Sacred Waters of the Cilento - Ancient Springs, Healing Shrines, Living Traditions

 Pilgrimage to the Sacred Waters of the Cilento

Ancient Springs, Healing Shrines, Living Traditions

April 29 - May 9, 2026

The springs of the Cilento are not only places of refreshment - they are the living voices of our ancestors. For countless thousands of years, women and men knelt at these waters, leaving offerings, whispering prayers, and trusting in the unseen powers that flowed from the earth. Each spring carries the memory of their touch, their devotion, and their skill. To drink or bathe in these waters is to enter an ancient lineage:

 tending - herbal knowledge, ritual care, blessings spoken at the well.

crafting - votive figures, clay vessels, and the songs and prayers that shaped devotion.

weaving community - pilgrims gathering, processions climbing, drum rhythms, mothers and daughters carrying water home.

listening - to the gurgling sound of the spring, to dreams carried by the flow, to the voices of ancestors that still speak through water.

In visiting the healing springs, we do not come as tourists, but as inheritors of a craft older than memory: the animist craft of entering relationship with living water.

From the mountains of Cilento to the valleys of Lucania, water has always been revered as sacred. Springs welling up from rock, grottoes breathing vapors from the underworld, rivers marking the edge of fertile plains - all were seen as thresholds between human and divine.

Archaeology shows that people gathered at these waters many thousands of years ago. In caves like Latronico’s Grotte di Calda, offerings were left beside sulphurous springs, part of a Bronze Age cult of healing. At Paestum and the Sele River mouth, Hera was honored with thousands of terracotta votives, prayers for fertility and safe childbirth. In Lucania, the goddess Mefite received dedications at sulphurous pools and vaporing caves, where her healing and chthonic powers met.

With the coming of Christianity, the sanctity of water did not disappear - it was transformed. The baptistery of Padula placed living spring water at the center of Christian initiation. Shrines like Pietrasanta, Laureana Acquasanta, and Incoronata dei Bagni continued the healing role of springs, now in the name of the Madonna. On mountain peaks such as Gelbison’s Sacro Monte, pilgrims still pause at springs along the way, drinking and anointing themselves as they climb toward Madonna di Novi Velia's sanctuary.

Today, pilgrims and visitors carry bottles, sip from fountains, and pause to wash in cold mountain waters. The Sacred Waters of Cilento and Lucania remind us of a continuous thread: water as purifier, healer, protector, and renewer of life. Each spring tells a story of ancestors who sought health, fertility and safe passage, and of communities who built sanctuaries to honor the unseen powers within the flow.

The ancients left offerings in these sacred places to Hera, Cybele and Mefite, trusting in the power of sacred waters to grant them their wishes.  Early Christians built baptisteries and shrines around the same sources, immersing themselves in living water as a sign of rebirth. Today, the Madonna still guards wells, fountains, and mountain springs, and pilgrims continue to climb, kneel, bathe and sip.

During our early May pilgrimage to the Sacred Waters of the Cilento we will be visiting natural springs, soaking in warm sulfurous waters, exploring caves, leaving prayers and offerings at ancient mountain shrines and holy places, visiting archaeological ruins and historic landmarks.  Many of these places are protected by one of the revered Seven Sacred Sisters of the Cilento.

The Cult of the Seven Sisters of the Cilento National Park is among our most treasured sacred traditions. These seven beloved madonnas all have roots reaching back to archaic times, all are evolutions, transformations that took place slowly across centuries. They each have still vivid threads connecting them to much earlier beloved Mothers, Goddesses, Divine Feminine personages of great beauty, strength, healing and protective agency.

The cult of the Seven Sisters has been kept alive for many thousands of years through the great devotion of the indigenous people of the Cilento National Park and has in fact grown more vibrant through the centuries. The sancuaries that are home to these Seven Sacred Madonnas are situated on the same high holy ground, the same sacred place, as their predecessors. We honor them in a continuous unbroken tradition and in the same ways as our ancestors have done since long before the common era.

During this ten day mythic journey we will meet, comune with, honor and make our prayers to Great Mother in her ancient personifications as Hera/Juno/Uni, Demeter/Ceres, Cybele, Diana/Artemis, Menrva/Athena and always, Maria. Most of these sites go back to ancient indigenous Italic tribal peoples and their Goddesses, in place long before Indo European and Greek contact. These are the Great Mothers venerated by our animist Sud Italian tribal ancestors, our grandmothers of long ago.

We will step into this ancient lineage of sacred waters, healing shrines and living traditions together with deep soul purpose. You can expect a sweet nourishing, spirit filled journey that will also be lots of fun, include a few spontaneous side trips, creativity, camaraderie, gracious hosts, fabulous food and great wine! We’ll be weaving together art, history, archaeology, Southern Italian folk medicine ways, spirituality, prayer, rhythm, ritual, healing dream, plant medicine and magic, ancestral wisdom, the Divine Feminine and the magnetic, healing energy of a small group of people into a rare and beautiful experience that will be long treasured. Our time togeher will be relaxing, low key and deeply inspiring and restorative.

The Cilento National Park in Southern Italia, is one of the last true wildnerness areas in this world, a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to vibrant, still thriving Old World culture, traditions and beliefs. Because of its biological and cultural characteristics, the park is also member of the World Biosphere’s Reserve, Unesco’s Man and Biosphere program. It is also the place of my origins, my ancestral home. My roots are here, my blood and bones are made from this land, these mountains and trees are my body and I am honored to introduce you to our ancient, deeply spiritual ways.

