Questa timeline segna il tempo di Guglielmo e dell’Abbazia mostrandocelo dal I sec. a.C. al fino ad oggi.
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Questa timeline segna il tempo di Guglielmo e dell’Abbazia mostrandocelo dal I sec. a.C. al fino ad oggi.
The area of Goleto, in the current territory of the municipality of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi, near the sources of the Ofanto River, has been identified, starting from the 1st century AD, with the remains of the sepulchral monument built by Marcus Paccius Marcellus of the Galeria tribe, primipilus (the highest-ranking centurion) of the Roman Fourth Scythian Legion.
The area has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era, as its geographical location, a passage through the Apennine chain of the Picentini mountains, made it a mandatory stop for the shortest route between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. The road along the Ofanto River and the abundance of spring waters have always made it a place of rest and refreshment during transhumance, pilgrimages, and commercial exchanges between ancient Picentia, the southern outpost of the Etruscans (gulf of Salerno, Paestum), and the Santuario dell’Arcangelo Michele, a sanctuary of the Lombards (gulf of Manfredonia, Gargano). The settlement of Samnite tribes around the sources of the Ofanto, Sele, and Calore rivers contributed to defining the identity of the altirpino territory, which took its name from the Hirpini tribe, deriving its etymology from the Samnite word hirpus meaning ‘wolf’.
In the hagiographic account, Guglielmo, born around 1085, decided at the age of 14 to leave his family and native places to go on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. His intention was to live only on bread and water, sleep on the bare ground, and maintain silence during the night hours, like the monks.
The exact date, place of birth, and family origin of Guglielmo are not known with certainty; medieval sources always refer to him with the toponym ‘da Vercelli’. Local historians, referring to Livy (XXIII, 37), instead place his birth in Irpinia, in a place called Vecellium, between Bagnoli, Nusco, and Montella. At 14, he does something similar to what Francesco (Francis) would do over a hundred years later in Assisi: he sheds the trappings of his lineage, dons a rough habit, and sets out, barefoot. The tomb of the apostle Giacomo (James) was a mandatory pilgrimage stop for a man of the first millennium.
Around 1118, he settled on Mount Partenio, near a spring; here, a first community formed, including some priests who had chosen to submit to his teaching. He built a church there, which was consecrated in 1124 in honour of the Virgin Mary.
After completing his pilgrimage to Galicia and visiting the tombs of the apostles Pietro (Peter) and Paolo (Paul) in Rome, Guglielmo decided to complete his pilgrimage by going to Jerusalem. He followed the Appian Way towards Puglia and stayed for some time in Melfi. Leaving Melfi, he reached Atella, where he lived for two years, leading a hermit’s life on Mount Serico, near the Monticchio lakes. Here, according to legend, he performed his first miracle by healing a blind man. However, determined to go to the Holy Land, in Oria, halfway between the ports of Taranto and Brindisi, he was attacked by criminals who left him near death. Giovanni da Matera, in a first encounter, predicted his future role as the founder of a monastic congregation. Retracing his steps, Guglielmo reached the city of Atripalda, in Irpinia, where he learned that the mountain above Mercogliano (1,200 meters above sea level) was suitable for leading a solitariam vitam, or solitary life.
Guglielmo founded here the Virginian Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict (Congregatio Montis Virginis ordinis S. Benedicti), which flourished throughout the Norman kingdom and reached its peak between the 12th and the first half of the 14th century. The congregation was merged in 1879 with the Cassinese Congregation of Primitive Observance, now known as the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation.
Between 1128 and 1129, due to differences of opinion with the resident monks, Guglielmo left Montevergine, followed only by five brothers, to resume his hermit and penitential life. He reached Mount Laceno, above Bagnoli Irpino, where there is a large cave on the lake, still called today the Cave of the Apparition.
Due to the harsh climate and scarce food (Lake Laceno is at 1,000 meters above sea level), the brothers left, and Guglielmo was left alone. He was again visited by Giovanni da Matera, who stayed for some time, and the two were graced with a vision of Jesus Christ in white robes, who instructed them to leave the mountain as their work was needed elsewhere. Leaving Laceno, the two hermits separated: Giovanni went to Mount Gargano in Puglia, while Guglielmo settled on Mount Cognato (Serra Cognata) to the right of Basento, near Tricarico and Pietrapertosa. However, he soon moved away from there too, where a small community linked to him was operating, to reach Munticulum, a village near the sources of the Ofanto and Fredane rivers, located between Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi and Rocca San Felice.
