San Romedio - The Bear Saint

n the spring of 2013 , the bear , missing until the end of the twentieth century , returned to the shrine of St. Romedio, in Val di Non. To the shrine of S. Romedio, there indeed came a brown bear that since 2001 was a "prisoner" in a cage of 400 meters in the National Park of Abruzzo. The community of valley requested the transfer to the area next to the sanctuary to keep alive the tradition linked to a legend. It is said, indeed, that S. Romedio had captured and made a docile bear after the animal had eaten the horse with which he was traveling as he went about to do his begging. Even the figure of the holy hermit is legendary and it was said that he had lived in the time of Bishop Virgilius (patron of Trento) in the fourth century after Christ. In recent decades, the more solid legend suggests the existence of a hermit who lived in the Val di Non around 1000. He was believed to be Tyrolean nobleman who, after visiting the tombs of the popes in Rome, donated the land to the poor. He had retired to live alone in a canyon in Val di Non.

relief from their misfortunes through the intercession of the holy hermit.

The location of the sanctuary is lonely, distant three miles from the nearest town, Sanzeno, where there is another famous shrine dedicated to three foreign missionaries killed in 397 by the pagans of the Val di Non. They are referred to as the martiri ananuensi (Val di Non). The thesis that Romedio lived in the eleventh century is fairly recent and matured after extensive research and the use of "carbon-14", the survey performed to determine the dating of finds. He probably lived after the year one thousand, during the pontificate Episcopal Adelperone (1084-1104) when Romedio was already called "holy."

S. Romedio is the name of a hermit, the name of a place, a sanctuary, and a stream (formed by the confluence of the river with a brook, Rio Verdes Ruffr) that over thousands of years of geological time has eroded three kilometers of rock to transform a plateau in a wild gorge. It is one of the oldest places of worship in the Trentino. In fact, it was a sacred place even in pagan times. Traces of smoke, on top of the rock and the oldest part of the shrine, testify sacrifices to the gods. The shrine is built on a spur of rock that rises in the middle of the canyon is one of the most evocative of popular Trentino religiosity. There are five chapels built on each other, all donated by noblemen and simple people who believed they had experience 14

The main festival should fall on 1 October, the anniversary of the death of Romedio, which took place in an unspecified year in the late eleventh century. In the calendar of the thirteenth century, the feast was set on January 11, and in a calendar for the second half of the 15th century, the feast had been moved permanently to 15 January. The communities of the Valle di Non, gathered solemnly at the shrine of S. Romedio twice a year: January 15 and August 15. The second is an ancient pilgrimage of four centuries. It goes back, in fact, to 1632, when there was public homage after the plague of 1632. Anyway, the main festival is January 15. That day, the sun reappears in the courtyard of the shrine that had remained in the shadows for over a month, and the devotees, in small groups, would reach the Main Chapel to attend the Mass of the friar who served as the guardian of the shrine. At the end of the liturgy, in the restaurant on the ground floor of the shrine complex, a dish of tripe

soup is distributed to the pilgrims. On July 7, 1809, accompanied by six hundred riflemen and a multitude of people, Andreas Hofer arrived to the shrine of S. Romedio. He was the Tyrolean innkeeper who thwarted the invasion of Napoleon in the Tyrol and was captured and killed by the French in Mantua on February 20, 1810. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was customary for pilgrims to come to the sanctuary anauniese (Nonish) with a stone on their shoulder. It was an act of penance that earned for the pilgrim forty days of indulgence. The Counts of Thun established a Prince Bishop in 1536 and the Counts proposed to manufacture the Main Chapel. Understandably, the chapel was built quickly by the many who submitted themselves to the sacred barter-indulgences for work rendered. Along the steep staircase leading to the top of the rock, there is a church dedicated to St. George, built in 1487 by Giorgio di Castel Cles. In front, there is the chapel of the Addolorata, made in the

was discovered that on the west wall were fourlayers of paint. Among these is a Madonna with Child on her knees that vaguely recalls the Byzantine style. It dated around the end of the thirteenth century. Coeval with the Main Chapel in the bell tower (1536), on which was placed a bell ast in 1507. It was replaced with two bronze bells in 1875. The body of the building entrance - a sort of cloister - was built in the 17th century, but most of the buildings connecting the chapels, which were the final layout of the structure, were built in the 18th century.

The works of consolidation and restoration, completed in the summer of 1998, allowed the opening of the balcony on the top of the sanctuary. An breathtaking view at the underlying cliff from a height of over 300 feet (99 meters).

fulfillment of a vow made during the First World War (1915-1918). Halfway through the flight of 115 steps to open the portal of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. It is dedicated to St. Michael and was built in 1514 with money from the Counts Christopher and Bernardino of Thun. Another flight of 30 steps and one breathlessly reaches the Church of S. Romedio, also known as the Main Chapel (1536). Based on the oldest part of the places of worship. The Main Chapel, with paintings from 1612, has some frescoes partly ruined by moisture. It came to light in 1932, during the restoration, when it
Alberto Folgheraiter is the author of many books regarding the Trentino, including his definitive and colorful book I Sentieri dell`Infinito-Storia dei Santuari del Trentino-Alto Adige The Paths of the Infinite-The Story of the Sancutaries of the Trentino Alto-Adige sanctuaries.

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