Nowadays Pescina is well known on an international level for the famous people born there, it is in fact the native country of the cardinal Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino (1602-61), Prime Minister of France during the reign of Louis XIV of France and successor of the Cardinal Richelieu, and of Ignazio Silone (pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, 1900-78) one of the most eminent characters of the literature of the 20th century (he wrote "Fontamara", "Il segreto di Luca" and other novels set in his native country). His ashes rest under the bell tower of the St. Berardo church, according to his last will and testament