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Every Sanctuary with very ancient origins is circled by legends.

The Sanctuary of Materdomini has its own history, mixed with legendary tales and its not always possible to separate the two, history from legend.

From the many that accompany the origin of the Sanctuary one is the legend of the dragon.

Tradition says that the site where the Icon of the Madonna was discovered and later the Sanctuary built was in the beginning a woody area infested with an infernal presence, a monstrous dragon.

A horrible, disgusting beast described by a historian as "having the body of a dog, the teeth of a wild boar, the ears of a wolf, the feet of a cock, the wings of a bat, its back covered with hard scales and a green muscled tail, from its eyes came poisonous smoke and from its nostrils poisonous flames"(Brother Bernardino da Lioni, The Story of the Miraculous Image of Materdomini, p.3. Naples,1834).

Nobody who came into contact with the dragon could be saved, just one bite ensured death.

The local peasant population were terrorized by this presence and hardly anybody dared to venture into the woods.

About 12 years before the sacred Image was found, in the fort of Mount Solano (218m) which rose like a cone on the flat land was kept a prisoner in stocks, his crime isn't known, only that he was a native of the village at the foot of the hill, Roccapiemonte.

One night, it's not known how, the prisoner managed to free himself from the stocks and without being seen by the guards escaped from the prison.

Whilst he ran quickly downhill through the woods he met the frightening dragon, spitting fire. Terrified, the prisoner pleaded with great faith and as loud as he could to the Madonna to save him. With a great thrust he threw the lance that he had with him towards the dragon. The beast with the lance embedded in its forehead fell agonisingly and struggling to the ground, in doing so the lance penetrated even further and the beast died.

The good news travelled quickly through the population.

After what had happened they saw it as a supernormal event and it was called a miracle because the soldier constantly repeated that he had pleaded with all his faith to the Madonna, it was attributed to her his escape from prison and the freedom of the population from the monstrous presence.

The name of the man saved is not known, later he was called Salvo (Safe).

In the area a common surname is Salvi, which makes one think that they may be descendents of the prisoner graced and miraculously saved.

This event, remembered in the squares of the Basilica's large door, along with the other extraordinary events, contributed so that the population believed the seer Caramari and started the search for the painting buried somewhere.