The year 2025 marks the first millennium of the presumed date of death of Saint Leo, patron saint of San Martino in Pensilis: on the Solemnity of Easter, 31 March, the local community will open a Leonine Year. It is – as observed by the parish priest, Don Nicola Mattia, “a time to be lived above all with prayer, but also with some conferences and other important moments that help the community to become more aware of itself, of the great historical, artistic and of which it is the heir and which it must pass on to the new generations, of the beauty of Leo’s holiness which flourished and developed in the ways of this community and still makes its beneficial presence and intercession felt”.
This is the program of the opening event: – 6.30 pm: meeting at the Pastoral Center for the initial prayer. Torchlight procession along via Croce, via Marina up to the doors of the church. Reading of the Bull of Pope Francis with which the Jubilee and the foreseen Indulgences are granted. Opening of the Door and entry into the church.
– 7pm: solemn Easter mass presided over by the Bishop of the diocese of Termoli-Larino, mons. Gianfranco De Luca.
“The patron saint of our community of San Martino in Pensilis – continued the parish priest – is celebrated and venerated by the entire Christian community that lives and daily announces the Gospel in this country as a faithful witness to the mystery of Christ. At the school of Saint Benedict, Leo, learned to ‘put absolutely nothing before the love of Christ’ as the Benedictine rule repeats several times. There are few but authoritative sources that have come down to us to suggest that 1025 was the year in which Saint Leo has concluded his earthly journey. The Benedictine monks, and among them Leo, at the beginning of the second millennium, in addition to teaching and bearing witness to the mystery of Christ, helped the people to get back on their feet after a period of barbarism that had brought about burned of all previous knowledge and life experiences.”
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