The Pilgrimages
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
An ancient popular celebration, to which pilgrimages are subsequently linked, is associated with intercession with God and the Saints to invoke help in overcoming existential weaknesses. Even today, pilgrimages are frequent in Molise, including those to other regions, especially Puglia and Campania. In the past, they were carried out on foot, while today modern means of transport are used. The most traditionally frequented pilgrimages by the people of Molise are to Santa Maria di Canneto, the Sanctuary of Castelpetroso, and San Michele sul Gargano in Puglia (though an increasing number of pilgrimages are now directed towards San Giovanni Rotondo, at the tomb of Padre Pio). These destinations are places imbued with ancestral power, referring to historical memories of miraculous events (apparitions, sacred relics, tombs of saints). Particularly in the Middle Ages, penitential journeys aimed to obtain the absolution of sins and to acquire protective energy, according to very ancient superstitious forms. Today, everything has fundamentally changed, as the fundamental elements of pilgrimage are integrated with utilitarian components represented by fairs and sales from itinerant traders, with an organization that often overwhelms the very needs of worship. Nevertheless, pilgrimages have influenced various aspects of civilization, as they gave rise to new trade routes, bringing rural and pastoral crowds from different places into contact, justifying, from a historical perspective, similarities in customs and culture. Consider the similarity of the various traditional pilgrim songs. Furthermore, the physical suffering forms no longer exist, such as burdening the saddlebags with stones, long barefoot walks, and other bodily mortifications. Pilgrimages, especially during the transhumance civilization, represented a form of linguistic mixture that influenced the evolution of dialects during the long and tiring foot journeys, interspersed with daytime and even nighttime stops. A sanctuary that has grown in importance year after year, also due to its suggestive environmental location, where the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel is very much alive, is found in Liscia, a small town in the Vastese area. Every year, on May 8th, an hour's walk from the town, the saint's cult is celebrated, linked to a very ancient tradition, according to which, simultaneously with the Gargano, the Archangel also appeared in the Liscia territory, in a cave where Lucifer was nested, then crushed by the saint. A legend tells of a shepherd who repeatedly lost his young bull during pasture. However, the animal reappeared suddenly in the evening. One day, curious, the shepherd decided to follow it. Astonished, he noticed that a dense, closed forest opened like magic at the passage of the young bull. Finally, upon reaching a cave, the animal knelt. The shepherd watched the scene from a distance when, suddenly, amidst a blaze of lights, the Archangel Michael appeared. Overwhelmed with emotion, the shepherd fainted and, upon regaining consciousness, felt a burning throat and a strong desire to drink. Then, as if by a miracle, he saw water dripping in the cave and thus quenched his thirst. From that distant time, every year on May 8th, the cave is a gathering place of faith for thousands of believers from all over Abruzzo and neighboring Molise (especially from Castelmauro and Acquaviva Collecroce), to gather in prayer and drink that water, believed to be miraculous, dripping from the stalactites. There is an ongoing dispute to establish (but historically it is impossible!) the precedence of the apparitions: first in Liscia or in the Gargano? The latter has the medieval Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, in whose territory there are many caves, the most famous being the one hosting the altar of Saint Michael the Archangel. The presence in the Gargano of an ancient sanctuary, visited by thousands of faithful each year, suggests that the cult of Archangel Michael came to Abruzzo from Puglia, through the shepherds of transhumance.
The collective purification ritual is evocative when the groups are about to reach the summit of the mountain. This ritual is called "forgiveness" because the pilgrims, kneeling around the cross and the banner, exchange the kiss of peace. For more than thirty years now, the journey on foot has been replaced by buses, and the itinerary towards the Gargano usually leads pilgrims to Bari for the cult of Saint Nicholas. The Marian devotion is also very strong. Here is how Gabriele D'Annunzio, in his novel "The Triumph of Death," at the end of the last century, describes the arrival of the pilgrims at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Miracles in Casalbordino, near Vasto:
"...the groups arriving, preceded by crucifer bearers, singing the hymn, in long lines [...], in church, the women dragged themselves on their knees, sobbing. Some crawled on the floor, supporting the weight of their horizontal bodies on their elbows and the tips of their bare toes, gradually advancing toward the altar, writhing like reptiles, trembling around their mouths that kissed the dust, with their tongues drawing crosses in the saliva mixed with blood."
