Abbazia di Santa Maria di Pulsano

Santa Maria di Pulsano is an abbey on the southern side of the Gargano promontory, overlooking the Gulf of Manfredonia. Its church and surrounding hermitages preserve a long history of monastic life on the hill.

Why it matters

The abbey’s own history attributes its first foundation in the sixth century to Pope Gregory the Great and records a rebuilding in 1129 by Giovanni da Matera, later venerated as a saint. The Pulsanesi order grew from this community, whose mother house governed monasteries in Apulia, northern Italy and across the Adriatic. Pope Alexander III consecrated the abbey church on 30 January 1177 while on pilgrimage to the Gargano.

What to notice

The church incorporates a cavern behind the altar, adapted as an apse in the rebuilding associated with Giovanni da Matera. The Byzantine-style Hodegetria icon once associated with the sanctuary was stolen in 1966 and has not been recovered. Around the abbey, the community identifies twenty-four hermitages and places of worship in the valley, some with surviving frescoes.

Context and history

The Pulsanesi order declined in the fifteenth century, and the abbey passed through the hands of Cistercians, Dominicans, Franciscans and Celestines. An earthquake in 1646 damaged the complex, and monastic life was suppressed in 1807–09. After a lay restoration movement began in 1990, a new monastic community took up residence on 20 December 1997. The community describes its tradition as biritual, Latin and Eastern.