After the “intense days” that the pilgrims of Antonio 20-22 lived in Assisi and in the north of Umbria in the last week – accompanied by Father Antonio Ramina, rector of the Pontifical Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, and by Father Massimiliano Patassini, director in charge of the magazines of the Messenger of Sant’Antonio -, from tomorrow, Tuesday 13 September, the relay of the relic of the saint miracle worker carried in a backpack will reach Tuscany, with the arrival of the stage that will start from Citerna (Perugia) to the Franciscan hermitage of Montecasale in the Municipality of Sansepolcro (Arezzo), founded in 1213 by Francesco who received it as a gift from the bishop of Città di Castello. According to the chronicles, it is here that the meeting of the saint from Assisi took place, who kindly welcomed the notorious brigands who infested the area. From here the walk will gradually stop in a series of Tuscan hermitages where the passage 800 years ago is also attested to St. Anthony, then a young friar on his way from Sicily to Padua, following what was the road at the time privileged by pilgrims to find hospitality and refreshment during the journey: the hermitage of Cerbaiolo (Montecasale-Cerbaiolo stage, 14/09); La Verna, another symbolic place of Franciscanism, where Antonio lived for a few months 800 years ago (a plaque recalls it) and where St. Francis received the stigmata on 17 September 1224 (Cerbaiolo-La Verna stage, 15/09); of Badia Prataglia, an ancient abbey founded by the Benedictines at the end of the 10th century and later passed to the Camaldolese (La Verna-Badia Prataglia stage, 16/09); the monastery of Camaldoli founded around the year 1025 by the monk St. Romuald of Ravenna inspired by the spirituality of the desert fathers (Badia Prataglia-Camaldoli stage, 17/09). Furthermore, from La Verna, Antonio’s pilgrims 20-22 will begin to follow the official route of the “Long Way of St. Anthony” which reaches Camposampiero (Padua), 436 km in total, where the Saint spent the last days of his earthly life, illustrated in detail in the guide of the same name in co-edition Terredimezzo and Messaggero Padova. The Tuscan path that will follow the relay of Antonio 20-22, is explained in a note, is particularly fascinating also from a naturalistic point of view, immersing itself in the naturalistic areas of the Casentinesi Forests National Park, between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, with some sites that have become in the 2017 Unesco heritage such as that of the ancient beech woods of the National Park and the Integral Reserve of Sasso Fratino. Inside the park there are the localities of La Verna, Badia Prataglia, Camaldoli, Prati della Burraia, Castagno d’Andrea and San Benedetto in Alpe. The last three are the hardest stages for the difference in height of the Antonian way in Tuscany and the second ones compared to the way from Capo Milazzo. On the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines The Castagno d’Andrea-San Benedetto in Alpe, on 21 September, is the stage with the greatest difference in altitude in terms of descent: 1,173 meters, against the “only” 972 of ascents. Monte Falterona, between Prati alla Burraia and Castagno d’Andrea, with its 1,643 meters that will be touched on Tuesday 20 September, is the “Cima Coppi”, so to speak, or the highest point of the entire Antonian route of 92 stages . With the arrival of the stage in San Benedetto in Alpe, part of the municipality of Portico and San Benedetto (Forlì-Cesena), the relay will enter Emilia Romagna.
Devotion: Tuscany, the relic of Saint Anthony of Padua arrives from 13 to 21 September | AgenSIR