San Galgano: Inspiration for King Arthur?

God bless Italy. I just love their legends! Today I drove to the Abbey of San Galgano at the recommendation of Joyce Falcone, a friend of mine from Aspen who leads food, wine and walking tours throughout Italy with her company The Italian Concierge. She knows all sorts of little off-the-beaten-path gems in Tuscany so every time I plan a trip I send her a quick email to get ideas beforehand and she always comes through for me. I was particulaly appreciative of this tip becase the abbey is only a 20-minute drive from Castello di Casole.

Sir Galgano, the son of a nobleman in Tuscany, according to one website I came across, was “vicious and full of lust.” Then one day he had a vision involving an archangel and he fled from his family and friends and became a hermit. His family was quite distraught, as one would expect, and they finally convinced him to pay a visit to his fiancée. On the way, his horse threw him and he had yet another vision involving another archangel who guided him to a hilltop and told him to give up all of his material possessions.

Galgano objected, admitting that though giving up worldly pleasures sounded good, doing so would be as easy as using his sword to split rocks. So he drew his weapon and thrust at a stone, fully expecting the blade to snap. The stone split like butter and the sword penetrated to hilt, and Galgano never left the hill again.

Apparently San Galgano kept company with wolves and other wild animals. One day he faced the Devil, who sent an evil man disguised as a monk. The wolves that lived with Galgano killed the would-be assassin and gnawed at his bones. One year later, Galgano died and a chapel was built that still houses his sword in the stone.

It gets better. After the Saint's death his scalp continued to grow blond curls for a long time, and the miraculous head was placed in one side of the chapel, and the chewed bones of the arms of the evil man in another (which are still in the chapel). You can imagine the number of pilgrims these relics attracted. So in order to accommodate them, one of the most beautiful Gothic abbeys in all of Italy was erected in San Galgano's honor.
The abbey was quite a force to be reckoned with in the late 1200s and early 1300s but then the Black Plague hit and the abbey rapidly disintegrated. Parts of it, including the lead roof, were eventually sold off. So now it sits there empty, beautiful, roofless and overgrown. (In the summertime, there is a series of nighttime opera performances on the lawn of the abbey.)

A study by the medieval historian Mario Moiraghi suggests that the story of San Galgano and his sword was the origin of the myth of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, embellished by medieval troubadours as it spread from Tuscany throughout Europe.