“I came a long way Maria and I do not regret it.
And now I feel an immense pain to leave you. "
The pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of the sacred Mount of Viggiano is carried out every year in two separate events: on the first Sunday of May a solemn procession brings the statue from the Church of Viggiano to the sanctuary of the Sacred Mount - located 12 km from the inhabited center at an altitude of 1725 meters - then, on the first Sunday of September, with a reverse path the statue returns from the sacred mountain to the Mother Church of Viggiano. The custom of translating the statue of the Virgin from Viggiano to the above mountain derives, according to a version of collected legends, from a miraculous phenomenon: the statue, at the end of the construction of the Chapel on the Mount, would have been carried by an invisible force in Viggiano where the Mother Church was built for that. But the following Sunday in May, the Madonna rose and returned to the top of the mountain, signifying her will to remain in the village for a part of the year and for a few months on the Sacro Monte. However, it should be stressed out that very similar legends to this one are encountered in many other "itinerant" cults of Madonnas.
According to numerous sources, the history of the Black Madonna of Viggiano is closely connected to the Byzantine presence: in the 6th century, the first monks from Asia Minor set along with byzantine domination, and introduced strong devotion to the Virgin in Southern Italy along with the icons depicting the "Madonna and Child" such as that of Viggiano. It is said that during a siege of the Saracens, the devotees hid the wooden statue of the "Black Madonna" on the mountain above Viggiano, taking it from the hand of the infidels and, according to legend, many centuries later - between the fourteenth and fifteenth - some shepherds noticing on the mount tongues of fire, they found the statue of the Madonna. Popular tradition indicates a hole as the place of the finding, located exactly behind the altar of the Chapel which today houses the statue of the Madonna from May to September. Once found, the statue of the Madonna was brought to Viggiano and placed in a small chapel called S. Maria del Deposito - later Mother Church of Viggiano - consecrated in 1735. In 1965 it was elevated to a minor papal basilica and the Madonna di Viggiano was proclaimed Patron and Queen of the Lucania.
The statue kept today in Viggiano has certainly undergone many interventions over the centuries and from the carried out restorations it turns out that the dark face and bust are previous to the rest. The statue, entirely covered with pure gold, except the faces, hands and feet of the Child, in its current composition strongly recalls the Nikopoia - a type of Byzantine icon in which Mary is represented frontally, seated on the throne and with the Baby Jesus in her arms - and the features of the Madonna themselves strongly recall the faces portrayed in the Byzantine icons. A peculiarity is constituted by the fact that both the Madonna and the Child have a globe in their hands, the Mother in the right hand and the Son in the left.
On Saturday afternoon the Black Madonna, accompanied by the band, the banners,the devotees and by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, is moved from the Mother Church of Viggiano to the Chapel of San Sebastiano where, until 6 a.m. of the following morning, it will be watched over by the town women which in rotation sing and recite prayers and invocations. On Sunday morning, after the vigil at 6 o'clock and after mass in the square, the long journey of the pilgrimage to the sacred mountain that crosses Viggiano begins and leaves the town on the ancient sheep tracks, greeted by firecrackers and fireworks. The procession is opened by two porters and each of them supports a long pole with white flags with golden embroidery, ribbons and flowers, the statue of the Madonna is placed in an ancient casket which is hoisted with two long beams that the porters say weighing in all 12 quintals. The porters are organized in different teams of 12 men in rotation during the rough and heavily inclined path. Along the "Strada della Madonna", as the pilgrimage route is called, there are 8 "hillocks" - bases built specifically to let rest the Madonna and allow bearers to regain their strength - also have the important devotional function of moments to pay homage with invocations and prayers accompanied with chants and sonatas of the bagpipes and the shawms
The two bearers with the long flowered perch, almost acting as heralds, mark the arrival at the knoll by placing themselves on the sides of the passage of the Madonna while it is hoisted on the base. The first hillock is carried out at the exit of the inhabited center of Viggiano, an important hillock from a symbolic and ritual point of view because it marks the separation from the town: the Madonna is placed on the base making sure that she turns her face to the town as a greeting. The devotees, players of bagpipes, shawms, accordions and tambourines, who move continuously along the procession, offer to every knoll plays and chants to the Madonna. Along the uphill, from time to time, small refreshments and wine and water are also offered and it is tradition that the nearby farmhouses offer coffee or fresh milk to porters and pilgrims.
Among the faithful of all ages who follow the procession, sometime, but increasingly rarely, someone starts barefoot to request a grace or atonement for their sins. Even today some pilgrims wear complex and heavy candle constructions, the belts, on their heads, even if this tradition is slowly disappearing. The final part of the route goes into an old sheep track in the woods, a path marked by difficult and arduous time, here for the porters the effort is enormous, the Madonna advances with often changes of porters, the faithful incite the porters with cheers to the Madonna and it is customary to collect, along the pilgrimage route, pebbles to be transported and then deposited along the road near the sanctuary. When from the top of the mountain, at the height of the Piana Bonocore, you can see the procession with the Madonna climbing up the last part of the sheep track, fireworks start to welcome and celebrate the Madonna and her retinue.
