Arcano da Sansepolcro

Who they were

Tradition holds that Giles and Arcanus were pilgrims who, toward the end of the 10th century, built the first oratory dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre of Christ near Arezzo. Around this oratory grew a Benedictine abbey (later Camaldolese) and the town that became the city of Sansepolcro. According to old chronicles, the two pilgrims arrived in the area, then called 'Noceto' or 'Noceti', between 936 and 996; the abbey is documented from 1012.

There is no official ecclesiastical recognition of their veneration, but they are mentioned in the 1520 bull erecting the diocese of Sansepolcro under Pope Leo X, and are listed as saints in the Bibliotheca Sanctorum. They are still remembered on 1 September, the day the cathedral's dedication is celebrated.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Legendary pilgrim founder, with Giles, of the oratory that became Sansepolcro; feast 1 September, the cathedral's dedication day.