Although official records state that the first church dedicated to San Michele was built in 1675, the presence of the saint in Vasto dates back more than two thousand years, even before the Christian era. Back then, he was not yet called Michael, nor was he a saint, but rather Mithras, a pagan deity imported from the Hellenistic Middle East and worshipped by the Romans. Many aspects of the two cults overlap, particularly the legends of San Michele’s apparitions at Monte Sant’Angelo and Liscia, which closely mirror the myths associated with Mithras.
There is no direct evidence, but it is likely that the cult of Mithras was already established in this area during the late Roman period. Mithras was worshipped in “mithraea,” caves with a water source. It is plausible that Monte Sant’Angelo and the sanctuary of San Michele in Liscia were originally mithraea as well. The Tre Segni hill, south of Histonium, was rich in springs, making it an ideal site for similar places of worship.
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Christians identified Archangel Michael as the counterpart of Mithras. The veneration of San Michele and other archangels remained significant among Orthodox Christians, but it was during the Byzantine period that San Michele assumed a central role in the city’s religious life. Early medieval documents even refer to Histonium as Istonium Sancti Archangeli (“Istonium of the Holy Archangel”). This devotion was likely strengthened under Lombard rule and continued for centuries, with the last documented reference appearing in a 1131 papal bull issued by Pope Innocent II.
The Lombards, who arrived as a conquering elite at the end of the 6th century, assimilated Roman religion and customs, adapting them to their own culture. They saw in San Michele characteristics of Odin, their chief deity, and dedicated key places of worship to him. It is reasonable to assume that the saint played a significant role in the local Lombard castra as well. Moreover, Vasto lies along the so-called “Michaelic Line,” a mystical alignment of major San Michele sanctuaries stretching from Skellig Michael in Ireland to Mount Carmel in Israel, passing through the Sacra di San Michele in Italy and Monte Sant’Angelo.
After a period of diminished influence, the michaelic cult regained strength in the early 16th century when Antonio Lo Duca founded the Brotherhood of the Seven Archangels.
This revival reconnected with Byzantine traditions and found favor among humanists interested in the esoteric meanings attributed to the archangels.
Among them, Michael was the most significant, embodying dual aspects derived from Jewish and Hellenistic-Iranian traditions. In the former, as depicted in the Book of Enoch, Michael is the commander of angels who defeats the devil and carves the Michaelic path with his sword. In the latter, tied to the cult of Mithras, the struggle against the demon takes on a metaphorical meaning, representing light versus darkness, or wisdom against ignorance.
With the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent, the cult of the Seven Archangels was banned. However, devotion to San Michele persisted, especially among Enlightenment circles and Masonic brotherhoods such as the Carbonari, where the Archangel symbolized knowledge triumphing over the darkness of falsehood and ignorance. To this day, San Michele retains this duality: on one side, a champion of popular devotion, and on the other, an esoteric symbol of initiatory knowledge shared within exclusive circles of adepts.
