In ancient times, an inscription on the interior side of the church’s main portal recorded the start and completion years of the current building: 1728 and 1733. This information is confirmed by another plaque in the sacristy, now barely legible, which states that the original small shrine was expanded to its current dimensions through construction work carried out between 1728 and 1733. On February 17 of that year, Bishop Cesare Rossi of Montepeloso consecrated the new church.
The facade of the current building is very simple and almost devoid of significant decorative elements. Next to the facade is another entrance, set within a structure adjoining the older part, which houses a small side aisle. The sanctuary consists of a main nave, flanked on the right by a second, much lower nave divided into two bays and containing two altars. On the left side of the main hall, three archivolts open, one of which is used for an altar. The ceiling of the hall is barrel-vaulted with lunettes. The presbytery is slightly elevated and covered by a dome. On the right side of the presbytery is the entrance to the sacristy, which has a lunette-paneled vault.
Adjacent to the sanctuary is a group of buildings forming a facility designed to accommodate a small community or groups of pilgrims. On the ground floor, there are several barrel-vaulted rooms with independent entrances. The upper floor contains a series of small spaces arranged around common areas and two external staircases, one of which is covered by an elegant loggia. An entrance portal on the ground floor features an ogival arch made of well-squared stone inserts, suggesting a late medieval origin for this part of the building, likely the oldest.
**Description:**
A wooden statue, carved and painted, with stucco retouching, dating back to the early 18th century and restored multiple times. It is probably the same sculpture mentioned in a 1726 visitation record. The work is attributed to unknown local craftsmen. The Saint is depicted with rough, archaic features: his right hand is raised in blessing, while his left holds a silver staff with a bell. At his feet is a carved black-and-white pig. The Saint’s head is crowned with a large halo, and his face has a long white beard. He wears a white tunic beneath a dark red chasuble adorned with golden decorations, with a brown cloak and mantle decorated with stars on his shoulders. The statue, supported by a small wooden pedestal, is kept in a niche above the church’s high altar.
A replica, used for processions, is housed in the church on a carved and gilded wooden pedestal bearing the inscription *”A divozione dei Chrachesi. 1871″* (“Devotion of the Chrachesi. 1871”). This painted wooden statue depicts the Saint as a half-bust figure: his head is crowned with a halo, and his face has a white beard. He wears a white tunic beneath a long stole decorated with crosses. The cloak is black with yellow trim, and the star-patterned mantle is brown. His right hand holds a closed book, while his left grasps a staff with a curved handle resembling a tau, carved in the shape of a horse, following local shepherds’ traditions. A plaster dog, possibly from a statue of St. Roch kept in the same church, rests on the pedestal.
**In use between:** 1680 and 1750
**Image:** Statue
**Original location in the sanctuary:** Hung on the interior walls of the sanctuary.
**Collection notes:** A 1742 inventory by rector Don Nicolò Smacchia lists “sixteen wax candles, each weighing ten pounds, hanging on the church walls,” along with torches, candles, and tapers. Even today, votive offerings in the sanctuary include gold and silver objects, miniature friar robes, First Communion dresses, and locks of hair.
**Types of votives:** Lights, Jewelry, Miscellaneous objects, Photographs, Other
**Current preservation:** A small collection is partly kept in the sanctuary and partly in the adjacent sacristy.
According to local historiography, the church was founded between the late 14th and early 15th centuries. A strong rivalry existed between the towns of Grottole and Grassano over the “ownership” of the sanctuary, with folk songs often recounting Grassano’s repeated attempts to “take away” the Saint.
An ancient hospital once stood beside the sanctuary. A 1726 visitation record by Archbishop Giuseppe Maria Positano of Acerenza and Matera notes that the sanctuary had obtained from the Holy See the privilege of granting plenary indulgences to visitors for seven years. Plenary indulgences were also granted by Pope Benedict XIV, while Bishop Cesare Rossi of Montepeloso, upon inaugurating the new church in February 1733, granted new indulgences for the main feast day.
The church and its adjacent buildings originally belonged to the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine of St. Anthony (also known as the Hospitaller Order of St. Anthony the Abbot or the Tau Order) and was a dependency of the Abbey of St. Anthony the Abbot in Naples. The abbot and general collector of the latter, the Archbishop of Naples, appointed the rector of Grottole’s sanctuary.
75010 Grottole MT, Italy
