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Francesco Cimini founded the Cimini Charitable Institution. Born in Montasola in 1622, the son of a craftsman, Francesco worked as a carpenter without abandoning the study. Ever since young, he participates actively in the political life of the village (1649), and chairs the Town Council meetings.

At that time, the relationship between the Sabina valley and Rome was very strong and fervent. The marbles of Cottanello were hauled by buffalos to the eternal city and the savings of the various villages were normally deposited in Roman banks, as Monte della Pietà and Banco di S. Spirito.  

Around year 1650, Francesco, as well as most of the local population, finds himself facing a period of profound poverty. This induces him to move to Rome where he started working in a joinery workshop in Via dell’Arco della Ciambella and where he married Anna Romolacci, daughter of the workshop owner. Francesco inherits the workshop, together with another worker, at the death of his Master. The oral tradition attributes his wealth to the discovery of some golden rods hidden in a raw trunk found in the joinery.  

Whether this is true or not, for sure Francesco made the received inheritance yield fruit becoming part of the craftsman community in the Papal Rome and investing with considerable profit. He was also a member of the Carpenter’s and Joiner’s Brotherhood in Rome and became one of the most authoritative exponents. 

But the thought of Montasola never abandoned him. In 1681, as reported in the Atti del Buon Governo (Deed of the Good Government), he gave a legacy of 500 scudi to the community of Montasola. However, being the town council unable to balance the local economy, Francesco Cimini required, ten years later, that Montasola agreed to perpetually support a schoolteacher. 

Francesco Cimini died in Rome on the 29^th of November 1712 leaving a Will in which he specifically says how he wanted his inheritance to be handled. Montasola was the main beneficiary. Francesco founds a Charitable Institution that consists of a Hospital, an Oratory, a Chapel (true pearl of this village), a Church called “del Monte” in honor of the Virgin Maria, land and houses in the Sabina area and in Rome.

Churc "Monte"

 He orders that student's grants should be given to young men willing to take a degree and annual dowries to honest old maids. He made sure that a salary was paid to hospital physicians, one of these had to live in Montasola, and that all the prelates of the village churches were sustained generously. A large part of the legacy goes to the Congregation of which he was part and to Roman churches. The Organ which is situated inside the church of San Giuseppe de’ Falegnami (above the Mametriano prison at the Foro Romano) was built on his account and of this we still keep the authentic receipts.

Francesco Cimini’s Will was printed and published, complete with a Codicil and a Decree of Pope Pius VI, on January 5^th 1776. Since his inheritance was badly administered more than once in the past centuries, both the Holy See and, later on, the Royal Commissioners intervened during the 800’s. Some of Francesco’s Wills are now entirely disregarded, mostly because usages and customs have changed through time, others are still maintained today. One of these is the distribution of the blessed bread at the end of the Holy Mass on the feast of St. Cross.

The building of the Hospital and the Oratory can still be seen today. And the annexed Chapel, also called “della Curia” (“of the Curia”). The chapel, unique of its kind in the entire district, is rich of extraordinary marble groups and wonderful paintings. Among these, placed on the Altar, the one of St. Conception, attributed, if not directly to Antonio Gherardi, to one of the Master’s students. This beautiful painting is interchangeable with a wooden crucifix, by means of a still-working winch. This holy crucifix was the symbol of the Oratory of the Charitable Institution, as it can be drawn from all the papers that refer to its activity and in which this effigy is mentioned. Two wonderful marble putti that, according to the popular tradition, can be attributed to Bernini’s school, adorn the Altar. As far as the walls and the ceiling concerns, this is what can be read behind the altar “Nell’anno di guerra 1917 nel mese d’ottobre per cura dell’amministrazione dell’Opera Pia Cimini e del cappellano Don Angelo Pistolini da Cottanello veniva quest’Oratorio decorato nella volta e pareti da Giuseppe Paquarelli, pittore e decoratore da Poggio Mirteto.” (During the month of October, of war year 1917, under the care of the Charitable Institution Administration and the Chaplain Don Angelo Pistolini of Cottanello, this oratory was decorated, both the vault and the walls, by Giuseppe Paquarelli , painter and decorator of Poggio Mirteto.)