Also known as the church of Immacolata, it is the second biggest church after the Cathedral of Messina. Founded in 1254, it is in Viale Boccetta. 

The church was reconstructed several times. In 1884, the building was destroyed by a big fire. Because of the fire, many artworks were lost and only the statues of St. Francis of the Immaculate and of St. Anthony were saved from the fire. 

After the earthquake of 1908, it was reconstructed again. A chapel was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. The statue of the saint remained here and the chapel was built in the cell where he used to stay. The statue that was dedicated to him was found under the debris and guarded in the Regional Museum until construction was completed. It was later placed in a flowerbed at the back of the apses in 1990. The reconstruction of the church, which gave it an original simplicity and beauty, started in 1926, and it was opened in 1928. After the bombings of the Second World War, it was restored again and the work ended on 1954. 

In the interior, during the centuries, there were the funerary monuments of king Frederic III of Aragon, of his mother Elisabeth and of his sons (William and John); the graves were later unified in one mausoleum in 1554 by the viceroy de Vega. 

It has only one nave, probably of Provencal framework, and the ceiling is wooden. The sanctuary, banked in comparison with the nave level, has three semicircular apses with ribbed basins. In the walls there are some chapels, introduced by wide arches. The portals, the rose window of the façade and the apses (rebuilt bit by bit after the earthquake) are original. If you had the opportunity to admire the painting La Pietà, which Antonello da Messina painted in 1475, and now is exhibited at the Correr Museum of Venezia, you realize that the church of St. Francis of Assisi has its original style, as seen in the background where it seems that centuries have never passed!