Wonders between heaven and earth.

Idyll monastery, saint worship and forgiveness of sins by the minute on the Gargano peninsula, such as atheists and believers can be her own personal experience miracles. Between the sea and the dense forest fascinating ancient places of pilgrimage with unearthly beauty, and - silence.

 

Rosa Zingaro has done nicely. The Mittfünfzigerin in camel-hair coat, with husband, daughter and elderly mother in the Sanctuary of San Michele came to pray and meditate. For years, Rosa deals with the Archangel Michael, and nowhere is it as close as in the grotto of Monte Sant'Angelo on the Gargano peninsula, "With Heart and sword has San Michele fought against evil - and he was terrible in his revenge, "says Rosa and formally vibrates with enthusiasm.

The family has been in the "House of the pilgrim" directly next to the sanctuary quartered, where eilfertige interveners with cappuccino cups and rattle the visitors in all aspects of the religious rite side. Who wants to gain an insight into the intimate and sometimes very personal relationship with their Italian Catholic saint who has come to Monte Sant'Angelo - one of the oldest places of pilgrimage in the western world.

"The place is marked by a profound religiosity influenced - everything here speaks of God," says Rosas husband Vito, an otherwise rather sober-looking management employee from Andria in Apulia. "This is still not in heaven, but no longer on the earth," says the man with long gray hair and straightens his glasses intellectuals.

Just four will be here the Archangel Michael appeared to the people - the first time in the year 490, as the legend that a bull ausgebüxter those cave just discovered, the San Michele chosen later than the sanctuary. "This cave is sacred to me, I will be their protector," continues to be the archangel said. "Where the rock opens, will forgive the sins of the people."

A seductive idea, until today, hundreds of believers to Monte Sant'Angelo lures. Near the Grotto altar with the statue of a sword swinging Michaels take confession from the monks. The doors of the cabin rattle in the chord, the murmur of penitence rebounds in the rock walls. Padre Marco would ask about the sanctuary tell but already sits for four hours in the confessional, and has given the rush of the faithful "really makes no sense for such things."

On the wall of the museum are connected the testimonies of the work of San Michele. Here are pictures of amateur artists who tried touching on the nature detail and "realism" of who, where and when the Archangel was saved. Since blood squirt fountains of operating table - but Uncle Giovanni is about the perilous surgery. Since two Carabinieri racing car with a twelve meter deep down the slope - and yet bear no Schramme it. Whether work-related accidents, bombing or heavy storms at sea - San Michele has all these people from certain death preserved. "Grazia ricevuta" is the magic word - the evidence of God's grace is real and tangible.

Santa Maria di Pulsano: plunge into the divine Hermitage

Who lively to Monte Sant'Angelo, who have a convent stay presents contemplative and meditative, which was only nine kilometers away Abbey of Santa Maria di Pulsano to the heart. Already on the way there will be breathtaking embrace of loneliness. The huge Stahltor at the entrance must be opened by hand and there is a faint sigh of themselves. In the unreal landscape rocks there is a huge cross over the Gulf of Manfredonia, whose waves of ice dancing and sunspots are durchsiebt.

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Precisely here, in the hills of Pulsano, fled once the first Christian hermits of the world - and you can imagine why: It smells of honey and spring flowers, a disheveled donkey grazes peacefully next to a group of pigs on the hillside. The Abbey nestles in the rugged rocks, as if they hold on to them - no wonder it is enthroned on a 200 meter deep ravine. Already in the 7th Century, there was a monastery here, which destroyed 500 years later by the Benedictines was rebuilt.

Only a cowbell and birds can be heard - otherwise silence reigns above, a peace which is the heart and the limbs may become difficult. "I have from the beginning to the great fascination of this place felt," says the monk living here Efrem, a slender man with a watch, clever eyes. For all its theological reflection was the life in the monastery very simple: "Our aim is to existential things, not the trappings."

The 52-year-old sits in the plain, but with icons and candles decorated the monastery church, on whose altar is a powerful, natural grotto warp. On the pews shiny brass plates with the names of those who have donated money for it. In the air hangs still the incense of the last fair.

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Until a few years ago was a Pulsano Geisterort consisted only of ruins and rubble, after the monastery of the early 19th Century and abandoned ruin was. Only in 1997 was inaugurated the new Abbey will be - thanks to the help of numerous community members, monks and donations to the collectors of the "Movement for Pulsano from Manfredonia.

Orthodox Liturgy on Easter Sunday

Is still constructed and rehabilitated, the life of the clergy and of the approximately one hundred community members, however, has long since found its rhythm. "We keep a very original monastic life, but are not too strict," says Efrem brother. It was important to be open for people to stay. As in many monasteries in Italy are also available in Pulsano a guesthouse with a few small and simple rooms in which the faithful and the curious can stay, enjoy the silence and to God, or can find. Obviously, they may participate in the worship and pray with the monks.

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Efrem and his three brothers live under the rules of the Benedictines, but also maintain the Byzantine tradition, in 8th and 9 Century in the great Greek monasteries was developed.

So, for example, follows the worship service on Easter Sunday of the Orthodox liturgy - and if it is cosmopolitan: In a solemn procession of the monks draw with the community on the monastery grounds, to stay in different places and read the gospel in one of twelve languages - including also the dialect of the mountain dwellers. An unusual, and reverently touching ritual under open sky, where you can view the beauty of different languages and a sense of global solidarity in the belief that can get goose bumps.

Brother Massimo, the art expert to the convent: It deals extensively with icons and their symbolism, and there his knowledge and traditional techniques to young monks, which a number of exceptionally authentic-looking pictures have produced. In an adjoining room of the church are the golden Madonna with the piercing gaze issued. Whoever wants to can buy the icons and the ongoing restoration work will support.

For seven years, lives in Pulsano brother Efrem - and do not want to miss a single day. Praying five times a day, he directs seminars and studying the Bible. For him Christian means to live the life of Jesus Christ, and thus imitate the Son of God to be similar. Pulsano was easy for him the ideal city: "Here I can give back the love that I got."