Today, we are far from that cruel ritual, but the devotion remains the same; the faithful arrive by bus from the villages of the Sangro Valley and nearby Molise and walk the last stretch to the sanctuary. It is a truly salvific anchoring, an intimate need for a relationship with the divinity to draw comfort and strength against life's adversities. A sanctuary that involves the faithful of Campomarino, Portocannone, and the Abruzzese villages of Lentella and Fresagrandinaria in the upper Vastese area is that of Madonna Grande of Nuova Cliternia, originating from the discovery of a painting of the Virgin in the mid-15th century. According to tradition, the painting was found by Marquis D'Avalos during a hunting expedition in the Ramitello woods, near Campomarino. The dogs accompanying the hunters, chasing three deer, suddenly stopped and began to dig, bringing to light the painting which was carried in procession to Campomarino three times, as it disappeared only to return to the place of discovery. There, at dawn on August 15, 1460, the local peasants witnessed a miracle: during the night it had snowed, and the contours of the church to be built were marked in the snow. Over the years, the devotion of the nearby populations grew enormously to the point that the people of Fresagrandinaria, for the most part, make an annual pilgrimage to the church, to which they "own" one of the three entrance doors and an altar.
Numerous are the pilgrims who, every Monday of Pentecost, head to the Sanctuary of Madonna Grande, crossing the Trigno River, towards Guglionesi and Montenero di Bisaccia, continuing towards Portocannone. Here there is an encounter with the population that has just finished attending the carrese (ox race) in honor of Our Lady of Constantinople, a "hug of populations" who share the cult of Madonna Grande and Madonna of Constantinople. The pilgrims from Abruzzo, after the stop in Portocannone to venerate the image of the Madonna of Constantinople, continue their journey for about ten hours and reach the Sanctuary of Madonna Grande of Nuova Cliternia, where it is possible to witness moving scenes of devotion, according to an ancient and evocative ritual.
History and legend intertwine to explain the genesis of the local cult of the Madonna of Constantinople. Around 1460, groups of Albanians, fleeing the domination despite the heroic resistance of the great leader Giorgio Castriota Skanderbeg, emigrated in search of other land and landed in the Saccione plain near Campomarino. Here there was a dispute to determine where to settle. They then decided to leave the decision to a cart pulled by oxen and on which a painting of the Madonna of Constantinople was placed: where the cart would stop, there they would settle.
To commemorate the event, every year, on the Monday of Pentecost, the people of Portocannone celebrate with a cart race pulled by oxen, thus renewing the ancient myth, not only as a sign of good luck but as an act of gratitude and devotion to the Madonna of Constantinople, patroness of pilgrims and refugees. Two carts are engaged in the race, one of the young men and one of the youths. The prize for the winning cart consists of carrying the painting of the Madonna in procession. It is tradition, after the carrese, to receive the pilgrims coming from Abruzzo, specifically from Lentella and Fresagrandinaria.
A few kilometers from Vasto, in the territory of Monteodorisio, according to popular tradition, a small church dedicated to Saint Mary of Graces was built in the 12th century, but only a miracle that happened in 1886 gave it the fame of a sanctuary. It is said that during repairs to the church's foundation walls, a spring of water gushed out, which healed the sick and killed the animals that drank it. Great emotion was aroused by the healing of a little girl who was dying; after drinking that water, she suddenly recovered. Since then, the fame spread, and pilgrimages began to increase not only from the nearby villages but also from the surrounding Molise area of Larino. With generous offerings, a new sanctuary was built, while the water of the Madonna is collected in a well, where the devotees go to drink. The solemn feast is held on the first Sunday of September. A twinning has also been established between Monteodorisio and Larino, granting the people of Larino the privilege of leading all others in the ceremonial order. Notably, in 1992, the statue of the Madonna was transported for a few days to the town of Molise.
