Ferdinand Gregorovius, a nineteenth-century German historian and writer, left us, in his travelogue In Apulia, an extraordinary chapter entitled “The Archangel on the Gargano” dedicated to Monte Sant’Angelo, which he calls “the metropolis of the Archangel cult in the West.” With the precision of the historian and the sensitivity of the poet, Gregorovius reconstructs the extraordinary story of the appearance of St. Michael the Archangel.

Thus, Gregorovius recounts…

The Chaldean cult of angels had penetrated the East and the West, and Michael was revered as the prince of angels. The world was full of his appearances, and legends.

He had appeared in a hundred places, on the tops of mountains, on the seashores, in cities, and had revealed himself everywhere as the tamer of Lucifer. The old pagan cults of Mithras, Mercury, Hercules, Hercules, Vesta and the Druids were all banished by him, taking their place.

St. Michael’s first appearances occurred…in the provinces of the Eastern Empire.

Then the Archangel took flight from the East, and up the sea he passed into the West and made his appearance on the Gargano promontory, in 493.

According to legend in Siponto lived a rich man named Gargano, whose herds grazed on the promontory. One day a beautiful bull disappeared.

Long were the searches of Gargano and his shepherds in all the sinuosities and ravines of the mountain, until they found him at the entrance of a cave.

Filled with fury at the much punishment that has lasted, Gargano wants to kill the bull; but the dart shot turns over itself and goes to hit the shooter.

The prodigious event is told to the bishop of Siponto, Lawrence; and he orders a three-day fast.

On the last day of penance, May 8 in the year 493, the Archangel Michael appeared to the bishop and announced to him, the cave he himself had consecrated, and should hereafter be a place dedicated in honor of him and the other angels.

A few more times he appeared to the trembling bishop, so that the latter finally made his mind up and together with other believers set foot in the horrid cave.

Added to this was the fact that the same Archangel had also appeared to the Sipontines at the time they were fighting against pagan peoples, from whom their city was greatly threatened.

Having entered the cavern that they were, the Christians found it illuminated by a heavenly light, transformed by the hands of angels into a chapel, and by the bare, rocky wall was raised an altar covered with purple.

Lawrence had a church built at the entrance to the cave, and with the consent of Pope Gelasius he dedicated the shrine to the Archangel on September 29, 493.