Patron saint festival In 242 days
Feast of Saint Bernard of Menthon
📅 Every year, on 15 June
On 15 June Ailoche, a municipality of 330 inhabitants in the province of Biella, celebrates its patron Saint Bernard of Menthon.
Ailoche, Anlòche in Piedmontese, sits at the north-eastern edge of the Biella area, on a spur dividing two valleys: the Strona di Postua to the east, the rio Bodro to the west. The meaning of the name is still argued: Goffredo Casalis kept the traditional reading, dialect ai loch, “at the places”, meaning pastures; Dante Olivieri tied it instead to Lombard lögh, “rural property”, ruling out the tawny owl.
The village goes back to the Middle Ages and first depended on Crevacuore; in 1598 it fell to the principality of Masserano. In the hamlet of Piasca, then little more than a cluster of shepherds' huts, the blessed Giacomino de' Canepacci was born in 1438; a Carmelite at Vercelli, he took in passing pilgrims and cared for prisoners, and died in 1508. His birthplace is now a chapel. In a chestnut wood inside the municipality stands the Brugarola sanctuary, dedicated to the Madonna of Oropa, beside the building that housed its hermits.
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Ailoche 1
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