Also known as the Abbot's Chapel, this small church stands in a place deeply associated with the figure of St. John Gualbert, where, according to tradition, he would retire to pray. In the center of the building still stands the boulder on which the saint would lie in meditation, leaving the shape of his body imprinted on it. As early as 1671 a small votive capital was erected around the boulder, which two centuries later was demolished to make way for the present chapel, built in 1856 with an atrium in front.
Inside, above a pedestal next to the boulder, is a plaster copy of the statue of the saint, a reproduction of the marble original by Giovan Battista Caccini kept in the Badia a Passignano. The altar also houses Pietro Pezzati's 1856 painting of the saint in prayer illuminated by divine light.
Situated along the course of the Pesa River, the chapel is part of an itinerary dedicated to the saint that takes in the surrounding countryside. Near the house of worship, mighty boulders, the story goes, were hurled by the devil at the saint during his prayers. Place identified as the Particino Boulder, a site charged with suggestion and popular faith.