The presence of churches in certain areas of the Abruzzo-Molise Apennines is linked to the pastoral economy and has thus characterized the lives of our populations. The transhumance of flocks to Puglia facilitated economic, cultural, and religious exchanges, and along those routes, legends and new cults were born.
One can understand, therefore, how in the territory of Castiglione Messer Marino, bordering Agnone, at the center of an area rich in pastures called Lupara, along the Pescocostanzo-Pescopennataro route, there was a village with a church containing an ancient statue of the Madonna, a destination for numerous pilgrims. Due to the crisis in transhumance, the village was gradually abandoned, and the 14th-century wooden statue of the Madonna was moved to the parish church of Castiglione. According to tradition, the statue was found by a mute shepherdess at the very spot where the church later stood.
The inhabitants of the neighboring towns of Roio and Monteferrante claimed possession of it, so it was decided to place the statue on a cart pulled by oxen, to indicate the rightful location by where the oxen would stop, which ended in favor of Castiglione. This recurring motif in the founding legends of many sanctuaries—allowing oxen to choose the location—reappears here as well.
This Madonna del Monte is also venerated by the devotees from the Molise towns bordering Abruzzo, as she was considered the Madonna of the tratturi, with a dark face "in the Slavic manner." Another sanctuary frequented by Molisans from Lupara, Acquaviva Collecroce, Montenero di Bisaccia, Petacciato, and other locations, is in Furci, in the Vastese area, and is dedicated to Blessed Angelo.
Popular devotion to this Augustinian friar dates back many centuries (he was born in Furci in 1246 and died in Naples on February 6, 1327). In Naples, he was buried in the church of the Sant'Agostino convent, and after much insistence from the population of Furci, on August 1, 1808, King Joseph Bonaparte decreed the transfer of his body to his native village.
Every year on September 13 (the date was moved by a month because August is a busy time for farmers), a great festival is held, and the "blessed cotton wool" is distributed, collected by the faithful in small cloth pouches (abitini), which are worn around the neck to ward off fevers and ear diseases.
Noteworthy is the cult of Saints Cosmas and Damian, whose liturgical feast was held on September 27, the day of their martyrdom. They were two brothers who practiced medicine with the ability to perform miracles. During the reign of Diocletian, they were beheaded because they refused to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. At the popular culture level, there are many testimonies, especially in Abruzzo, Puglia, and Molise. In Isernia, for example, the cult was associated with the treatment of female infertility and male impotence, and in the 18th century, it was celebrated with the offering of wax ex-votos representing phalluses. The Abruzzese scholar Giovanni Pansa, in his book "Myths, Legends, and Superstitions of Abruzzo," wrote: "Due to the fragility of the male sex, dependent on many destructive causes, in the Isernia countryside, pious mothers would rush to the Sanctuary of Saints Cosmas and Damian to obtain the healing of the infected or lost sex, and in gratitude, they offered a genuine wax reproduction of the same sex."
The miraculous tradition of the sanctuaries is perpetuated with the large number of ex-votos: once painted tablets depicting the grace received, later replaced by photographs and prints, and still ex-votos of casts in gold, silver, and wax, of anatomical parts, orthopedic devices, clothes, braids of hair, and other objects. They are a testimony of humble stories of pain and despair, of dangers escaped in specific historical and social contexts.
Sociologists, psychologists, and ethnologists agree that these manifestations of religiosity reflect, above all, the economic and social aspects of the lower classes' lives, due to those typical mechanisms of the rural world largely based on a strictly formalistic ethic of do ut des.
Scholars believe that sociology and folk traditions can draw from painted or carved tablets a wealth of historical material valuable for deepening knowledge about various social classes, customs, tools of work, housing structures, means of transportation, trades, and professions. These items are mostly crude paintings made in a rudimentary way, or jewels, ornaments, wedding rings, and other valuable objects offered in gratitude for graces and miracles received. Here are some examples of painted subjects: a peasant family escaping a lightning strike in the barn along with their livestock, a man falling from a tree and miraculously remaining uninjured, a driver surviving a car accident, a wheat field spared from hail damage, and more. All these images are always surrounded by a cloud with angels, the image of the saint, and the Madonna.
