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TWIN PULPITS
A marble railing, supported by spindle-shaped balusters interspersed with square posts, surrounds the raised area of the presbytery. Both the posts and the railing are decorated with delicately carved floral patterns. In the left and right corners near the wall, above the sacristy doors, small polygonal pulpits are set into the railings. These pulpits were probably used for the reading of the Gospel and the Epistles.
Bust-length sculptures top the balustrade at the corners near the stairs and at the top of the stairs near the altar. In front, a sculpture of Saint Francis (on the left) is paired with a sculpture of Saint Clare (on the right). These two saints make reference to the church's monastic association with the Franciscan order. Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, and Saint Clare, also founded the order of the Poor Clares, the sister order of the Franciscans. Further, the first nuns to inhabit the Miracoli's convent came from the Franciscan nunnery of Santa Chiara (Saint Clare) in Murano.
On the balustrade near the altar, the bust-length sculptures of the Virgin (on the right) and of the Angel Gabriel (on the left) comprise the pair of the Annunciation. They hold significant iconographical importance for the church. When Pope Sixtus IV gave permission for the construction of the building, he specified that it should be dedicated to Mary of the Immaculate Conception. The Pope's action addressed a century-old dispute, that found itself at the center of one of the most fundamental issues of the Catholic faith. This dispute concerned the question of whether Mary was conceived free of original sin, or whether she was purged of original sin after her birth. The church's two great orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, were cast on opposing sides of this dispute, with the Franciscans taking the side of those who believed that the Virgin was free from sin from the moment of her conception. Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin that she was to carry the Christ Child (the Annunciation) held a prominent position within the debate.
In 1476, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which celebrated the belief that the Virgin Mary was free from sin from the moment of her conception, was inaugurated by the Vatican. This action did not, however, settle the dispute between the two orders. As the Miracoli was built in the midst of this debate, the Annunciation pair at the top of the presbytery stairs, and the dedication of the church to the Immaculate Conception, made a clear statement about the Franciscan belief that the Virgin was conceived free from sin.
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