Category: Myths and religions

The Holy Face of Lucca, between history and science

During the Middle Ages, one of the most important and revered relics in all of Europe was located in Lucca. The Holy Face, kept in the Cathedral of San Martino, was no ordinary wooden crucifix for the faithful. According to tradition, it was in fact an acheiropoieta, not made by human hand but generated by…
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the village of the Holy Marys in Provence

In Camargue, at the place where the Rhone’s billows meet the Mediterranean, stands the ancient town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. The rustling wind creeps through the picturesque streets, sweeps the fine sand over the wild, unspoiled shoreline, stirs the mane of white horses racing along the foreshore. The sound of galloping, softened by the wave-like motion of…
The Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence

In the cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence, echoes of legend rise from afar. As if carried by the wind, they tell of a distant and blurred past. Of when there were not yet the soaring spires of the Gothic elevation but only the small oratory of Saint-Sauveur. According to tradition, Bishop Maximinus commissioned the construction…
The False Gospel of Jesus’ Wife

During the International Conference on Coptic Studies in September 2012, held in Rome, scholar and university lecturer Karen L. King of the Harvard Divinity School presented the discovery of a papyrus. It contained a unpublished Gospel passage, named as “Gospel of Jesus’ wife”. The document came from a private collection. It had passed from hand…
The ghost of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence

In one of Florence‘s historic buildings, Palazzo Grifoni, which gracefully overlooks Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, there is a window with a very peculiar history. Be it rain or shine, the windows of the building are always closed except for one. It has remained open for decades although no one lives there anymore. This detail, which…
Archangel Michael, the origins of the cult

A sword stroke resounds in the air; as if driven by tongues of unquenchable fire, it shakes the powers of heaven. The wings of Archangel Michael open mightily, his loose hair is shaken by an imperious quiver. Terrible in his gait, he hurls himself at the enemy with a battle cry: “Mīkā’el, who is like…
The Sanctuary of St. Michael on Mount Gargano

The monumental St. Michael’s Cave, on the Gargano promontory in northern Apulia, is a holy place since time immemorial. It is the place where the Sublime and the encounter with the divine are manifested. According to tradition, the cave was chosen by Archangel Michael, the commander of the celestial militia, as a house of worship…
La Verna Sanctuary, there is not a more holy mountain

The Sanctuary of La Verna is not only a physical place. It is the witness of something that dwells in the soul, of a mystery that no man could explain. In its intimate silences, verdant woods, among rocks of mystical essence, St. Francis received the stigmata on September 14, 1224, as historiography attests1. On the…
The Sanctuary of Oropa, nigra sum sed formosa

A well-established folk tradition, widespread among the valleys of Biella in Piedmont, states that Saint Eusebius brought the Black Madonna to the Sanctuary of Oropa. Eusebius, the first bishop of Vercelli since 345, was a fervent opponent of the Arianism. When he refused to subscribe the edicts of the Council of Milan (355), which affirmed…
The Holy Shroud, among science, history and mystery

Since its appearance in 1356, the Holy Shroud has generated various and contrasting emotions, theories and beliefs. It represents one of the greatest and most unsolved mysteries of humanity. The image, preserved in Turin, is impressed on a linen cloth and has an incomparable symbolic value that goes beyond the simple material. What is the…