Sword in the Stone

When he was 32 he saw Archangel Michael who instructed Guidotti to end his life of sin and lead the path to God. This was in the 1180. But Guidotti did not pay heed and went about his cruel tasks. But one day while riding he reached Monte Siepi which was a hill with some bedrock. Here a voice from heaven called out at him and urged him to change again. He told the voice that his change would be as difficult as splitting a rock with his sword and he thrust his sword into a rock. Astoundingly the sword did not break rather it stuck in the rock. This changed Guidotti completely and he started praying from that day onwards. He died after a year he had sunk his sword into the rock.

In 1185 Guidotti was cononized by Pope Lucius III and came to be known as a Saint. In the year of his canonization a chapel was built around the sword in stone altar. The chapel still contains the altar though it has been encased in plastic for public viewing. The legend has it that people having tried to steal or remove the sword from its place have faced horrific death. One of the thieves was killed by a pack of wolves and his mummified hands are kept in the chapel.

Though many feel that the sword never belonged to Galgano Guidotti but the intense studies of the sword reveal that it belongs roughly to Guidotti’s time. If it at all did not belong to him then it belonged to someone of his era. The mummified hands also belong to the similar time period. It seems there is some truth about the legend of sword in stone at Monte Siepi Chapel.