The landscape that appears at once to the visitor’s eyes is hard and wild on the Cocumella massif, in front of the legendary mount Consolino (between Stilo – Bivongi and Pazzano VV). Here, three undred years ago (8th century), went up the first Greek monks, in order to live, in the hermitic caves, the most severe anchorite ascetism. Today, the piligrim who goes up to the hermitage in contemplation remains sensibily touched by the place, an abyss in the bowels of the earth where, for about two centuries, the hermits lived in contemplation, in prayer, in mortification. The cave is nothing else than a natural excavation in the slopes of the mountain, a refuge to protect himself from the bad weather: in it there was a “couchette”, a shelf on the wall, where was put down the Psalter, some icons and some manuscripts of biblical or ascetic content.

The hermits did their exercises of pity in community, organizing periodical reunions in a cave a little bigger than the others adapted as oratory or chapel. The food was constituted of what the slopes of the mount produced and the corporal punishments were incredible.
The Saracen invasions forced the Ecumen of the hermitage to go away, saving some precious codes transcripted by the monks. When the Saracen invasion stopped, the Ecumen’s successor came back, bringing with him many of the manuscripts that constituted the first fund of a library. With the Normans, from an hermitage with an intensely anchorite and severe life, Santa Maria della Stella became a monastery. And this is known from the diploma of 1096 with which the Count Ruggero gives to Giovanni Niceforo, Archibishop of Squillace, of the   'Abbatìa santi Johannis de Stjlo, Abbatìa santi Leonti, et ecclesia santi Nicolai cun Santa Maria quae prope est', an important presence of Franciscan fathers that built also the actual Convent. In the chronology the only vacant period is that between 1646 and 1743.

According to the legend, the statue, transported on a boat towards Punta Stilo, thanks to a great light that shone on Monte Stella, let the sailors guess that it wanted to have its residence in that place. Transported with two cows, through the valley, it arrived in the cave, fought with Satan and took possession of the place. The white marble statue is of the year 1562 and was born in the Bonanno’s workshop.

The spirituality:
The Sanctuary is a place of communion with God and the brothers that realises itself through the Word and the Sacraments. Pope Giovanni Paolo II has always rimembered : the Marian Sanctuaries are like the mother’s house, stopping places of rest in the long piligrimage that leads to Christ. They are like some forges where, through the simple and humble faith of the poors in spirit, we can take again the contact with the great richness that Christ has given to the Church, in particular the Sacraments, the Grace, the Mercy and the charity towards the invalid and suffering brothers.

Adress:
Eremo santuario
S. Maria della Stella
Località monte stella
89040 Pazzano RC
Religious House of Hospitality “ La Vetta”. Tel - + 39 0964-731150
Rector: Sac. Don Alfredo Mobile -+ 39  347-0557162
Responsibles: Mobile- + 39  328-3729377 347-8935107