Dalla Puglia all’Europa. Trenta anni di studi micaelici. Bilancio e prospettive di ricerca

The aim is, on the one hand, take note of the research conducted on the cult of St Michael in Italy and in Europe and the sanctuary of St. Michael on Gargano in the last thirty years old, on the other hand report prospects of investigation to be pursued in the future. The sanctuary of St. Michael on Gargano mountain is one of the few places of worship in southern Italy destination of pilgrimage since late antiquity which is a phenomenon of faith and popular religiosity up to the present day. In the fifth century the cult of St Michael landed in a cave on Mount Gargano, replacing pagan cults of the mountain. After a first early Byzantine or prelombard phase (V-VI century) the shrine's complex, from the seventh century, attracted the attention of the Lombards who found in St. Michael, the warrior saint, a saint congenial to their sensitivity and made the St Michael cult a instrumentum regni for the unity of all Lombards. In this perspective they financed major renovations to make the sanctuary more functional to the increased needs of the pilgrims who, between the seventh and eighth centuries, went there came not only from Italy, but also from countries of Central and Northern Europe, especially France, England and Germany. This intense pilgrimage is demonstrated by two hundred inscriptions (VI-IX century) engraved on the structures of the sanctuary, among which runic inscriptions, the first found in Italy. The sanctuary on Gargano became "national shrine" of the Lombards and St Michael became patron of their people, contributing to the process of conversion of the Lombards from Arianism to Catholicism and to provide specific identifying religious characteristics. This sanctuary has been the focus of research conducted in the last thirty years by scientists of the University of Bari Aldo Moro interested in history, archaeology, epigraphy, hagiography, ethno-anthropology, religion, art. The model of the sanctuary on Gargano, thanks to intensive pilgrimages from all parts of Europe, was exported to other European contexts: we remember especially Mont Saint Michel, Normandy (VIII century) and the Sacra di San Michele in Piemonte (X century). These three sanctuaries of St Michael represent the main stages of a "pilgrimage in line", flying of spreading the cult of St. Michael, with the creation of a real network of pilgrimages involving neighboring centers. The extraordinary spread of the cult of St. Michael of Gargano was conveyed by the phenomenon of pilgrimage that was characterized, since early Middle Age, as a transnational and European phenomenon able to create a European identity consciousness. The articulated research path opened by the University of Bari in the 70s of the last century produced a numerous other scientific and cultural initiatives: International Conferences and Meetings, working relationship with other universities and scientific Italian and foreign institutions, twinning of other St Michael sanctuaries, new editorial series (Bibliotheca Michaelica, Edipuglia), collaborations with institutions and organizations of the territory, training workshops, seminars, summer school. All these initiatives are possible also thanks to the Centro di Studi micaelici e garganici, instituted in Monte Sant’Angelo by the University of Bari Aldo Moro. Among the numerous cultural initiatives promoted by the Centre (training workshops, seminars, summer school), we recommend the Study Weeks about Late Antiquity and Roman-Barbarian age (from 1998): the Study-Weeks, also supported by the Basilica Santuario di San Michele Arcangelo of and the City of Monte Sant'Angelo, host thirty young scholars, Italians and foreigners, promoting the exchange of research methodologies. Thirty years of research conducted by the University of Bari Aldo Moro, the presence in Monte Sant'Angelo of the Centro di studi micaelici e garganici with his fruitful research, training and promotion, have formed solid guarantee and one of strengths to include the Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo in the World Heritage List by UNESCO (June 2011) The future of research interest Italy, with investigations of hagiographic sources, the sanctuary of Gargano and pilgrimage routes to and from the cave of the Angel; France and Ireland, with the deepening of St Michael settlements scarcely investigated as Verdun and Skellig Michae