In the plain of Goleto, between 1133 and 1134, with the favour of Ruggiero di Monticchio (the local lord who donated the land) and the bishop of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi, using – certainly – the abundant spolia from the Roman-era settlement, Guglielmo built a church dedicated to the Ss. Salvatore (Holiest Saviour).
Around the church, he conceived and created a double monastery to house mostly nuns on one side and monks on the other; this project, architecturally centred around the two cloisters pivoting on the Church of Ss. Salvatore, places Guglielmo among the most open-minded monastic reformers of the 12th century. He imposed a series of customs on the nuns of Goleto, led by an abbess, such as the total rejection of meat, eggs, and cheese. For three days a week, the sisters would eat only bread, fruit, and raw vegetables, while in the remaining three days, they could season the bread and vegetables with oil; moreover, from 1 November to Christmas and throughout Lent until Easter, only bread and water were to be consumed; they were allowed to eat legumes and vegetables instead of bread.
After eight years at Goleto, Guglielmo, having fallen ill, wished to be laid before the cross, and on the night of 24 June 1142, he died. His body remained venerated in the Abbey of Goleto until 1807, when, due to the Napoleonic suppression, it was transferred to the Abbey of Montevergine.
During the last years of his life, Guglielmo played an important role in the political and religious context of the southern regions. He was esteemed and supported in his evangelization work by Ruggero II, King of Sicily, father of Costanza d’Altavilla (future mother of Federico II di Svevia). He was canonized a saint by Pope Pius VI in 1785, while Pope Pius XII, in 1942 (800 years after his death), proclaimed him the Primary Patron of Irpinia. A large white Carrara marble statue depicts him in the southern transept of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, remembering him among the main holy founders of monastic orders. His feast is celebrated on 25 June and is observed both in the San Guglielmo district of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi and in Montevergine.
San Guglielmo is often depicted with a wolf. Legend has it that a donkey helped him carry construction stones; one day, the donkey was devoured by a wolf, to which Guglielmo ordered to take charge of the stones. The wolf is symbolic of the people of Irpinia: the primordial ethnonym Hirpini derived from the Oscan hirpus (meaning ‘wolf’).
In 1152, abbess Febronia elevated (or renovated) the remains of an ancient Roman mausoleum into a quadrangular security tower, both to store valuable goods and as a lookout, refuge, and defence structure. The tower is one of the rare examples of fortified works within monastic complexes.
In the double monastery established by Guglielmo, there were both a female convent and a male convent, where the monks were responsible for officiating the church and representing the abbesses in legal disputes and outside the cloister. After Guglielmo’s death in 1142, the governance of the abbey passed to abbess Febronia, the most noble of the nuns at the time, many of whom came from the most illustrious families of the Kingdom of Naples. At Goleto, a nullius diocesis abbey was quickly established, meaning it was outside the jurisdiction of the local church and directly dependent on the pope. By removing the monastery and its dependencies from the ‘nearby’ episcopal authority, a sort of protection was guaranteed against civil and ecclesiastical usurpations.
The Church of S. Luca, gem of the abbey, is one of the most precious monuments in southern Italy: various artistic forms, reflecting Gothic, Apulian, Cistercian, and Federican influences, create a simple and luminous architecture structured on 12 columns with 2 apses facing east. Emile Bertaux (1879-1917), author of the monumental L’art dans l’Italie méridionale (Paris, 1904), was the first to identify a stylistic continuity between the Federican Castel del Monte (begun in 1240) and the Church of S. Luca, completed in 1255, and between this and the Hôtel-Dieu in Reims, France, highlighting the artistic and European significance of the Goleto monastic complex.
The height of the artistic splendour of Goleto was reached under the rule of abbesses Marina II and Scolastica with the construction (begun in 1235 and completed in 1255) of the upper Church, dedicated to San Luca, where the craftsmen of Federico II worked, and in which the precious relic of the arm of the evangelist was placed.
The original structure of the abbey included the Church of Ss. Salvatore – adjacent to the remains of the Roman mausoleum and with the apse facing east – the nuns’ monastery on the east side, and the smaller one of the monks on the west. Beyond the entrance arch at the end of the avenue, a porticoed passage (on the right side) led to the female convent, which was structured on two levels and articulated on three sides; here, besides the many cells, there were the chapter meeting room, the refectory, the infirmary, the novitiate, and a garden with a well at the centre. Under the guidance of famous abbesses – Febronia, Marina I and Marina II, Agnese, and Scolastica – the religious community grew and became renowned both for the holiness of the nuns and for the considerable increase in assets acquired, such as land, churches, books, and artworks.
