The shrines dedicated to the Archangel, i Michaelion, They were often made in caves: the most popular and perhaps oldest in Italy is Monte Sant'Angelo in Apulia, Gargano. The Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo It is located in a mountainous promontory, a spur, named Gargano, which it extends in the northern part of Puglia. All the Gargano is a land of mystery.
There are undoubted correspondences between Gargano, Gargantua, San Galgano, San Gorgonio, Galvano the Knight of the Round Table and other people linked to the mythology of Western Europe.
The episode of the bull and the first appearance of the Archangel
So operetta tells hagiographic, dated between the fifth and eighth centuries, il Liber apparition of St. Michael on Mount Gargano (APPEARING):
"I was in this city a very rich man named Gargano, as a result of his experiences, He gave its name to the mountain. While his herds were grazing here and there to the steep mountain flanks, it happened that a bull, who despised the proximity of other animals and he used to go alone, return to the flock, He had not returned to the barn. The master, together a large number of servants, looking for it in all places less accessible, finds, finally, on top of the mountain, before a cave. He moved by anger because the bull was grazing alone, He took the arc, He tried to hit him with a poisoned arrow. This twisted by the blowing of the wind, He struck the same who threw ».
disturbed by the event, He went to the bishop, after listening to the story of the extraordinary adventure, ordered three days of prayer and fasting. At the end of the third day, Maiorano Bishop to the Archangel Michael appeared to him thus: «You were right to ask God what was hidden to men. A miracle hit the man with his same arrow, make it clear that everything happens for my will I am the Archangel
Michael and I am always in the presence of God. The cave is sacred to me. And since I have decided to protect this place on the earth and its inhabitants, I wanted to testify in such a way to be in this place and everything that happens patron and guardian. Where opens the rock can be forgiven the sins of men. What will be asked here in prayer will be granted. We ', therefore, on the mountain and dedicate the grotto to Christian worship».
Ma, since that mysterious and almost inaccessible mountain was a place of pagan worship, Bishop hesitated before deciding to obey the words of the Archangel.
The Battle and the second appearance
The second apparition of St. Michael, this "Victory", It is traditionally dated in the year 492. scholars, however, relate the episode in the battle between the Byzantines and the Lombards 662 – 663: the Greeks attacked the Gargano Sanctuary, in defense of which I saw Grimoald, Duke of Benevento.
« […] And here the same night, preceding the day of battle, He appeared in a vision to the bishop (Lorenzo Maiorano) San Micheal, He says that prayers have been answered, He promises to be present and warns to give battle to the enemy the fourth hour of the day». (APPEARING)
The battle, accompanied by earthquakes, thunderbolts and lightning, He ended with the success of Grimoald. The reported victory was described as willed by Saint Michael: it would take place the '8 May, now, after the Festus days Angel on the Gargano. Moreover, officially sanctioned the link between the Angel and the people worship Lombard.
The dedication and third appearance
The third appearance is also called "Episode of Dedication". «Meanwhile Siponto remained in doubt about what to do with the place and if you were to enter the church and consecrate». (APPEARING)
However, in the year 493, after the victory, Bishop Maiorano decided to obey the Celestial Protector and consecrated for worship Spelonca in gratitude, It comforted by the positive opinion expressed by Pope Gelasius I.
"But the night, the angel of the Lord, Michele, He appeared to the bishop of Siponto in a vision and said,: "It is not your job to consecrate the basilica built by me. I, who I have founded, I myself have consecrated. But you income and well frequented this place, placed under my protection " '. (APPEARING)
Then the bishop Lorenzo, along with seven other Apulian bishops, in procession with the people and the clergy Sipontino, He moved toward the sacred place. Along the way there was a prodigy: some eagles, with their wings, They repaired the bishops from the sun's rays. Once at the Grotto, found there erected a rough altar, covered with a pall vermilion and surmounted by a cross. Moreover, according to legend, the rock they found impressed the footsteps of St. Michael's foot.
The holy Bishop Maiorano offered you with great joy the first Divine Sacrament. It was the 29 September. The cave itself, as the only place not consecrated by human hands, It received over the centuries the title of "Celestial Basilica".
The fourth appearance
It was the year 1656 and throughout southern Italy infi Eriva a terrible plague. Archbishop Alfonso Puccinelli, finding no human obstacle to oppose the advance of the epidemic, He turned to the Archangel Michael with prayers and fasts. The pastor even thought of forcing the divine will leave in the hands of the Saint Michael statue a petition written on behalf of the entire City. And here, on break of dawn 22 September, while she is praying in a room of the bishop's palace of Monte Sant'Angelo, He felt like an earthquake and then St. Michael appeared to him in dazzling splendor and ordered him to bless the stones of his carving cave on them the sign of the cross and the letters M.A. (Michele Arcangelo). Anyone who devotedly kept with him the stones would be immune from the plague. The bishop did as he was told. Soon not only the city was liberated from the plague, according to the promise of the Archangel, but all those who demanded such stones, wherever they were.
A perpetual reminder of the wonder and eternal gratitude, Archbishop did erect a monument to S. Michele in the City Square, where it still is, in front of the balcony of the room in which you want it was an apparition, with the following inscription in Latin: At the Prince of Angels Winner of the Plague Patron and Guardian monument in eternal gratitude Alfonso Puccinelli 165.
