WALKING WITH MARY: The Marian cult in the Serre Salentine
Pilgrimages of faith and devotion to loca sancta have very ancient origins; in the Middle Ages the practice of "sacred mobility" grew significantly and has only strengthened in the intervening centuries.
Alongside the peregrinationes maiores (major pilgrimages), local routes established themselves as authentic moments of spirituality, in which a kind of "humanization of the sacred" was developed. In particular, the Marian cult became widespread after the Council of Ephesus of 431 AD and Mary assumed a central role in the projection of values, individual and collective expectations, customs, rites and ways of life. Through the Virgin, we can rediscover the beauty and vitality of the LAG Serre Salentine area; urban and rural place names, churches, chapels and convents with canonical dedications or dedications tied to local characteristics, legends about the discovery of effigies or about apparitions and festivals recalling miraculous events, all represent a huge cultural heritage that cannot be ignored.
The Marian route marks sites that are key to the identity and collective memory of the 14 LAG municipalities.