From 1348, the year of the Black Death, the Abbey of Goleto began a slow and inexorable decline. On 24 January 1506, Pope Julius II decreed the suppression of the female order, which effectively occurred with the death of the last abbess in 1515.
The abbey complex was united with that of Montevergine, which committed to ensuring the presence of some monks. A significant revival took place under the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V; originally from Montalto Marche, he belonged to the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, who had founded an important monastery in Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi in the 13th century; the future Popes Sixtus V and Clement XIV had resided there. When Sixtus V ascended to the papal throne in 1585, he, mindful of the beauty and historical importance of Goleto, gave impetus and support to the revival of monastic life in the Abbey.
At Goleto, between 1735 and 1745, Vaccaro built a large and sumptuous Baroque church, adapting to the ruins left by the earthquake and very likely using the bottom floor of what remained of the Roman-era settlement. The large church has a Greek cross plan elongated towards the apse, and was surmounted by a vast wooden roof with a lowered dome beneath.
Following the destructive earthquakes of 1694 and 1732, a complete restoration of the monastic complex and the construction of a new large church dedicated to Ss. Salvatore were commissioned to the distinguished Neapolitan architect and artist Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (1678-1745). Vaccaro is known in art history for his splendid striking Baroque style, particularly for the majolica cloister of Santa Chiara in Naples. Among his most important works are also the Church of San Michele Arcangelo in Anacapri, and especially the Church of Concezione a Montecalvario in Naples; he also restored the Church of Santa Chiara and the Church of San Domenico Maggiore in Baroque style. In Irpinia, in Mercogliano, he designed the sumptuous Palazzo Abbaziale of Loreto for the same monks of Montevergine.
This was almost certainly built using the reed method; the vast construction was enriched with squared stone blocks (in the pronaos and various cornerstones), along with stone portals, polychrome altars, sculptures, paintings, and wooden works. The internal perimeter walls were finished with extensive and important decorative stuccoes (which, despite being exposed to the elements for 250 years, have partly been preserved and recently restored). The great church, also known as Church of Vaccaro, today stands as open-air ruins, with no roof; in 2024, for structural improvement, the 4 large central arches were reconstructed based on a design by architect Angelo Verderosa.
In 1807, Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844), the newly appointed King of Naples and elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, suppressed religious congregations and confiscated their assets. The remains of S. Guglielmo were transferred from Goleto to Montevergine.
The abbey’s artworks, including altars and stone portals, were auctioned off to neighbouring villages. The architectural complex, stripped and abandoned, even deprived of its wooden coverings, quickly became a place of brambles, ruins, and pasture. The casali – rural-style architecture to the left of the entrance avenue – were taken over by local peasants who used them as homes and stables for livestock.
The Abbey was reopened on 21 August 1973, with the arrival of Father Lucio Maria De Marino (1912-1992), a monk of the Virginian Order who, with faith and tenacity, drew attention to the need for both the material and spiritual restoration of Goleto.
The Archdiocese of Sant’Angelo dei Lombardi had previously tried – unsuccessfully – to reopen the monastery in 1832 and again in 1903 under Archbishop Tomasi.
In 1975, thanks to Father Lucio’s active presence, a devastating project by the Superintendency to build sports facilities was averted, and then a first batch of works began, well documented in manuscripts and photos. These included the reconstruction of the guesthouse adjacent to the Church of S. Luca, clearing the cloister of debris, and restoring the ground floor of the female convent to serve as a liturgical hall. Even the 1980 earthquake did not halt his work, and by the time he had to retire to Montevergine in 1987 due to health reasons, the restoration and enhancement of Goleto were well underway. Father Lucio is remembered as the second founder of Goleto, and his memory is blessed.
The 1980 earthquake added new ruins to those already existing; the great arches of the church of Vaccaro collapsed, the structural integrity of the Church of S. Luca was seriously compromised, some frescoes came off, and many walls overturned. Everything seemed lost...
The Abbey of Goleto shared the difficult fate of many small towns in a mountainous and seismic region. Significant damage had already been inflicted on the abbey complex by earthquakes in 1694, 1732, 1733 (Calabritto), 1794 (Ariano Irpino), 1853, and 1893 (which particularly affected Lucania). The terrible earthquake of 23 November 1980, despite the immense tragedy, had the merit of bringing attention back to a monumental heritage of primary importance, initiating a long process of recovery and enhancement, much of which completed only recently, 44 years later.
