Parish church of Santa Maria de Abbatissis

He later became parish priest of the Church of St. Lucia and rector of the nearby Church of St. Stephen of Busseto. He then returned to the Benedictine monastery of Serra de’ Conti, where he died in 1367 at the age of eighty-seven, receiving burial in the Church of S. Maria Assunta “De Abbatissis”. In 1524 he was beatified and named patron of the village. Between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, it proceeded by papal will to the suppression of the Benedictine abbey and entrusting, together with all assets, a cardinal, who in turn appointed a vicar with functions of parish priest. In 1782 Pope Pius VI elevated it to a collegiate church, but after the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy (1861) it returned to be a simple parish, while retaining its title. Perhaps on the occasion of his appointment to a collegiate church, the presbytery and the choir were renovated, while in 1828 reconstruction work was undertaken that affected much of the building. The current three-nave structure is enriched by the presence of several side chapels, a wooden choir from the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene and an organ built in 1866 by Odoardo Cioccolani of Cingoli. In the church is preserved This interesting table depicts the Blessed Gherardo, patron of Serra De’ Conti, and is placed in the chapel dedicated to him in the Church of S. Maria de Abbatissis.The blessed Benedictine monk (1280-1367) is represented in the typical white dress of the Camaldolesi. He was a monk of Santa Croce di Sassoferrato, but lived most of his life in Serra De’ Conti where he was also the beneficiary of the church that houses his body and this table. He was a thaumaturge in life as in death and precisely for this reason a certain Gaspare of S. Stefano dedicates him this work as an ex voto.