On the Gargano promontory, in northern Apulia, there is a monumental cave complex which, since ancient times, has been a sacred place of special significance, where the sublime reveals itself and one encounters the divine. According to tradition, the Archangel Michael, commander of the heavenly hosts, chose the grotto as a place of worship and prayer. Thus arose the renowned Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo, a destination for devotion and pilgrimage, whose mystical significance transcends human understanding.
Saint Michael the Archangel: who is like God?
Both the Old and New Testaments mention Michael, whose name literally means “who is like God?”. In the Book of Daniel he is the great prince who defends Israel against Persia1. In the Epistle of Jude2 and especially in the Book of Revelation3, he appears as the great opponent of the devil, as commander of the celestial militia.
“Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen“.
Pope Leo XIII, on 13 October 1884, at the end of a Eucharistic celebration, had a vision of the destruction of the Church by Satan, fiercely averted by the intervention of St Michael. From that day on, the prayer was recited at the end of all masses; it was abolished with the Second Vatican Council.
The cult of the Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo on the Gargano is dedicated to him.
Origins of the cult and the mystical apparitions of Monte Sant’Angelo
The origins of the Michaelic cult in Monte Sant’Angelo’s cave date to the late 5th and early 6th centuries. A brief hagiographic text by an anonymous author, the Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano4, the final redaction of which dates to the 8th century, records the miraculous events which, according to tradition, gave rise to the foundation of the Sanctuary. These are linked to at least three extraordinary mystical apparitions of the Archangel Michael.
The bull episode
According to the hagiographies, Gargano, a wealthy landowner, was tending his herd when a bull suddenly wandered off and disappeared. Some time later, he found it standing before the entrance to a cave situated high on a mountain. At the sight, seized by a sudden fit of anger, Gargano took up his bow and swiftly loosed a poisoned arrow (sagitta toxicata) at the animal. Yet the dart, mysteriously changing direction, turned back and struck the very man who had shot it. The local bishop – whom later tradition identified as Saint Lorenzo Maiorano of Siponto5 – learned of the incident with dismay and proclaimed three days of prayer and penance, at the end of which Archangel Michael appeared to him. With a proud voice, he revealed that he was the guardian of the cave (inspector atque custos).
“For I am Michael the Archangel, who stands always in sight of the Lord. And resolving to protect this place and the people of this land, I sought to demonstrate by this sign that I am the watcher and guardian of the place and all things which are done there”.
Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano, translation from Christopher West, St. Michael the Archangel in Late Antiquity, Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 737, 2014.
Saint Michael defends the Lombards
The second apparition is recorded in the hagiographies when a Byzantine army threatened the city of Siponto, within whose walls the Beneventan allies, the Lombards, had taken refuge. The city’s bishop sought and obtained the intercession of the Archangel Michael, who foretold victory to him. In thanksgiving, together with a group of the faithful, he then went to the cave. Here he found imprinted the footprint of Saint Michael (quasi hominis vestigia marmori artius impressa).
The dedication of the cave
The Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano then recounts the episode “of the dedication”. Following the victorious battle of Siponto, the bishop decided to dedicate the Gargano cave to the cult of Saint Michael. However, the Archangel appeared once more and assured him that he himself had already consecrated it. As soon as the bishop entered the cave, he discovered with wonder that an altar had already been erected, covered with a red cloth, above which stood a cross.
“It is not necessary that you dedicate this church that I myself have consecrated with my presence”.
Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano, translation from Bob Lord, Penny Lord, Saint Michael the Archangel, Journeys of Faith, 2019.
Finally, the hagiographic text reports that a miraculous water called stilla, with healing properties, flowed from the walls of the cave and people collected it in a bowl.
Symbolic meaning of the apparitions
The account of Michael’s mystical apparitions reflects a symbolic knowledge well established in the rural contexts of northern Apulia. First and foremost, Gargano, an eponymous hero (the Apparitio records: “qui et ex eventu suo monti vocabulum indidit“), is the personification of the place itself and of its ancient pagan beliefs, into which the new cult was gradually grafted. He functions as a metaphor for the vengeful action of the gods, contrasting it with the mercy of the Christian God.
