A 600-year-old monastery in Florence that has been described as “the centre of the world” is to close as the number of resident friars dwindles to just four.

The Convent of San Marco, a jewel in the crown of the Dominican Order and a cradle of the Renaissance, boasts priceless paintings and a rich tapestry of history that reaches back to the Medicis.

But with so few monks now calling it home, the monastery is slated to be closed down, highlighting the Catholic Church’s problems in recruiting enough priests and monks in an age of rising secularism and resistance to its celibacy requirement.

The number of seminarians - young men training for the priesthood - fell by nearly 4,000 to 116,000 between 2012 and 2016, in what the Vatican calls a “crisis of vocations”.

The shortage of priests and friars is particularly acute in Europe and North America.