Relics of San’Ercolano Return to Campione Amid Devotion and Miracles
The relics of San’Ercolano have returned to Campione. The transfer (which has only occurred once before, in 1956) took place last night, when a convoy of cars departed from Maderno, where the remains of the nineteenth bishop of Brescia (who historians place between Saints Cipriano and Onofrio) are kept, heading to the lakeside frazione of Tremosine.
It is impossible to determine the years of Ercolano’s episcopacy. It can only be stated that it took place in the 6th century, probably shortly after the middle of the century. It is certain that after serving as bishop of Brescia, Ercolano left worldly honors to retire in Campione, where he died reputedly in holiness.
Miracles and devotion to San Ercolano
Documents from various periods attribute miracles to the saint that earned him the highest veneration from the Gardesans. Ercolano restored life to two dead individuals. Tradition speaks of other extraordinary events: birds, land animals, and fish would gather at his voice and stop to listen when he read the psalms.
“The purpose of this extraordinary celebration,” said Don Gianfranco Mascher, the parish priest of Maderno, during the Mass that preceded the transfer, “is certainly not to promote folklore, nor to foster devotionalism, but to rekindle faith in Christ, transmitted by the Apostles, preached and testified by San’Ercolano, and powerfully reaffirmed in our time by Pope John Paul II and the current shepherd of the Brescia Church, Bishop Giulio Sanguineti.”
The custody of the relics and the ceremony of transfer
At the end of the service at the parish church of Maderno, the relics of San’Ercolano, kept in two silk damask wrappings, were placed by Don Ivo Panteghini, diocesan custodian of relics, into a new reliquary commissioned by the Maderno parish community and crafted by the workshop of the Diocesan Museum of Brescia.
With the saint’s remains, in the reliquary were placed the metal plaque previously found in the urn during the 1580 reconnaissance carried out by San Carlo Borromeo, the autograph text of the Bishop of Brescia Gabrio Maria Nava deposited in the reliquary during the 1825 reconnaissance, and the report of the deposition that took place yesterday.
Following the religious ceremony, a convoy of cars escorted Ercolano’s transfer to Campione. Today, in the Tremosine frazione, the presence of the Holy Protector will be celebrated with a mass at 8:00 PM, concelebrated by Don Giuseppe Zacchi and the priests of the area.
The urn will return to Maderno on Friday, August 11, with a boat procession setting sail at 7:30 PM, after the 6:00 PM Mass presided over by Bishop Mons. Sanguineti. However, a bone fragment of Ercolano will remain in Campione, kept in a reliquary.