concezione-nella-citta-di-castelbuono-francescana\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Province of the Immaculate Conception Celebrates Feast Day in the Franciscan Town of Castelbuono"},"content":{"rendered":"

On May 5, 2026, the Italian Province of the Immaculate Conception (Sicily-Calabria) celebrated its feast day in Castelbuono, Sicily, a town with deep Franciscan roots.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This feast day is celebrated every year in May at a significant location. This year, Castelbuono was chosen, a town that, over the past century, has produced thirty Conventual Franciscan vocations. The friars from Castelbuono have held various roles within the former Province of St. Agatha and St. Lucy in Italy (Sicily).
\nNotably, the local FIASCONARO family has produced eight Conventual Franciscan friars, the LA GRUA family has produced two, and other local families have produced friars as well.
\nThe feast day was planned as part of the Provincial celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis. Fifty friars from the Province\u2019s fourteen communities attended, along with sixty-five lay collaborators from various fraternities who share the Franciscan charism with the friars and provide pastoral and practical service in the fraternities of Sicily and Calabria.
\nThe friars spent seven hours in historic and Franciscan Castelbuono. One key moment was the visit to the monumental San Francesco complex, where the Conventual Franciscan friars had lived for five centuries. They were there from the founding of the friary in 1317, until 1866, when religious Orders were suppressed throughout Italy and Church properties confiscated. At that time, the complex was repurposed as a barracks, a school, and later for municipal and museum activities.
\nThe Minister Provincial, Friar Salvino PULIZZOTTO, led the group of visiting friars. A tour was organized by the Castelbuono-born Friar Paolo FIASCONARO. The participants first visited the historic Ventimiglia Castle, founded by the family that established the town. Inside the castle\u2019s Sala delle Capriate, the Deputy Mayor of Castelbuono, Annamaria MAZZOLA, welcomed the visitors on behalf of the municipal administration. Next came the traditional exchange of gifts between the Municipality and the Province. Afterwards, Dr. Salvino LEONE, a physician, writer, and local historian from Castelbuono, guided the group to seven other sites, detailing the town\u2019s history, its churches, and especially the castle\u2019s Chapel of Santa Anna, the town\u2019s patron saint.
\nWalking through the narrow streets of the historic town center, the group arrived at our Church of San Francesco, where the friars celebrated Mass together with the local Pastor, Father Giuseppe VACCA. Later, the FIASCONARO brothers\u2019 confectionery company hosted lunch in the church\u2019s sixteenth-century cloister. They offered traditional local dishes and desserts produced by the company itself.
\nThe day concluded with a visit to the Min\u00e0 Palumbo Natural History Museum, which pays true homage to the spirit of Laudato Si\u2019. It features exhibits of the flora and fauna of Sicily\u2019s Madonie Mountains, as well as collections of thousands of insects, birds, and other elements of the region\u2019s biodiversity.
\nIn the end, the Conventual Franciscan Province \u201creclaimed,\u201d for one day at least, the historic San Francesco complex, which had been the home of Conventual Franciscan friars for five centuries.<\/p>\n

Friar Paolo FIASCONARO<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 5, 2026, the Italian Province of the Immaculate Conception (Sicily-Calabria) celebrated its feast day in Castelbuono, Sicily, a town with deep Franciscan roots. This feast day is celebrated every year in May at a significant location. This year, Castelbuono was chosen, a town that, over the past century, has produced thirty Conventual Franciscan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,117,148],"tags":[2571],"class_list":["post-97552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-federations","category-fimp-en","category-news","tag-italy-immaculate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97552"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97556,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97552\/revisions\/97556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}