For the peasant civilization, nature was Chaos, which had to be continuously ordered by a divine hand, through the work of the Saints and the Madonna. Figures that helped to overcome hardships, misery, despair, and the solitude of the most remote villages.
Out of devotion, the Lucanians built small churches, called Sanctuaries, on the mountains, among the woods. There are 82 of them, scattered in the most rugged places of the region, not far from a Community. Buildings mostly dedicated to the Madonna, which nurture a faith deeply rooted in culture, habits, and traditions. A living presence that no one questions.
In Calvello on the second Sunday of May, the village is bustling. It is a date awaited all year: the day when the Madonna is accompanied to the Santuario del Monte Saraceno.
The devotion is total. A human chain climbs up a steep and slippery road. A rough path through the woods to reach a rocky spur, near Monte Volturino, at 1,320 meters high, at the “Santuario di Campagna,” the Virgin’s summer dwelling. A small white church, with bare walls, overlooks the entire valley between Monte di Viggiano and Caperrino. It was built by the Benedictines, founders of Calvello, not far from an ancient Lombard military outpost, later Saracen, from which the locality takes its name. “Queen of Monte Saraceno, pray for us!” This is the invocation, which the faithful, having arrived up here, direct to the Virgin, depicted in a small effigy with an intense expression. The statue, which solemnly accompanies the small Sanctuary, is not the original, but a reconstruction of the wooden simulacrum, of Byzantine workmanship, of Madonna “de Plano,” destroyed along with the parish church by the earthquake of 1857.
What was recovered was rebuilt by a Neapolitan artist, who bound the pieces with papier-mâché. It is enclosed in the “Caggia,” the urn-symbol of such devotion. Made of very hard and heavy wood, it was hand-carved by local craftsmen. Surely, it reproduces one of older workmanship. The Caggia is the most immediate visual element; for the people of Calvello, it is the very image of the Madonna, their treasure, their pride, the familiar and customary way to recognize, from childhood, the Marian symbol. It is the safe place, referenced with deep faith for about a millennium.
The Statue of the Madonna of Monte Saraceno was crowned on September 9, 1947. An event that mobilized thousands of pilgrims from all over the region. The devoted Lucanians collected two kilograms of gold to cast the crowns that would adorn the heads of the Mother and Child. Two enchanting diadems set with precious stones. Twice, in 1952 and 1981, the crowns were stolen by sacrilegious hands. Twice the people of Calvello managed to restore to the statue the symbol of royalty that belongs to it. On the day of the procession to Monte Saraceno, a religious rite is renewed, alongside the festival, folklore, and the tradition of “being together,” in the name of a shared belief. On the eve of this journey, the traditional “focanoi,” bonfires symbolizing renewal, purification, and an ideal obstacle to the passage of the Madonna’s statue, are lit in the village.
There is a competition to carry the Caggia on shoulders and, in the past, it was customary to pretend, once reaching the bank of the “Terra” river, an impediment to continue.
There are tales of a Hermit who would have lived in a small cave right next to the Sanctuary. Beliefs, traditions, rituals that tell the culture of a people. The same culture that still moves those who return to Calvello from distant places, from adopted homelands, which can never replace the flavors, smells, and atmospheres of the place where one was born.
The rite repeats on September 8 and 9: days when the procession follows the reverse route: from Monte Saraceno to the Parish Church; when the Caggia returns to the village to stay there all winter. Again a joyful and composed chain; again a stop along the route at the Sanctuary of the Most Powerful: an ancient patron chapel dating back to the 1600s. Here people rest during the journey and pray, at a thousand meters high, in the enchantment and serenity of a place with unspoiled nature. The festival continues, and it is a festival of colors, sounds, and rites, in the name of a renewed, rediscovered identity.
