"The main and oldest church in the village of the same name is dedicated to San Donnino. The cult of the saint was not particularly widespread in the province of Florence and Tuscany, being more closely linked to the area of Fidenza (PR) and northern Italy in general. The holy martyr was a soldier, living during the time of Diocletian, who renounced his possessions to spread the Christian faith. A miraculous healing he performed on a woman bitten by a rabid dog is the origin of his reputation as a miracle-worker for hydrophobia and epidemic diseases. His main iconographic attribute, a rabid dog depicted at his feet, is linked to this miracle.
The church of San Donnino stands on a large square on Via Trento. The façade is preceded by a three-arched portico supported by columns topped with simple molded capitals. Under the arches are the three entrance portals to the building, while on the left side a fourth small door leads to the large single-nave room where the Company of the Name of Mary or of San Jacopo was based, now converted into a meeting room. On the left side of the church, a small grated window can be seen, which must have corresponded to an entrance door to the Company of San Jacopo, later partially blocked up. To the side, a low building with a low-arched doorway is visible, perhaps once a stable or warehouse.
The interior presents the sober simplicity of its complete renovation in 1938. Only a finely crafted late-sixteenth-century wooden crucifix, two large canvas paintings severely damaged by the last flooding of the Arno—Matteo Rosselli's Martyrdom of Saint Donnino and Cosimo Daddi's Nativity—along with the elaborate pietra serena altarpieces from the first half of the eighteenth century, illustrate fragments of the church's historical and artistic history. In the apse, the high altar, constructed of various types of marble, displays nineteenth-century features, while the three attractive stained-glass windows covering three oculuses in the tribune also date to the late 1930s. The inscriptions on them recall the names of modern patrons and benefactors: Catholic Action for the stained-glass window depicting Christ Blessing, the Conti family for the one with the figures of Saint Peter, and Giuseppe Nucci for the window of Saint Paul. The rose window on the façade also features a stained-glass window with the figure of Saint Donnino dressed as a Roman soldier, as do the two painted lunettes on the side doors of the nave, with Saint Francis and Saint Teresa.
The church is currently administered by the dynamic Don Gilberto, also parish priest of the nearby church of Sant'Andrea, whom I sincerely thank for his kind availability and for the bibliographical material provided."

Alessio Martellotti

"The parish priest always tries to listen to those in need; the homily, explained well and simply, helps people to sincerely draw closer to our Lord Jesus."

Stefano Dolfi

"The legendary Don Gilbert organizes excellent, typically Pakistani lunches and dinners."

Stefano Morreale