Along the last stretch of the route, the players from other surrounding areas gradually increase and spread out among the pilgrims, supporting them and inciting them with their music. Thus the last race to the Black Madonna of Viggiano opens before the pilgrims. The arrival of the statue to the small church that awaits with the open doors marks a very intense moment: it is tradition that the only bearers being the first to enter and vent their joy and effort before the Madonna that had been entrusted to them and arrived safely at her home, while the faithful assist and await their turn in the churchyard to greet the Divine Mother. Once arrived, they make the three ritual rounds around the church by kissing its four external perimeter corners and placing a small image, a handkerchief, a flower to bring back home to ensure protection. The pilgrimage ends with lunch in the surrounding woods, but the Black Madonna will not remain alone in the church on the sacred mountain, because from the first Sunday of May until her return to Viggiano, the faithful continue to return to visit her and the mountain becomes a destination of walks and outings.
The circular itinerary of the Black Madonna of the Sacro Monte is completed on the first Sunday of September. On Saturday night, the faithful go up to the church on the Mount to greet the Madonna once again and repeat the three ritual rounds around the Sanctuary, many pilgrims keep watching until dawn with chants and prayers. On Sunday morning, at dawn, the reverse journey begins the return to the Mother Church of Viggiano. The bearers of Viggiano take the Madonna out of the church on the mountain who is entrusted, for 100 meters, to the team of Caggiano. Thus they retrace the path of the uptward journey, with a careful division of the stretches among the porters and the stops at the various points, while the faithful anticipate and surround the Madonna along the way. The descent is more difficult than the ascent: the great effort focuses on being able to descend the steep path without the weight of the Madonna escaping out of control of those underneath. The wearers of the belts grow in number and dance at the sound of bagpipes, shawls and accordions
At the Alli river the Madonna is passed to the bearers of the towns of "forgiveness", it is a close exchange that creates excitement and it is said to have generated serious moments of tension in the past. Once the journey on the asphalt is finally resumed, the procession arrives at the entrance of Viggiano, at the first hillock, where the ecclesiastical and civil authorities welcome it in celebration, here a mass is celebrated at which end the long procession towards the Basilica resumes, accompanied by the band and a multitude of faithful. Viggiano is transformed, decorated with arches of lights and full of stalls of all kinds: over 60 thousand people come every year from the towns of forgiveness and surrounding areas, making the best of it, perhaps sleeping in the car or in makeshift accommodation. Once at the Mother Church, the Madonna is slowly brought back in by the porters who deliver it to the ecclesiastical authorities: with infinite caution the Statue is extracted from the casket and placed on the main altar.
The rupestrian church of S. Maria la Preta or della Pietra, in the S. Barbara district, was founded in the 9th century AD, by the Basilian monks fleeing Sicily, at the time occupied by the Saracens; the structure was rebuilt after the year 1000 during the Byzantine period.
It is the oldest church in Viggiano, of which few ruins remain, above a cyclopean bastion of living rock overlooking the Casale stream, a tributary of the Agri.
Around this hermitage arose the first agglomeration of the Viggianese village, whose inhabitants were educated to work and Marian devotion by the Basilians.
The monastic complex is known for the few information preserved in the Angevin Registers and related to the possession by the monastery of the village or Church of S. Julian in 1269. Subsequently, the monastery is troubled about the possession of the village and, in 1278, the Curia angioina intervenes with a Mandatum quod non turbent abbatem et conventum Sancte Marie de Petra super possession Casalis S. Juliani
It is not known how S. Julian came to the Benedictine monastery, but the relationship between the two settlements deserves further study. The Church of S. Giuliano, rebuilt by S. Luca da Armento before 984 and which, indicated at Agromonte or Armento, more credibly, on the basis of Borsari and Huben, should be located near Grumento and precisely under the current Saponara, where the homonymous district has handed down its toponym.
Ramagli attests to its existence still in the century. XVI, with the dedication of S. Giuliano, in the district of li Rungi.
The conspicuous patrimony annexed to S. Giuliano must have constituted the highest income of the monastery of S. Maria de Petra. It is not known how this came into its possession but it could be connected to the Latinization process of the small Italian-Greek monasteries present between the Agri and Sinni Valleys.
At the time of Angevin belongs the attestation, in 1395, of an abbot Ioh. de Curio, Ab. S. Marie de Petra Ord. S. Ben (Monasticon, III, 203), which until now constitutes the last testimony of a still autonomous community that at the beginning of the century. XVI is annexed to the Congregation of Monte Oliveto.
The methods of extinction of the community and the circumstances in which S. Maria de Petra loses possession of the Casale of S. Giuliano, which in 1562, is in possession of the Church of S. Maria di Nazareth of Barletta are not known.
The structure of the upper door of the Church, with old engravings on the jambs, was described by Caputi as follows: one half is adorned with tabernacles, rosettes, sphinxes and, on the moldings, human heads, lilies and a boar; Arabic-style monument of the century. XII; another half closes the pointed arch, in which it is only a rose and a cross on three mounds of hands and from different eras, taking a seat at the redone factories with two vaulted petticoats, which still remain. Tradition admits the hermits, as the Basilian monks used to call themselves in the solitudes of the countryside, since there is no heap of free land of their presence and the Basilian monks in the great immigrations before and after the eighth century.
In the vicissitudes of the times, the Church became dependent on the Olivetan Monastery of S. Maria della Giustizia in Taranto and, in 1482, it was annexed to the Abbey of Monte Oliveto.
The monks are likely to find the complex in a state of decay such that they prefer to build a new, smaller church rather than restore the primitive, probably larger, building.
The ancient monastic complex was reduced, at the beginning of the 16th century, to the only Church formed by today's single hall, with two entrance portals, one on the short facade facing the valley, the other on the long facade, facing the country.
In 1599 Don Bartolomeo was removed by the father of the religious community of Taranto, who inflicted the penalty on 5 January 1600 to the monks of the Curia T. (Terrae) Vegiani.