In January 1981, the Faculty of Architecture of Florence, led by Professor Salvatore Di Pasquale, intervened to stabilize the Church of S. Luca. Subsequently, until about 1992, the restoration work was carried out by the Superintendency of Avellino and Salerno.
This included the reconstruction of the former male convent, consolidation of the ruins of the church of Vaccaro, pollarding of the ruins and terracing of the second level of the former female convent, dismantling and rebuilding some farmhouses, and landscaping the female cloister garden. These early restoration efforts received various criticisms, being classified more as ‘reconstruction’ than ‘restoration’. Luigi Guerriero wrote about it in 1990 in Napoli Nobilissima.
‘The L-shaped structure that housed the male monastery has been radically transformed by the interventions being completed in these months… a crude falsification has been carried out… The male monastery is now entirely occupied by two staircases… The invasive ascending structures have led to the destruction of its interior, which has almost entirely become a leftover space… Inside the ruins of the great church, a terracotta floor has been remade, and in front of the portico, a double-flight staircase on the façade was built, erasing the remains of the work outlined by Vaccaro, which was characterized by a different curvature.’
In 1990, the Piccoli Fratelli of the Jesus Caritas community arrived at Goleto, inspired by Charles De Foucauld.
Thanks to the Piccole Sorelle of Jesus, present in Lioni after the earthquake, and the interest of archbishop Antonio Nuzzi, the small community founded and led by Brother Gian Carlo Sibilia, after Sassovivo in Foligno, opened a second house at Goleto. Here, they operated for 31 years, until 18 July 2021, testifying to a profound spirituality in the name of St. Charles de Foucauld. The silence, simplicity, hospitality, prayer, and meticulous care of the abbey’s spaces indelibly marked the presence of the Piccoli Fratelli. Among them, the inhabitants and curators of Goleto, we remember Brother Wilfried Krieger (1943-2020), Brother Paolo Onori (1955-2019), Brother Piero Saffirio (1946-2018), Brother Oswaldo Curuchich (1972-2023), Brother Roberto Danti (now in Nazareth), and Brother Paolo Maria Barducci (now in Foligno).
A second, more in-depth, restoration campaign (co-financed by POR Campania 2000-2006, based on a program agreement between the Superintendency, the Municipality, and the Archdiocese) was conducted between 2001 and 2007 by architect Angelo Verderosa, who served as the designer and site manager.
The area has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era, as its geographical location, a passage through the Apennine chain of the Picentini mountains, made it a mandatory stop for the shortest route between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. The road along the Ofanto River and the abundance of spring waters have always made it a place of rest and refreshment during transhumance, pilgrimages, and commercial exchanges between ancient Picentia, the southern outpost of the Etruscans (gulf of Salerno, Paestum), and the Santuario dell’Arcangelo Michele, a sanctuary of the Lombards (gulf of Manfredonia, Gargano). The settlement of Samnite tribes around the sources of the Ofanto, Sele, and Calore rivers contributed to defining the identity of the altirpino territory, which took its name from the Hirpini tribe, deriving its etymology from the Samnite word hirpus meaning ‘wolf’.
With the third, recent, restoration campaign (project in 2018, work completion in 2024), co-financed by the Campania Region with funds allocated to SNAI areas, the 4 large arches that collapsed following the 1980 earthquake were reconstructed, giving greater structural stability to the complex of imposing open-air ruins.
Conducted in continuity with the previous restoration campaign, by the same architect Verderosa, in addition to the 4 large arches rebuilt in the church of Vaccaro, the former farmhouses were made functional – the internal routes were unified, and the two levels connected – creating a guesthouse with 20 beds. After the creation of a roof over the former Library building, replacing the terraces improperly built in the 1990s, an info-point and multimedia area were created, dedicated to the life of Guglielmo and the thousand-year history of the abbey. Numerous and precise measures were taken to facilitate the visit of the complex by people with disabilities. For environmental sustainability and energy consumption reduction, a photovoltaic system, two solar-thermal systems, three heat pump systems, and the revamping of the entire lighting system were implemented. The liturgical hall – dedicated to S. Guglielmo – was restructured, along with the two conference rooms, now equipped with furniture and audio-video equipment. The former sacristies, annexed to the church of Vaccaro, were furnished with museum furniture. A large garden area on the west side was redeveloped. Finally, important archaeological excavations were started, revealing the remains of a pre-existing Roman villa, a medieval extra-mural cemetery, and a double canal that fed spring water from the mountain to the cistern and intra-mural gardens. The abbey reopened on 25 June 2024, to a wider audience, adopting advanced technologies for communication and educational information.