Note sul dies festus e sulla conversione dei Longobardi nell ’Apparitio Sancti Michaelis in Monte Gargano

I Longobardi di Benevento con l’Apparitio intendono “riscrivere” la storia del loro stanziamento nell’Italia meridionale, ribadendo la conversione al cattolicesimo e presentandosi integrati nell’ortodossia cattolica e protetti dall’Arcangelo Michele: segni di questa adesione all’ortodossia possono essere colti nell’invocazione alla Trinità, nell’utilizzo degli Actus Silvestri, testo antiariano e filo romano, e nel coinvolgimento del pontefice, individuato come figura di riferimento. In questa prospettiva, interesse dell’autore dell’Apparitio non è indicare il dies festus dell’8 maggio, già noto, ma sottolineare il collegamento stretto tra l’anniversario della vittoria dei Longobardi di Benevento sui Bizantini e il dies festus della grotta consacrata dall’Angelo per far coincidere, con quella data, l’inizio ufficiale della frequentazione della grotta-santuario.

The Lombards of Benevento with the Apparitio seem to have an ambitious project: to "rewrite" the history of their allocation in Southern Italy, confirming their conversion to Catholicism and presenting themselves as fully integrated in Catholic orthodoxy, protected by Archangel Michael at a time, that of the principality of Arechi II, in which they had been strongly affirming their political autonomy and religious identity. Signs of this adherence to orthodoxy can be caught in the passages relating to the invocation of the Trinity and the use of the Actus Silvestri, an anti-Arian and philo-roman text and in the full involvement of the pontifex, identified as a point of reference. Given the issues raised by the liturgical and martyrological documents, in my opinion the interest of the Author of the Apparitio was not to identify the dies festus, also because, at the time of composition of Apparitio, this was already celebrated on May 8. By contrast, the Author aims to write a text in which to highlight the close link between the anniversary of the victory and the dies festus of the church consecrated by the Angel, a connection suggested by the pontifex, with the intention to make May 8 as the official start date of the attendance of the cave-shrine. The aim was to clarify the reasons why the dies festus (i.e., May 8) would be the day of religious and political victory of the Lombards of Benevento against Neapolitans / Byzantines pagans, and to establish the beginning of a new story for St. Michael ‘s worship and for the Lombards of Benevento; this concept was retrieved and celebrated by Lombard historiography of the ninth century. The Lombards of Benevento with Apparitio aim to "rewrite" the history of their allocation in Southern Italy, confirming their conversion to Catholicism and presenting themselves as fully integrated in Catholic orthodoxy, protected by Archangel Michael : signs of this adherence to orthodoxy can be caught in the passages relating to the invocation of the Trinity and the use of the Actus Silvestri, an anti-Arian and philo-roman text and in the full involvement of the pontifex, identified as a point of reference. From this point of view the interest of the Author of Apparitio is not to identify the dies festus (i.e. 8 May), already celebrated, but to highlight the close link between the anniversary of the victory of the Lombards of Benevento against Neapolitans/Byzantines and the dies festus of the cave consecrated by the Angel, with the intention to make May 8 as the official start date of the attendance of the cave-sanctuary.