Abbey of Santa Maria a Mare

About

The Abbey of Santa Maria a Mare was a monastery on the island of San Nicola in the Tremiti Islands off the northern coast of the Gargano Peninsula in Italy from the 9th century until 1782.

Founding and early history: According to Cardinal Leo Marsicanus, the 11th-century historian of the Abbey of Monte Cassino, a monk of Monte Cassino named Monecaus served as provost in a "cell" (cella) dedicated to Saint James in the Tremiti Islands during the abbacy of Bertharius (856–83). Leo reports that in his day many charters from the time of Monecaus were still in the archives of Monte Cassino. For some reason, Leo later erased this information from his chronicle. None of the charters he mentions survive. In 883, a band of Saracens sacked Monte Cassino and the monks went into exile for over half a century. This period must have severed relations between it and its provostries, including Tremiti. Originally the abbey was dedicated to James the Greater and its associated with the Virgin Mary developed gradually in the early 11th century. The earliest document referring to the abbey on San Nicola is a record of a land-grant of Bishop Landenulf of Lucera dated to November 1005. In it the abbey...