Veneration
In 1658, the separate feast days for Orontius, Fortunatus, and Justus were combined into one celebration. Orontius enjoyed a wider cult than the other two saints, and his cult was popular in Salento, Puglia and Basilicata. Many priests in Ostuni during the sixteenth century were named Rontius, a variant of Orontius. He was identified with the martyr Arontius of Potenza, who is recorded in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum. His cult in Lecce was reinvigorated by the fact that the ending of a 1656 plague there was attributed to him. A spring of water near Ostuni, considered miraculous, was associated with Orontius' cult.
Orontius is also venerated as the patron saint of Turi. His legend states that he hid in a cave near Turi. The ending of an outbreak of cholera in 1851 was attributed to him. He also is considered to have hidden in a cave near Ostuni, and was patron of that city as well. A church and sanctuary were dedicated to him there, and the procession known as Cavalcata di Sant'Oronzo, is celebrated there. Each year a three-day festival in Ostuni is held from the 25 August to 27 August to honor him.
Read more about this topic: Orontius Of Lecce
Famous quotes containing the word veneration:
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were still paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy; but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)