Abbey of San Galgano we take us to Saint Galgano was born in Chiusdino in an uncertain year placeable around 1150, to a family belonging to the local ruling class, linked by vassalage relations to the bishops of Volterra, feudal lords of Chiusdino. About Galgano’s boyhood and adolescent years or his education and training, we know very little.
San Galgano
It is certain that Galgano was a knight: probably his access to knighthood, was the natural consequence of his belonging to a family that traditionally exercised the official function of representing and protecting the established order, for the protection of the lands and goods of the homeland, to be understood as the town and district of Chiusdino.
The death of his father produced a change in the young man’s life; the archangel Michael, appearing-in a dream or vision-to the young man would persuade him to leave the secular life and undertake the religious one. Galgano did not lack his mother’s opposition, but on Christmas Eve 1180, he had a new mystical experience: on the road to Civitella Galgano’s horse suddenly stopped and there he was forced to stay overnight. On the following day – Thursday, December 25, 1180, the solemnity of Christmas – the horse could not go on, and Galgano left the reins loose on the horse’s neck and devoutly prayed to the Lord to lead him to the place where he would rest forever,” namely the hill of Montesiepi.
The sword in the stone
As a sign of perpetual renunciation of the violent habits of his time, Galgano drove his knight’s sword into the ground.
This gesture had a high spiritual significance for the knights of the Middle Ages: the upside-down sword was reminiscent of the cross. With his gesture, Galgano did not reject the “militia saeculi,” but surpassed it, not renouncing the sword but bringing it into the service of a chivalry different from that experienced until then, different and above all higher: the knight Galgano would enlist himself in the militia of a “dominus” greater than the earthly one: Jesus Christ.
