THE SANCTUARY OF S.CROCE
Experts believe that S. Croce was a pagan cult site, long before the villages of S.
Leonardo and Badia were eventually inhabited.
The name "Col dei Paternostri", that is "Our Father's hill", was taken from a site in
front of the sanctuary, probably of pagan origin. Some centuries later a statue in
honor of Jesus carrying the Cross, was built. And it is this very place where our
ancestors found a safe place to talk about their everyday problems, and their burdens
and where they attained new spirit to go on with everyday life, which was very hard at
that time.
Up to some years ago the oldest documents talking about the sanctuary of S.Croce
traced back in 1511 and the bells' inscriptions 1485 and 1500. In recent years new
documents were found, that is two parchments, one written in the year 1484 and one in
1500, which attest that the church was built before 1485.
The first parchment dates the 18th of May 1484 and contains data referring to the
church consecration. It is 38 cm long and 35 cm wide and it is written in a very neat
and clear style The text is written as follows: Conrad, chief bishop of Bellino,
auxiliary of Bishop Georg Golser from Bressanone , on request of rev. Erasmo Prusinger,
chaplain of Pieve di Marebbe, consacretes the S.Croce church ad "Abattia" and the altar
and dedicates it to the Holy Trinity, to Holy Mary and to the Holy Cross.
The second parchment, found in the parsonage of Vigo di Fassa by franciscan priest
Frumezio Ghetta, was written on the 19 of December 1500 and it is 100 cm long and 50
cm wide. It traces the personal history of "Morellus de Canins" and of Conrad and Pietro
Colzo, two brothers ( who get their name from the Coz farm in S. Leonardo that still exists
today), who went to Rome in 1500, the holy year, to ask for indulgence for S. Croce,
the church they were particularly devoted to.
Other documents revealed that in 1584 the local priest committed himself to celebrate six holy masses throughout the year in S. Croce. A document of 1649 tells that the holy masses were held each Friday following S. Croce celebrations on the 6th of June , up to the 4th of October, on S. Francis Day. In this document you find first evidence of a hospice that lodged the sacristan and pilgrims.
In the church's altar the relics of Saint Leonard, Saint Hyppolitus, Saint Virgil
(bishop of Salzburg), Saint Martin, Saint Andrew, Saint Primus, Saint Feliziano,
Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Agnes, Saint Sofia and Saint Barbara are kept. Pilgrims
can also visit a relic that was given by bishop Caspar Ignaz von Künigl, to S. Croce
during his pastoral visit in 1711.
|
|
