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San Romedio - The Bear SaintSan Romedio - The Bear Saintn 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 communi-ty 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 beg-

ging. 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.

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 Ruffré) that over thou-

sands of years of geological time has eroded three kilo-meters 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 religiosi-

ty. There are five chapels built on each other, all donated

by noblemen and simple people who believed they had

experience

relief from their misfortunes through the intercession of 

the holy hermit.

 The location of the sanctuary is lonely, distant threemiles from the nearest town, Sanzeno, where there is

another famous shrine dedicated to three foreign mis-

sionaries 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 cen-

tury 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."

 The main festival should fall on 1 October, the anniver-

sary of the death of Romedio, which took place in an

unspecified year in the late eleventh century. In the cal-

endar 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, gath-

ered solemnly at the shrine of S. Romedio twice a year:

 January 15 and August 15. The second is an ancient pil-grimage 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

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 Alberto Folgheraiter is the author of many books regarding the Trentino, including his definitive and col-

orful 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.

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 pil-

grims to come to the sanctuary “anauniese” (Nonish)

 with a stone on their shoulder. It was an act of penancethat 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-indul-

gences for work rendered. Along the steep staircase lead-

ing 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

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

 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 wasplaced 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 bal-

cony on the top of the sanctuary. An breathtaking view 

at the underlying cliff from a height of over 300 feet (99

meters).