The extraordinary Jubilee Year will be inaugurated by Pope Francis on 8 December, an important event for the faithful who will receive special indulgences. Francis’s intention is to keep the churches’ doors open not to exclude anyone from God’s mercy among which some ‘particular churches’ in each diocese: the jubilee churches.
In Tuscany the list comprises 18 dioceses. In the capital city of the region, Florence, obviously we have the domed cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, while in nearby Impruneta the honour is reserved to the Sanctuary of Santa Maria.
The province of Pistoia has two jubilee churches, one is of course the lovely 10th-century cathedral of San Zeno and the other the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Valdibrana.
In the archdiocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro, instead, there are even seven jubilee churches. These are in Arezzo both the Cathedral and the Basilica of San Francesco, while in Castiglion Fiorentino it is the collegiate church of San Giuliano, in Cortona the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinaio, at Poppi the Monastery of Camaldoli, in Casentino The Sanctuary of la Verna, at Sansepolcro the Convent of Montecasale and in Castelnuovo Berardenga the church of the Compagnia di Maria Santissima del Patrocinio.
Lucca has picked the church of San Giusto amongst its many churches, whilst Pisa, Fiesole, Prato, San Miniato, Volterra and Massa (Massa Carrara) have all chosen their cathedral.
In the Sienese, together with the Cathedral of Siena, there are the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Montepulciano, the Abbey of Abbadia San Salvatore (but only during the summer period) and the breathtaking Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore.
Down on the Etruscan Coast, Livorno doubles with its Cathedral and the religious complex of the Sanctuary of Montenero on the hills outside town. Further down the coastline there is the co-cathedral of Sant’Antimo in Piombino, the Cathedral of Grosseto and the Convent of the Presentazione al Tempio in Monte Argentario, whilst the only island jubilee church will be the Cathedral of Portoferraio. Up on the hills at Massa Marittima the magnificent Cathedral of San Cerbone will join the jubilee churches together with the Cathedral of Santi Pietro and Paolo in tufa rock Pitigliano and the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Cerreto outside Sorano.
