On the edge of Loreo, along the road to Porto Viro, stands a small church that many consider the oldest in the Polesine. It is called the Madonna del Pilastro, and its story begins, according to tradition, with a woman asking for a lift.
The legend tells that a "Lady" arrived at the port of Loreo and asked to be taken to Cremona. The first boatman rudely turned her away. The second, an older man, welcomed her aboard. That night a storm struck the river: the first boat capsized and sank. By dawn the second was already in Cremona, a journey that normally took three days. Of the passenger, no trace. The boatmen became convinced they had carried the Virgin, and an oratory was built on the spot.
There are variants: in one, the woman appears as an old woman seeking shelter, and three angels carry the boat to Cremona; the ship's boy wakes to the sound of the Lombard city's bells. All agree on the heart of the tale: hospitality rewarded.
The church, founded according to the sources in 1153, was renovated in the mid-16th century. On the entrance wall a large votive painting shows the two boats, the rejected woman and miniature views of Loreo and Cremona.
But the Madonna del Pilastro also guards another mystery, a very real one. Every year, on the night before the feast of the Holy Trinity, the Confraternity of the Flagellants, the "Fradèi" (brothers), gathers in the oratory of the Trinity on the main square. At midnight the novices put on the red habit, the cord and the hood. Then the brothers enter the cathedral and, behind closed doors and in the dark, perform a rite that no one has ever revealed.
At around two in the morning the procession begins: red hoods, torches, a great wooden cross. The procession walks about two kilometres to the Madonna del Pilastro, where prayers are said for the dead until dawn. Then everyone returns to the oratory for Mass.
To witness the public part of the rite, you simply need to be in Loreo on that night. To see the boatmen's painting, the little church of the Pilastro is worth the detour in any season.