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
An ancient popular celebration, to which pilgrimages are subsequently linked, is associated with intercession with God and the Saints to invoke help in overcoming existential weaknesses. Even today, pilgrimages are frequent in Molise, including those to other regions, especially Puglia and Campania. In the past, they were carried out on foot, while today modern means of transport are used. The most traditionally frequented pilgrimages by the people of Molise are to Santa Maria di Canneto, the Sanctuary of Castelpetroso, and San Michele sul Gargano in Puglia (though an increasing number of pilgrimages are now directed towards San Giovanni Rotondo, at the tomb of Padre Pio). These destinations are places imbued with ancestral power, referring to historical memories of miraculous events (apparitions, sacred relics, tombs of saints). Particularly in the Middle Ages, penitential journeys aimed to obtain the absolution of sins and to acquire protective energy, according to very ancient superstitious forms. Today, everything has fundamentally changed, as the fundamental elements of pilgrimage are integrated with utilitarian components represented by fairs and sales from itinerant traders, with an organization that often overwhelms the very needs of worship. Nevertheless, pilgrimages have influenced various aspects of civilization, as they gave rise to new trade routes, bringing rural and pastoral crowds from different places into contact, justifying, from a historical perspective, similarities in customs and culture. Consider the similarity of the various traditional pilgrim songs. Furthermore, the physical suffering forms no longer exist, such as burdening the saddlebags with stones, long barefoot walks, and other bodily mortifications. Pilgrimages, especially during the transhumance civilization, represented a form of linguistic mixture that influenced the evolution of dialects during the long and tiring foot journeys, interspersed with daytime and even nighttime stops. A sanctuary that has grown in importance year after year, also due to its suggestive environmental location, where the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel is very much alive, is found in Liscia, a small town in the Vastese area. Every year, on May 8th, an hour's walk from the town, the saint's cult is celebrated, linked to a very ancient tradition, according to which, simultaneously with the Gargano, the Archangel also appeared in the Liscia territory, in a cave where Lucifer was nested, then crushed by the saint. A legend tells of a shepherd who repeatedly lost his young bull during pasture. However, the animal reappeared suddenly in the evening. One day, curious, the shepherd decided to follow it. Astonished, he noticed that a dense, closed forest opened like magic at the passage of the young bull. Finally, upon reaching a cave, the animal knelt. The shepherd watched the scene from a distance when, suddenly, amidst a blaze of lights, the Archangel Michael appeared. Overwhelmed with emotion, the shepherd fainted and, upon regaining consciousness, felt a burning throat and a strong desire to drink. Then, as if by a miracle, he saw water dripping in the cave and thus quenched his thirst. From that distant time, every year on May 8th, the cave is a gathering place of faith for thousands of believers from all over Abruzzo and neighboring Molise (especially from Castelmauro and Acquaviva Collecroce), to gather in prayer and drink that water, believed to be miraculous, dripping from the stalactites. There is an ongoing dispute to establish (but historically it is impossible!) the precedence of the apparitions: first in Liscia or in the Gargano? The latter has the medieval Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, in whose territory there are many caves, the most famous being the one hosting the altar of Saint Michael the Archangel. The presence in the Gargano of an ancient sanctuary, visited by thousands of faithful each year, suggests that the cult of Archangel Michael came to Abruzzo from Puglia, through the shepherds of transhumance.
The collective purification ritual is evocative when the groups are about to reach the summit of the mountain. This ritual is called "forgiveness" because the pilgrims, kneeling around the cross and the banner, exchange the kiss of peace. For more than thirty years now, the journey on foot has been replaced by buses, and the itinerary towards the Gargano usually leads pilgrims to Bari for the cult of Saint Nicholas. The Marian devotion is also very strong. Here is how Gabriele D'Annunzio, in his novel "The Triumph of Death," at the end of the last century, describes the arrival of the pilgrims at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Miracles in Casalbordino, near Vasto:
"...the groups arriving, preceded by crucifer bearers, singing the hymn, in long lines [...], in church, the women dragged themselves on their knees, sobbing. Some crawled on the floor, supporting the weight of their horizontal bodies on their elbows and the tips of their bare toes, gradually advancing toward the altar, writhing like reptiles, trembling around their mouths that kissed the dust, with their tongues drawing crosses in the saliva mixed with blood."