The bull, on the other hand, was an animal of strong symbolic value7. In Mithraism, a cult of Eastern origin but widely popular throughout the Roman Empire between the 3rd and 4th centuries, the tauroctony played a central role. Numerous depictions have survived in which the god Mithras kills a bull. It is therefore clear, in the hagiographic narrative of Michael, that the ritual sacrifice of the animal is rejected and rendered obsolete, since the Christian God now prevails. A gust of wind (velud venti lamine retorta), a sign of the Holy Spirit, diverts Gargano’s arrow.
A chosen place
The place of the episode appears also deliberately chosen. The cave, rugged and uncontaminated, is accessible only by a steep ascent. Here, on the mountain, the transcendent manifests itself and separation from the world enables mystical encounter with the divine. The height becomes a sacred center like the biblical mountain, the chosen place of covenant between God and his people. The Gargano cave, with its natural features, thus becomes the prototype of the Michaelic sanctuary throughout Europe. It is the site of the hierophany of the Archangel, who personally consecrates it. The rock, the arduous path and the healing spring are essential elements of any cult site dedicated to Michael.
The sanctuaries ad instar of the Gargano cave
These features characterize sanctuaries built in imitation, ad instar, of the Apulian one8. These could only be consecrated by means of a transfer of sacredness. Since the Archangel is incorporeal, there were no relics to place on the altars, nor clothing, nor objects linked to his cult. Thus, small natural elements (pebbles, water…) were taken directly from the holy site on Mount Gargano. Then they were carried by pilgrims to the churches to be dedicated to Michael. Among the sanctuaries constructed on the model of the Gargano are of particular importance Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, whose hagiography, moreover, traces the same symbolic elements in the Revelatio Ecclesiae sancti Michaelis in monte Tumba9, and Saint Michael’s Abbey in Val di Susa.
A popular tradition holds that an imaginary line, called the Sacred Line of Saint Michael, connects the most important shrines of the Archangel. According to the myth, it corresponds to the sword stroke inflicted to plunge the devil into the underworld.
Besides Mont Saint-Michel in France, Saint Michael’s Abbey in Val di Susa and the Sanctuary of Saint Michael on Mount Gargano, the path reaches northwards to the Irish monastery of Skellig Michael, where Saint Michael appeared to Saint Patrick. Further, the line reaches southwards to the Monastery of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. Hence, it passes by St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and the monastery of Symi in Greece. These are mystical places, each of which is connected to an apparition of the Angel or to a particular veneration10.
The conversion of pagan rites
Before the advent of the Michaelic cult, the Gargano cave was probably the site of the pagan ritual of incubatio. This practice was common in the agro-pastoral society of the time. It involved spending the night in a sacred place in expectation of receiving divination. Strabo attests that on a hill called Drion, today identified with the mountain that houses the Sanctuary of Saint Michael, there were two small shrines dedicated to the Homeric heroes Calchas and Podalirius11. In these areas of ancient Daunia, people believed that sleeping within the heroon of Calchas, wrapped in the skin of a black ram, encouraged dream manifestations12. We can also connect the reference to the shrine of Podalirius to later beliefs associated with the Michaelic sanctuary. In fact, the water flowing from a nearby river was thought to possess miraculous healing properties.
It is interesting to note how the rite of incubatio recurs in the biblical story of Jacob. The patriarch at Bethel receives a vision of God in a dream13. The words he utters upon awakening are the same on the lintel of the entrance to the cave of Monte Sant’Angelo: “Terribilis est locus iste, hic domus Dei est et ianua coeli!“.
Michael, protector of the Lombards
A later historiographical tradition has placed the first apparition of Michael on Mount Gargano in 490 and the other episodes narrated by the Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano respectively on 8 May 492 – which is why that day is considered the dies festus of the Archangel – and 493. Rather, it is now certain that the text refers to at least two different historical contexts. The first and third apparitions align with the characteristics of the Michaelic cult already attested in Constantinople in the fifth century (in particular incubatio and healing waters). But the episode of the battle belongs to a later period.
We can trace the origins back to the literary production of the Lombard Duchy of Benevento. It had taken possession of the cave on the Gargano in the 7th century. Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum states that in 650 a battle occurred between Lombards and Byzantines at Siponto.
