San Frediano in Cestello

San Frediano in Cestello is a Baroque-style, Roman Catholic church in the Oltrarno section of Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The name cestello derives from the Cistercians who occupied the church in 1628. Previously the site had a 1450s church attached to the cloistered Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The church is dedicated to St Fridianus, an early Christian Irish pilgrim who became bishop of Lucca; putatively he miraculously crossed a swollen Arno river near this spot. A church at the site was present before the 11th century. Starting during the papacy of Paul II in the 1460s, the church and adjacent convent were patronized by the Soderini Family. This continued under Cardinal Francesco Soderini. The church suffered under the flood of 1557; the monks had to move to the nearby monastery of the Carmine.

In 1680-1689, the church was rebuilt on the designs of Gherardo Silvani and Giulio Cerutti. The imposing cupola and bell tower added in 1689 by Antonio Maria Ferri.

In the former convent of the site lived and died Saint Magdalena de Pazzi (1566–1607), born to a noble Florentine family. She was renowned for her ecstasies, during which she had visions of the divine will favoring church reforms. She was canonized by 1662. Her body was transferred to the church in central Florence that bears her name.

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