Today, we are far from that cruel ritual, but the devotion remains the same; the faithful arrive by bus from the villages of the Sangro Valley and nearby Molise and walk the last stretch to the sanctuary. It is a truly salvific anchoring, an intimate need for a relationship with the divinity to draw comfort and strength against life's adversities. A sanctuary that involves the faithful of Campomarino, Portocannone, and the Abruzzese villages of Lentella and Fresagrandinaria in the upper Vastese area is that of Madonna Grande of Nuova Cliternia, originating from the discovery of a painting of the Virgin in the mid-15th century. According to tradition, the painting was found by Marquis D'Avalos during a hunting expedition in the Ramitello woods, near Campomarino. The dogs accompanying the hunters, chasing three deer, suddenly stopped and began to dig, bringing to light the painting which was carried in procession to Campomarino three times, as it disappeared only to return to the place of discovery. There, at dawn on August 15, 1460, the local peasants witnessed a miracle: during the night it had snowed, and the contours of the church to be built were marked in the snow. Over the years, the devotion of the nearby populations grew enormously to the point that the people of Fresagrandinaria, for the most part, make an annual pilgrimage to the church, to which they "own" one of the three entrance doors and an altar.
Numerous are the pilgrims who, every Monday of Pentecost, head to the Sanctuary of Madonna Grande, crossing the Trigno River, towards Guglionesi and Montenero di Bisaccia, continuing towards Portocannone. Here there is an encounter with the population that has just finished attending the carrese (ox race) in honor of Our Lady of Constantinople, a "hug of populations" who share the cult of Madonna Grande and Madonna of Constantinople. The pilgrims from Abruzzo, after the stop in Portocannone to venerate the image of the Madonna of Constantinople, continue their journey for about ten hours and reach the Sanctuary of Madonna Grande of Nuova Cliternia, where it is possible to witness moving scenes of devotion, according to an ancient and evocative ritual.
History and legend intertwine to explain the genesis of the local cult of the Madonna of Constantinople. Around 1460, groups of Albanians, fleeing the domination despite the heroic resistance of the great leader Giorgio Castriota Skanderbeg, emigrated in search of other land and landed in the Saccione plain near Campomarino. Here there was a dispute to determine where to settle. They then decided to leave the decision to a cart pulled by oxen and on which a painting of the Madonna of Constantinople was placed: where the cart would stop, there they would settle.
To commemorate the event, every year, on the Monday of Pentecost, the people of Portocannone celebrate with a cart race pulled by oxen, thus renewing the ancient myth, not only as a sign of good luck but as an act of gratitude and devotion to the Madonna of Constantinople, patroness of pilgrims and refugees. Two carts are engaged in the race, one of the young men and one of the youths. The prize for the winning cart consists of carrying the painting of the Madonna in procession. It is tradition, after the carrese, to receive the pilgrims coming from Abruzzo, specifically from Lentella and Fresagrandinaria.
A few kilometers from Vasto, in the territory of Monteodorisio, according to popular tradition, a small church dedicated to Saint Mary of Graces was built in the 12th century, but only a miracle that happened in 1886 gave it the fame of a sanctuary. It is said that during repairs to the church's foundation walls, a spring of water gushed out, which healed the sick and killed the animals that drank it. Great emotion was aroused by the healing of a little girl who was dying; after drinking that water, she suddenly recovered. Since then, the fame spread, and pilgrimages began to increase not only from the nearby villages but also from the surrounding Molise area of Larino. With generous offerings, a new sanctuary was built, while the water of the Madonna is collected in a well, where the devotees go to drink. The solemn feast is held on the first Sunday of September. A twinning has also been established between Monteodorisio and Larino, granting the people of Larino the privilege of leading all others in the ceremonial order. Notably, in 1992, the statue of the Madonna was transported for a few days to the town of Molise.