Hence the political intent of attributing military victory to the intercession of the Archangel seems clear, as to emphasise the Lombards’ status as a people blessed by God. The last redaction of the Apparitio probably dates back to the 8th century. At that time the Duke of Benevento was Arechis II14. When they arrived on the Gargano, the Lombards found the cult of Saint Michael, the supreme celestial commander, already widespread. The Archangel had many of the attributes of the Nordic god Wodan. So that they chose him as the protector of the Regnum Langobardorum.
The Sanctuary of Saint Michael on Mount Gargano
Among the Lombards, the cult of Michael experienced rapid expansion. It soon crossed the Italian borders, becoming a true instrumentum regni. Through it, the dukes were able to promote Christianisation and consolidate their political power. Epigraphs show that visits to the Gargano sanctuary were already frequent in the late 7th century. This is why the pre-existing structures had to be enlarged. The inscriptions bear the names of the Duke of Benevento Grimoald I (647-671) and his son Romuald I (662-687). Under their reign a monumental gallery was probably built connecting the two main cavities of the mount. The small ravine on the eastern flank of the hill, where the Apparitio reports the discovery of Saint Michael’s footprint, was opposed by the larger chamber, known as Basylica grandis, facing south.
Pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Saint Michael
The rooms used as a refuge for pilgrims on their way to Monte Sant’Angelo, commissioned by Desiderius’ wife (756-774), Ansa, date back to the next century. The city was well connected to both the road axes of the Via Litoranea, which lapped the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and the Via Appia-Traiana. This latter, coming from Benevento, took a diversion to Troia, and from there reached the Sanctuary of Saint Michael on Mount Gargano. These routes are referred to in Medieval texts as derivations of the Via Francigena, sometimes as Stratam Peregrinorum (1132) or Stratam magnam que pergit ad Sanctum Michaelem (1201)15, but modern scholars have also given them the evocative name of Via Sacra Langobardorum. One of the first historically attested pilgrimages is the Itinerarium Bernardi monachi from 86716.
In the extensive epigraphic corpus found at the Sanctuary, we find evidence of pilgrims who passed through these paths. They used to engrave their names on the walls of the sacred building, alongside the symbol of the cross. Among the inscriptions, the names of four visitors in runic characters in futhorc (Wigfus, Hereberehct, Leofwini, Herraed) are visible. This attests that the cult of Saint Michael had spread beyond the English Channel and among peoples of Germanic origin.
The building of the Sanctuary of St Michael and the Cave
Over the centuries, the architecture of the sanctuary was continuously transformed, becoming more and more complex. Today, only the upper portion of the cave is visible. A floor was added during the Middle Ages and covered the older, underlying architectural structures. Beneath the floor are the crypt spaces, including the original entrance of the ravine (B), the 40-metre-long Lombard gallery (A), which houses the lapidary museum, and a chapel, named Apodonia (B)17.
The upper atrium
The cave is accessible from the upper level through an atrium. Its façade consists of two pointed Gothic arches, renovated in 1865. At the central aedicula of the triangular pediment, flanked by two small rose windows, is a statue of Saint Michael.
Above the entrance portals of the atrium, with pointed arches and carved lunettes, are two plaques with inscriptions. The one on the right contains the verses of the prophet Jacob, taken from the Book of Genesis, at the end of the incubatio:
“Terribilis est locus iste, hic domus dei est et porta coeli”
“How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”
The Book of Genesis 28,17.
The plaque above the left, on the other hand, contains the words of the Archangel Michael as reported by the Apparitio in the third apparition:
“Non est vobis opus hanc quam aedificavi basilicam dedicare ipse enim qui condidi etiam consecravi“.
From the Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano.
Only the right portal dates back to the 14th century. The carved lunette, a work by magister Simeon, as indicated by a nearby engraving, shows Virgin Mary holding Christ in her arms, flanked by Saints Paul and Peter. The smaller figure is Margaret, mother of the commissioner of the work, the King of Naples Ladislaus of Anjou-Durazzo. The left lunette, dated 1865, shows a procession of bishops on their way to the cave just consecrated by Michael.
