Monastery of the Holy Saviour

The Monastery of the Holy Saviour at Lecceto in Tuscany, was the principal House of the order of the Hermit Friars of Saint Augustine (not to be confused with the Augustinian Canons Regular) in 1256, when Pope Alexander IV constituted the Augustinian order internationally.

In 1228, Bishop Bonfilius of Siena gave the various groups of hermits in the area the Rule of Saint Augustine.

In 1243 the Tuscan hermits petitioned Pope Innocent IV to unite them all as one group, which he did with the papal bull Incumbit Nobis.

[1] On 4 May 1256 Pope Alexander IV issued a papal bull "Licet ecclesiae catholicae" uniting five monastic congregations into the Tuscan community of Lecceto.

In 1359, when Flete was about to attain his Master of theology degree at Cambridge University, he had a change of heart and chose to leave England and go to Lecceto to intensify his experience of contemplation.

A number of friars opted to withdraw themselves from the monastery to small hermitages or caves in the surrounding forest.

Giles of Viterbo spent four years at Lecceto, before responsibilities as vicar-general of the order drew him away.