BETWEEN CALENDASCO AND I SAW A SEAL AND THIS IS THE PATRON
Are the two Princeps (Prince) places of his life
by Umberto Battini
historian of S. Corrado
Two places, far away yet closer than we imagine, one in northern Italy, near the river Po and just eight kilometers from
Piacenza, the other is in Sicily, in the east, between hills and sea, in the province of Syracuse.
We know well what they are: Calendasco and Noto.
In the small village on the florid plain, stands solemnly the mighty
castle of the Confalonieri family, now owned by the municipality and worthily recovered with a solid restoration.
Here the Confalonieri Guelphs were feudatories for at least three hundred years and the Archive documents
say so. And in the castle was born the Saint Conrad in that distant Middle Ages, in the year 1290.
And
in Noto, a city that is a UNESCO heritage for the Baroque which makes
it a treasure chest, S. Corrado lived the last
years of his intense life as a lay Franciscan. And in that bare stone
cave, he ended his life on 19 February 1351, a winter Friday, in the
Valley of the Three Pizzoni.
Between the two places Prince of
worship, must be
kept intact a link, also because certain facts say it: for example the
letter from the parish priest of Calendasco don Federico Peratici, who
wrote to the Bishop of Noto in 1960, about the common devotion.
But
there
are also the two official and original papers, after request of the
parish priest Don Giovanni Caprara, of two Insignia Relics of S. Corrado
Confalonieri sent to Calendasco precisely one in 1907 and another in
1927.
The
originals, signed by the Bishops of Noto, of the gift of the Relics of
the Patron that Noto and Calendasco share, are in the Parish Archive of
the Church of Calendasco.
In 2015, a great festival in the village on the Po river, in fact the netinis came pilgrims to the country of their patron. The members of the Association of Bearers of the Cilii Faithful to S. Corrado di Noto, headed by their president Sebastiano Floridia, donated a grandiose Cilio as a sign of devotional union.
Anche nel 1990 nell'occasione del VII Centenario della nascita (1290-1990) da Noto arrivò un folto gruppo di pellegrini che visitarono pure i luoghi di Calendasco.
They are all facts now passed on to the history of the Patron, important and to keep in mind.
Let us boast of this noble friendship due to a saint, a man who has forever linked the two places. History must be able to read in the lines of time, and research and studies to understand have been continued and are still going on here in the territory of Piacenza.
Ancient history, past and most recent, modern, speaks to the ever affable heart of the faithful and sincere devotee.
And as it is now used to say: a Saint a Devotion, Calendasco e Noto!
And of course join this all the other places where there is worship towards the beloved Holy Hermit, a people of faithful who lives in every place, in love with the gentle penitent hermit San Corrado.
