The Church of St. Francis Caracciolo is re-born thanks to the work of courageous monks, living in a place with an asper suggestive nature, called the "Sacred Cliffs of Montepiano", whose ascetic valence is powerful. First, the Monastery of St. John Baptist rose up here. Its control was given to the State, after the suppression of the religious orders, proclaimed by the lieutenant of the Reign, Eugene of Savoy in 1861. Its interior still guards pictures about religious subjects of the XV and XVI century. Its courtyard, with its brick arches porch, is still substantially intact in its shapes and features. The structure of the monastery, revisited in the '60 of 900, dates back to 1421, and it was seat of the  Monastery of Minor Observant Friars, which followed those of St. Julian in L'Aquila, of St. Andrew in Chieti, and of St. Christopher in Penne. The foundation of the Monastery was attributed to P. John of Stroncone, disciple of the Clareni of the Movement of the Reformed, opposed to the Conventuals. A very important event to remember regards P. Antonio Cervi of Roccamontepiano, who was elected at the vertex of the Franciscan Province of Abruzzo, in 1338. This episode has Certainly created the premises for the foundation of the Monestary, settled some decades later. With no doubts, here in San Giovanni, there were the spoils of the two Blessed John Lombardi and Thomas of Florence, which have lived and served in the Monastery. About the work of Thomas of Florence, it is told that, thanks of his orations, a source of water would be born from the ground, hundreds of metres downstream of the Monastery. Such source took the name of Spring of the Blessed Toma, still known by the inhabitants of Roccamontepiano and still existing. Just before the landslide of 1765, the Monastery of St. John Baptist was the only one to have a great importance for the village, to the detriment of the Monastery of St. Cross, which was in decline. 

Note of the translator. Here the word "Monastery" translates the word "convento", which, in Italian, refers to a building occupied indistinctly by a community of monks or nuns, while in English the word "convent" is used exclusively for a building occupied by nuns. We will always use the correct English term, specifying the Italian name of the religious house in the headline, if different.