The octagonal bell tower of the Sanctuary of Saint Michael
To the side of the atrium stands the octagonal bell tower. Charles I of Anjou commissioned it from the brothers Giordano and Marando as a vow to Saint Michael for the conquest of southern Italy (1274). We cannot exclude that the construction work on the tower began earlier, in the Swabian period, as it resembles the geometry of Frederick’s Castel del Monte.
Originally the octagonal tower was forty metres high, but for unknown reasons was reduced to its current height of twenty-seven. It opens to the outside through monofora windows and four elegant bifora windows with round arches.
The access staircase and the Cave of Monte Sant’Angelo
From the atrium one reaches the Basylica grandis by ascending the great staircase and the Angevin architectural additions (13th century). Thus, an entrance featuring a bronze portal, produced by Byzantine craftsmen in Constantinople, precedes the basilica. The door, commissioned by the Amalfitan Pantaleone di Mauro in 1076, depicts scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The passage leads into a nave articulated in three high bays with ribbed vaults, along whose longitudinal side opens the evocative Cave of the Archangel.
Inside the cave, near the presbytery, is the famous statue of St Michael by Andrea Contucci, known as Sansovino (1507). The episcopal chair, made by Magister Acceptus in the first half of the 11th century, is also of exquisite workmanship.
The founding of Monte Sant’Angelo
As the fame of the Sanctuary grew, the town of Monte Sant’Angelo gradually developed, animated by the faith of pilgrims who came to the Gargano in devotion to Saint Michael. From the 5th century onwards, with the spread of the cult, an increasing number of people began to settle near the cave. By the 8th century, the Lombards had already provided the town with a fortified defensive wall.
After the expulsion of the Lombards, Monte Sant’Angelo continued to enjoy extensive privileges. In the Carolingian period, Emperor Louis II himself issued two charters: the first in 869, following the sack of the city by the Saracens, and the second in 875, granting economic concessions and jurisdictional rights18. Another diploma, sealed by Emperor Otto I in 967, confirmed and extended all the existing privileges. From that moment on, Monte Sant’Angelo became one of the most important political centres in southern Italy, especially during the Norman, Swabian and Angevin periods. This is an exceptional case: not the city conforms to the will of the powerful, but the kings of the earth have to comply with the will of Michael, heavenly protector and guardian of the sacred cave.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- Book of Daniel 10:13; 12:1. ↩︎
- Epistle of Jude 1.9. ↩︎
- Book of Revelation 12,7. ↩︎
- G. Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI – IX, 1878. L’Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano is here taken from the code Coloniensis 19. Document. ↩︎
- By an anonymous author is the text Vita Sancti Laurentii episcopi Sipontini from the 10th-11th century. ↩︎
- Peter1936F – Own work. ↩︎
- M. Trotta, Il santuario di San Michele sul Gargano dal tardoantico all’altomedioevo, 2012. ↩︎
- G. Otranto, Genesi, caratteri e diffusione del culto micaelico del Gargano, in Culte et pèlerinages à saint Michel en Occident, 2003; G. Otranto, Il culto di San Michele dal Gargano a Mont Saint-Michel in Normandia alla Sacra in Val di Susa, in Il faro di San Michele tra angeli e pellegrini, Atti del VII convegno sacrense, a cura di A. Salvatori, 1999. ↩︎
- P. Bouet, Revelatio et les origines du culte à Saint Michel sur le Mont Tombe, in Culte et pèlerinages, 2003. ↩︎
- Kether, La linea del Drago tracciata da San Michele Arcangelo, in L’Archetipo, n. 3, marzo 2018. ↩︎
- Strabo, Geography VI, 3,9. ↩︎
- L. Carnevale, L’episodio del toro nell’Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano, notizie storiche e percorsi interpretativi. In: Sacer bosi. Usi cerimoniali di bovini in Italia e nelle aree romanze occidentali, 2014. ↩︎
- Book of Genesis 28:10-22. ↩︎
- I. Aulisa, San Michele al Gargano e la diffusione del modello garganico, 2019. ↩︎
- M. Falcone, O. Giuffreda, Monte Sant’Angelo tra storia e immagini, Dalle origini al XV secolo, 1999. ↩︎
- U. Dovere, Itinerario dei luoghi santi, Napoli, 2003. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 15. ↩︎
- Ibidem note 15. ↩︎
