The Holy Road of the Longobards. Masseria Canestrello, Apulia

The Holy Road of the Longobards

The "Holy Road of the Longobards" in Capitanata, is pin-pointed by a number of sanctuaries in succession and at regular intervals: Santa Maria of Stignano and San Matteo in the limits of San Marco in Lamis, The Cave of Saint Michael on Mount Saint Angelo, San Leonardo of Siponto in Manfredonia and, finally, the Sanctuary of the Crowned Virgin at Foggia.

Convent of Saint Matthew

The pilgrims followed this road when they came from the northern regions. They usually started their climb of Gargano from the valley of Stignano which constitutes the south-western entrance to the promontary. The road then crossed the city of San Marco in Lamis, Monte Saint Angelo, following the contours of the Gargano, Monte Celano, Monte Nero and Monte Calvo. The "Holy road of the Longobards" ended after Manfredonia in the centre of the Tavoliere.

The history of the Basilica of Saint Michael on Mount Saint Angelo is strictly intertwined with that of the Longobards. Even the stories concerning the apparitions of the saint reveal the secular, military and political confrontations between the West and Oriental Byzantium.
The Longobards spread the cult of Saint Michael over all of Europe. On the walls of the Sanctuary in Gargano in fact, one can still see the graffiti, the names of the pilgrims who in the Middle Ages came from as far as Ireland, Brittany and from other parts of Northern Europe.

Saint Michael on the Gargano, was during the Middle Ages, one of the most important sanctuaries of Christianity together with Saint James of Compostela, the Tombs of the Apostles in Rome and the Holy Sepulchre in the Holy Land.
"God, Angel, Man" was the motto found in these great sanctuaries. That of Saint Michael, in the times of the Crusades, became a strategic meeting point for all the pilgrims who met here and for the warriors and crusaders themselves.

Along the "Road" one can find a number of Holy chapels where people made vows, and in these places there were always water-wells for the people who stopped here; eventually these stopping places became famous abbeys such as the Convent of Saint Matthew and that of Saint Leonard in Siponto; others were transformed into cities like Saint Marco in Lamis, Saint Giovanni Rotondo and Mount Saint Angelo.
Scholars point out that the "Holy Road" indicated a progressive spiritual development leading on to further progression: it is a sacred road that one must follow entirely because it represents the way to conversion and every Christian soul is called to follow it.

The Madonna of Stignano is the Door to Paradise, the site where symbolically God returns to offer his son Jesus to all men, in whose footsteps every Christian must follow.
Saint Matthew offers his gospel to all men, the word of God. Saint Leonard on the other hand gives us the example of one who has followed to the letter the word of God.
The Cave of Saint Michael is the terrible place, in the depth of the mountain, where man is alone with himself and his conscience, and faced with the Angel of God must simply say "yes" or "no".
The Crowned Virgin of Foggia, represents a sweet and reassuring comeback to the warm motherly embrace of the Virgin.
The pilgrims that came from their working places to the sanctuaries in Gargano followed a route starting from the Via Appia and after crossing Irpinia and the Valley of the Bovino, winded up in the plains of the Tavoliere.
Along this road came the pilgrims from Campania, Latium, Tuscany and Umbria, and from all the other northern regions. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Valleverde, close to Bovino, reminds us of this route towards the Cave of Saint Michael.