The presence of churches in certain areas of the Abruzzo-Molise Apennines is linked to the pastoral economy and has thus characterized the lives of our populations. The transhumance of flocks to Puglia facilitated economic, cultural, and religious exchanges, and along those routes, legends and new cults were born.
One can understand, therefore, how in the territory of Castiglione Messer Marino, bordering Agnone, at the center of an area rich in pastures called Lupara, along the Pescocostanzo-Pescopennataro route, there was a village with a church containing an ancient statue of the Madonna, a destination for numerous pilgrims. Due to the crisis in transhumance, the village was gradually abandoned, and the 14th-century wooden statue of the Madonna was moved to the parish church of Castiglione. According to tradition, the statue was found by a mute shepherdess at the very spot where the church later stood.
The inhabitants of the neighboring towns of Roio and Monteferrante claimed possession of it, so it was decided to place the statue on a cart pulled by oxen, to indicate the rightful location by where the oxen would stop, which ended in favor of Castiglione. This recurring motif in the founding legends of many sanctuaries—allowing oxen to choose the location—reappears here as well.
This Madonna del Monte is also venerated by the devotees from the Molise towns bordering Abruzzo, as she was considered the Madonna of the tratturi, with a dark face "in the Slavic manner." Another sanctuary frequented by Molisans from Lupara, Acquaviva Collecroce, Montenero di Bisaccia, Petacciato, and other locations, is in Furci, in the Vastese area, and is dedicated to Blessed Angelo.
Popular devotion to this Augustinian friar dates back many centuries (he was born in Furci in 1246 and died in Naples on February 6, 1327). In Naples, he was buried in the church of the Sant'Agostino convent, and after much insistence from the population of Furci, on August 1, 1808, King Joseph Bonaparte decreed the transfer of his body to his native village.
Every year on September 13 (the date was moved by a month because August is a busy time for farmers), a great festival is held, and the "blessed cotton wool" is distributed, collected by the faithful in small cloth pouches (abitini), which are worn around the neck to ward off fevers and ear diseases.
Noteworthy is the cult of Saints Cosmas and Damian, whose liturgical feast was held on September 27, the day of their martyrdom. They were two brothers who practiced medicine with the ability to perform miracles. During the reign of Diocletian, they were beheaded because they refused to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. At the popular culture level, there are many testimonies, especially in Abruzzo, Puglia, and Molise. In Isernia, for example, the cult was associated with the treatment of female infertility and male impotence, and in the 18th century, it was celebrated with the offering of wax ex-votos representing phalluses. The Abruzzese scholar Giovanni Pansa, in his book "Myths, Legends, and Superstitions of Abruzzo," wrote: "Due to the fragility of the male sex, dependent on many destructive causes, in the Isernia countryside, pious mothers would rush to the Sanctuary of Saints Cosmas and Damian to obtain the healing of the infected or lost sex, and in gratitude, they offered a genuine wax reproduction of the same sex."
The miraculous tradition of the sanctuaries is perpetuated with the large number of ex-votos: once painted tablets depicting the grace received, later replaced by photographs and prints, and still ex-votos of casts in gold, silver, and wax, of anatomical parts, orthopedic devices, clothes, braids of hair, and other objects. They are a testimony of humble stories of pain and despair, of dangers escaped in specific historical and social contexts.
Sociologists, psychologists, and ethnologists agree that these manifestations of religiosity reflect, above all, the economic and social aspects of the lower classes' lives, due to those typical mechanisms of the rural world largely based on a strictly formalistic ethic of do ut des.
Scholars believe that sociology and folk traditions can draw from painted or carved tablets a wealth of historical material valuable for deepening knowledge about various social classes, customs, tools of work, housing structures, means of transportation, trades, and professions. These items are mostly crude paintings made in a rudimentary way, or jewels, ornaments, wedding rings, and other valuable objects offered in gratitude for graces and miracles received. Here are some examples of painted subjects: a peasant family escaping a lightning strike in the barn along with their livestock, a man falling from a tree and miraculously remaining uninjured, a driver surviving a car accident, a wheat field spared from hail damage, and more. All these images are always surrounded by a cloud with angels, the image of the saint, and the Madonna.