Galgano Guidotti
Galgano Guidotti (1148 – 3 December 1181) was a Catholic saint from Tuscany born in Chiusdino, in the modern province of Siena, Italy. His mother's name was Dionigia, while his father's name (Guido or Guidotto) only appeared in a document dated in the 16th century, when the last name Guidotti was attributed. The canonization process to declare Galgano a saint started in 1185, only a few years after his death, and his canonization was the first conducted with a formal process by the Roman Church. A lot of Galgano's life is known through the documents of  the canonization process in 1185 and other "Vitae: Legenda beati Galgani" by anonymous, "Legenda beati Galgani confessoris" by an unknown Cistercian monk, "Leggenda di Sancto Galgano", "Vita sancti Galgani de Senis", "Vita beati Galgani". Life. Born in 1148 in the small town of Chiusdino, Galgano is said to have led a ruthless life in his early years. Though he became a knight and trained in the art of war, he was said to be arrogant and led the life of a thug, until Archangel Michael appeared before him and showed him the way to salvation. In his vision, Galgano followed  Archangel to the hill of Montesiepi where he met the twelve Apostles and the Creator himself. After the vision, Galgano's horse refused to obey his orders and led him to the hill where his vision happened. Convinced that this was a sign, Galgano decided then and there to renounce his villainous life. A voice then told him to renounce all material things, to which Galgano replied that it would be as hard as splitting a rock. To prove his point, Galgano drew his sword and plunged it into the rocky ground. To his surprise, the rock yielded like butter  and the blade went through. Galgano got the message, and took up permanent residence on that hill as a humble hermit. He never left the hill, living in poverty, accompanied by wild animals and occasionally visited by villagers and monks. According to another version of the story, Galgano wanted to make a cross on the hill but with no wood around, he decided to plant his sword in the ground. The sword is said to have immediately become one piece with the ground so that nobody could remove it. St. Galgano Guidotti died in 1181. Veneration. In 1184, a round  chapel was built over his claimed tomb to commemorate him; pilgrims came there in large numbers, and miracles were claimed. In that year, Cistercian monks took over Montesiepi at the request of Hugh, bishop of Volterra, but most of Galgano's monks left, scattered over Tuscany, and became Augustinian hermits. By 1220, San Galgano Abbey, a large Cistercian monastery, had been built below Galgano's hermitage: he was then claimed and recognized as a Cistercian saint. His cult was lively in Siena and Volterra, where numerous representations survive. The ruins of his hermitage can still be seen, while his cloak  is kept in the church of Santuccio at Siena. The sword in the stone. The sword in the stone can be seen at the Rotonda at Montesiepi, near the ruins of the Abbey of San Galgano. The handle of a sword protrudes from a stone, and is said to be the sword of Galgano. For centuries, the sword was assumed to be a fake. But after examining the composition of the metal in 2001, researcher Luigi Garlaschelli confirmed that the "composition of the metal and the style are compatible with the era of the legend". The analysis also confirmed that  the upper piece and the invisible lower one are authentic and belong to one and the same artifact. Ground-penetrating radar analysis also revealed that beneath the sword there is a cavity, about two meters by one meter, which is thought to be a burial recess, possibly containing the knight's body. It has been argued that the legend of Saint Galgano formed the inspiration for the medieval legends about King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. “A story like that of Saint Galgano could travel all over Europe, and it is interesting to note that the first story  about Arthur pulling a sword from a stone (or more exactly an anvil on top of the stone) appears in the decades following Saint Galgano's canonization in one of the poems by the Burgundian poet Robert de Boron,” says Björn Hellqvist, one of the researchers. In the media. Television. Galgano's "sword in the stone" story was featured in a season 7 episode of TV series, "Forged in Fire". Bladesmiths had to recreate "Excalibur", a medieval broadsword inspired by Galgano's story. The episode explained the story as follows: the actual Sword in the Stone is located in Siena , Italy, and believed to have belonged to Galgano. An episode of Ancient X-files looked at the sword in the stone and the connections between it, and St Galgano, to Sir Gawain and King Arthur. It included some scientific exploration of the stone. References. Footnotes Citations