This type of structures, where caves or grottoes in remote mountainous terrain became the site of anchoritic habitation, and later hagiographic devotional cults, are not uncommon in the terrain of the high Apennines and Abruzzo, which also harbors the hermitages of San Bartolomeo in Legio, of San Domenico, and of Celestino V near Sulmona.

In the 19th century, it was visited by the Neapolitan historian Benedetto Croce, who noted the church was full of ex-voto tablets, now lost.

Along the road leading to the sanctuary are three aedicules that held imprints left by body parts of the saint, mainly elbow, head and feet.

Prayers at the individual stations with insertion of the afflicted matching body part were held to provide cures.

A legend claims the saint was able to placate riots in the nearby town of Corfinio by leaving the imprint of his foot on the rock.