The Legend of Saint Leo
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
As every year, Count Roberto of Loretello (Rotello) had announced a hunting party for the lords of the castles of S. Martino, Ururi, Serracapriola, Chieuti, and Campomarino, in the nearby Licchiano forest.
After tying their horses to the ancient oaks, the participants, accompanied by a large group of beaters, began pursuing the wild boars and deer, which were plentiful in the region's woods at that time. After the exhausting hunt, having gathered the rich bounty, they headed back to their mounts for the return journey.
Oh, wonder! They saw the horses devoutly kneeling! Astonished, they thought it a miracle and began digging until they uncovered a stone slab inscribed with “HERE LIES THE BODY OF THE BLESSED LEO.”
With great effort, they lifted the heavy stone and, surrounded by a dazzling light, they saw an urn carved from a rock, containing the intact and snow-white bones of the Saint. Beside it, they also found a small basket with a thimble, a spool of thread, and a needle, demonstrating that the Saint had indeed spent his life in solitude at the nearby monastery of S. Felice.
At this point, a dispute arose among the lords, each wishing to take the precious relics to their own town. Count Roberto sent a message to the Bishop of Larino for advice on what to do.
To avoid quarrels, the good Bishop suggested yoking two untamed and unguided oxen to a cart and allowing them to reach the town where the Saint wished to be venerated.
The oxen, amidst the frantic shouts and prayers of the hunters, hurriedly ran through the lands of the participants in the hunting party, and finally, on April 30th, the inhabitants of S. Martino saw the cart heading towards their town. In front of the ancient church of S. Maria, the oxen, exhausted from the long run, died, and the Saint’s urn disappeared.
The moved people prayed for the Lord's help and asked for the urn to be found...which was then discovered on the Church's altar, surrounded by the flames of candles and the joyous ringing of bells.
Since then, every year on April 30th, the people of S. Martino visit the pit where St. Leo lay, retracing with ox-drawn carts the route taken by the cart that transported the sacred relics and commemorating the event with the traditional “carrese.”