As Monza sources report, as early as around 1233, just a few years after the death (1226) and canonization of St. Francis (1228), the Friars Minor would settle in the heart of Monza, building on the vast Pratum Magnum square the convent and the large church, more than 60 meters long, dedicated to the founder. The friars were immediately well received in the city, so much so that the church became a place of illustrious burials, but in 1784 the order was suppressed and the complex was used as a hospital until 1792. In 1818 the church was incorporated into the new neoclassical building intended as a seminary; restoration work has allowed some traces of Franciscan architecture visible on the facade to re-emerge.
