The sanctuary of San Calogero stands at the top of Monte San Calogero, above Sciacca. In the past the summit had a small church serving the sick and the pilgrims who climbed to the caves to benefit from their vapours, and a cave where, according to tradition, the hermit Saint Calogerus rested. At the end of the fifteenth century a few monks of San Calogero set up a small hospital in some rooms on the hill, returning to live near the saint's cave.
What to see
The present church, meant to replace the old chapel, was begun in 1530 by Bishop Mariano Manno with offerings from the faithful, continued by the prior Gregorio Gallitano and inaugurated in 1644. On the high altar, in an eighteenth-century wooden case, is the statue of Saint Calogerus commissioned in 1535 by the chaplain Antonio Bruno from Antonello Gagini: after the sculptor's death his son Giacomo delivered it in 1538, without the archer figure required by the contract. The saint is shown in a hermit's habit, with the Bible in hand and the doe at his side.
The entrance to the saint's cave now lies beneath the church. It was once entered through a hole so narrow that only one man could crawl through; on the small altar a majolica panel shows the aged Saint Calogerus, with the doe wounded in the neck and the archer kneeling in prayer.
Visiting
Since 1948 the sanctuary and the old hermitage have been entrusted to the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis; a parish since 1953, the church has been a minor basilica since 1979. Mass and visiting times should be checked with the sanctuary.
Our editors' tip
The majolica in the cave shows both the doe and the archer who wounded it: precisely the figure missing from Gagini's statue on the altar, which was delivered without the archer.
