Among caves, caverns and cliffs, in a lunar landscape that is very reminiscent of the stones of Matera, stands the abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano sul Gargano. A place of worship with very ancient origins. Here the devotion in honor of the Madonna was practiced by oriental and Latin monks (hermits and cenobites, respectively those who preferred isolation and those who lived in community), already from the XNUMXth century. In these caves the monks had created prayer sites and in these caves they found refuge. The testimonies of the first Pulsano abbey, after a long time, are still present. On the rocky spikes and on the bumpy walls they are in fact well scattered 24 rupestrian hermitages connected to each other by paths. They represent a unique and unrepeatable heritage, characteristic of this territory which is not so far from that of Matera.
The most important church, which is currently located on the hill of Mount Pulsano, was also born in a cave. In fact, inside it contains its first seat, the cave around which the current religious building was later built. Let's see its history. The place of worship, at the end of the sixth century after Christ, was born by the monk-pope Gregory the Great. Destroyed by Saracen raids, the monastery was reborn in the XNUMXth century by St. John the hermit the Pulsanese, also called from Matera. The monk, on a pilgrimage to the nearby sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo dedicated toArchangel Michael, would have had the indication from the same Virgin Mary. Our Lady would have shown him the place to build a church. Dedicated to his cult. Since then, Our Lady will always be venerated in this place with great devotion by the local populations. Even in the periods when the Pulsano abbey was closed and without monks.
A church built around a cave, the first place of Marian worship
In this "mother house" was born the monastic order of the Pulsanesi Hermits, also called the Discalced, who dispersed in at least 40 monasteries distributed in Gargano but also in the rest of Italy. The most famous were in Tuscany, following the Via Francigena from Pavia to Rome. But also in the Slavic islands of the Adriatic Mljet and Hvar which are located right in front of the Gargano promontory. The abbey church, in Romanesque style, has a presbytery obtained from a natural cave. The square altar, rare and particular, is one of the few examples of Byzantine altars still present in Italy.
The Pulsano abbey, severely damaged by an earthquake in 1646, was commissioned by Blessed Gioele. He was born in Monte Sant'Angelo and he was the third abbot general of the Pulsanesi monks who were permanently present on this site until 1809 when they were suppressed by the reform of Murat. Despite the suppression of the Order, some monks lived in these places until the XNUMXs. Since then the abbey complex was completely abandoned. Object of vandalism and theft that have stolen part of the artistic heritage. The monks returned here in 1997 and the abbey was reborn to a new life.
The current monastic community, Latin and Byzantine in spirituality and liturgy, has made the site return to its original spirit, a center of great spirituality. Which is perceived, visiting these silent places, a little off the tourist routes that surround the nearby Monte Sant'Angelo. Walking uphill and downhill along the paths that lead to the rock hermitages. Observing the splendid panorama that from up here sweeps over the Gulf of Manfredonia and over that long tongue of land lying on the Adriatic sea which is Puglia south of the Gargano promontory.
The Pulsano abbey among the “Places of the heart” of Fai
In 2008 the hermitage of Pulsano has been included among the "Places of the heart" del Fai, the Italian Environment Fund. Currently in the abbey there is an iconography school, a library and a guesthouse for those who want to spend and share an experience of prayer and meditation with the monks. Just a few days ago, on September XNUMX, the feast of the Madonna delle Grazie of Pulsano was celebrated on the occasion of the Nativity of Mary, an anniversary that sees the devotees reach the abbey on foot starting from Monte Sant'Angelo.
