Note 521 — Chapter XXII · THE FRIARS

This was in the latter part of 1210 and the early part of 1211. Rivo-Torto was an abandoned cottage in the plain of Assisi, an hour's walk from the town and near the highway between Perugia and Rome. The building had once served as a leper hospital. Francis and his companions selected it as a temporary place of abode, probably because of its proximity to the carceri, or natural grottoes, of Mount Subasio to which the friars resorted for solitude, and because it was at the same time sufficiently near the Umbrian towns to permit of frequent trips thither for preaching and charity.