© Jeff
Matthews entry June 2015 - update July 2015

he Hermitage of San Michele di
Montenero
The small Benedictine hermitage of St.
Michael is 30 km/20 miles east of Salerno in the
Picentine mountains, about 4 km NE of the town of
Campagna. It is wedged into a shell-like hollow 1000
meters above sea level on the side of a high cliff
overlooking the Trigento river valley below. Friends
of mine from Napoli Underground (NUg) have been out
twice to find it. The first time they got close; the
second time they sighted it from across the valley.
The next time, they promise me, will be for
real—unless it really is a phantom. But it's not
—the picture on the right is one they took from a
distance on the second outing.
The space that contains the buildings is called the
Grotto of San Michele at Montenero, and it has much
lore connected to it. Tradition says that the grotto
belonged to the Devil. In the 10th century, however,
St. Michael, himself, showed up disguised as a
shepherd for his own festival in May, went to the
grotto and told the devil he wanted to look around.
Before leaving the mountainside, archangel Michael
formed some stones into the shape of a cross on the
ground, which drove the devil away with Michael in
hot pursuit. They created such a din and racket that
you can still hear it during the night in these
hills.
That and other tales thus brought
about, in the 10th century, the founding of a small
hermitage dedicated to St. Michael. The original
structure was tiny and inhabited by a handful of
hermits, three at first, then five, and maybe
never many more than that. (The current premises
have eight rooms.) The site became a goal for
pilgrims. A small church was finished in 1257.
Starting in 1630 the hermitage began to be restored
and expanded, including, in the 1700s, a 60-step
stairway to the entrance and marble for the 14
stations of the Cross. Much of that disappeared
through theft and vandalism. These hills were, after
all, also home to bandits.
Yet the hermitage survives and has done so for a
very long period of time. It has been kept up mostly
by religious factions in the surrounding communities
in and around Campagna. There are trails up from
Avigliano and Puglietta, but don't take it lightly.
It's a hike.
(You may read the account of the NUg Second
Expedition on their website at
this link.)
(Devotion to the Archangel Michael is a fascinating
part of Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.
There is more on that in this entry on the Longobards/Lombards in
Italy.)
July 2015 -
The
third time was a charm. You can read the entire
accounts of expeditions 1, 2 and 3 (plus photos) at
the NUg
website here, but, briefly, the second time
fizzled out like the first time, although they got
farther. But the third time? The leader writes,
As is often the case when deciding
on goals for our outings, we put ourselves at the
mercy of the creative afflatus and perverse
fantasies of our “woods witch”, Selene. After
pouring over ancient texts, browsing the web, and
reading coffee grounds, she usually manages to come
up with some intriguing hypotheses as to where we
should go and what we should see. Her latest
hallucin... vision (going back to last month)
revealed three wayfarers unto her; they trekked
through dense woods, climbed high mountains, forded
mighty waters and reached, at the end of the
“journey”, the magical hermitage set in the steep
flank of the Sacred Mountain. How could we say 'no?
The journey was by no means simple, and, indeed,
took us three attempts in a row during which, as in
the olden quests of ritual initiations, we came ever
closer to the consciousness induced by the knowledge
of places.
You know they're
going to get there. They had to struggle with
brambles and underbrush and cope with vague
directions from a pamphlet ("Avoid the steep
slopes"...really?) But at the end...
A few minutes passed—20 maybe 30, maybe
more because now time seemed to make no sense to us
anymore; had we perhaps given up? Then we saw the
“grassy clearing” and then the “ancient stone
cross”. We were there. An ancient stairway, a rusted
iron gate with a knocker permanently open from the
rust of ages, the passageway to the “characteristic
grotto” and one last climb up a stepped ramp to face
out over the void and watch the nervous flight of
soaring hawks from this highest place, this
Hermitage of San Michele. It was done! We had made
it.
photos
by Napoli Underground