During the month of May the weather is usually sunny, comfortably warm and beautiful, the skies are blue and wild orchids and wildflowers are blooming. 

Our base camp during the journey is located in our remote and friendly medieval village at the foot of our mother mountain, Mount Cervati, the largest mountain in our region. Your rooms are comfortable, spacious and designed with an eye toward maintaining traditional features. There is central heating in every room, fully modern bathrooms, a large comfortable and private balcony. Best of all, it's conveniently located with easy access to our parking area and is right down the cobblestone passageway from my own house. I can't wait for you to come and stay here with me in my beloved Italian village!

We're in the heart of the Cilento National Park and our village is also a protected World Heritage site. Our location puts us in very close proximity to the Grotto of Vallicelli, which was a thriving Bronze Age community, inhabited since the Paleolithic era, and home to some of the original inhabitants of this mountain area.  You can count on a visit to this cave to honor the ancestors who inhabited it for eons and perhaps receive some of the messages they left behind in the walls and soil beneath our feet. 

From time immemorial its unique geographical position has made this land a natural crossroads for the cultures that developed on the Adriatic, Ionic and Tyrrhenian coasts. The ancient Etruscan, Enotrian and Villanova cultures, Lucanian civilization and the later Greek colonization all met here. In fact this is the very center of ancient Magna Grecia. It is a most amazing and magnificent place!

Our valley was once the central location for Dianic worship in all of Southern Italia. We had numerous Healing Dream temples here as well. We will visit at least one of them while you're here in our valley!

This spiritual tone and sense of reverence for nature and all that she represents still permeates the hills and valleys as well as the lives of the people here. Life, and the sense of the divine, really hasn't changed all that much since ancient times.

This pristine, magical, and centrally located place is in the region of Campania, (formerly Basilicata until the unification of Italy changed our borders.) and we'll be in the midst of one of the most incredibly fertile agricultural areas of the world with a legacy of growing and preparing foods that goes far back into ancient history.

We'll be traveling the ancient roads and pilgrim trails of our ancestors and be presented with numerous opportunities to learn about the ancient lineage of Great Mother, the sacred waters, plants and trees long associated with her, and to understand the depth of her roots in human culture. 

The full cost is of the Sacred Waters of the Cilento Pilgrimage is $5,989, and includes all transportation from Boston to Naples and return, travel from Naples to our village and back, as well as all daily transportation during our pilgrimage, your private room and each day's generous breakfast and traditional dinner - also included are all entrance fees to sites visited during the journey. You will be responsible for providing your own lunch. Please place your $500 non-refundable deposit to hold your place using the button above, if you'd like to join us. The remainder of your fee, $5,489 is due by February 15, 2026 and is best sent by check made out to Gail Faith Edwards. If you use a card or PayPal to submit your fee you will need to add an additional $150 to cover banking fees.

Tour cancellation policy: All deposits are non-refundable. If you cancel at any time after paying your tour fee in full, you will be charged a $100 cancellation fee. If you cancel within 60 days of the tour start date you will be refunded half your payment. If you cancel within 30 days of the tour start date you will forfeit your payment.

These are the Sette Sacro Sorelle:  We will be visiting some of them, not all.

1 Madonna dell'Annunziata, Moio della Civitella – This village has remote origins, dating back to the so-called Enotrian age (Bronze Age). The Inotrians were regarded as a mythical people by the Greeks and across the centuries they became the Lucana tribe. The Inotrians honored a Mother Goddess here on this spot, as did the ancient Greeks who came much later. Today we honor this Great Mother as Madonna dell’Annunziata.  

2 Madonna del Granato – Madonna del Granato – Madonna of the Pomegranate The Cilento is filled with pomegranate trees and in fall we celebrate a great abundance of this ancient, sacred fruit that speaks of the fertility and renewal of the earth and all of life. The sanctuary of the Madonna of the Pomegranate is built on an ancient site of devotion to the Goddess Hera and before that to Juno, her Roman counterpart. The sacred plant of both of them was the pomegranate and their animal totem was the peacock. Their earlier Etruscan counterpart was Uni, mother goddess and protector of women. All have been revered here on this magnificent site through countless milennia.

Beside the church is a spring/well where pilgrims draw water, long regarded as holy. We will also visit Paestum today, an ancient Greek settlement on the coast with some of the best preserved temples in the world. You’ll walk the Via Sacra to the temple of Hera where together we will make prayers and offerings. We’ll also visit the intimate museum just outside the ancient city walls that houses all the artifacts recovered from the site; amazing frescoes, vases, scultpture and more. We’ll end our day trip with the most delicious gelato!

3 The Black Madonna of Viggiano - is the Queen and Patroness of Lucania. The large forests that cover the slopes of her mountain are home to rare and precious animals like wolf, marten and black peak. Madonna di Viggiano is a Byzantine icon with a brown, elongated face and slender figure. She is revered as a powerful healer. If the weather cooperates, we will participate in a procession and the feast day in her honor.

4 Madonna Della Stella – Omignano Capoluogo. The sanctuary building dates back to about 1000 BC, but reverence for this Madonna, located at one of the highest points in the Cilento, is much, much older than that.

Monte Stella rises in the heart of Cilento, between the coastal plains of Poseidonia (Paestum) and the ancient city of Elea (Velia). The pilgrimage routes that wind up the mountain are punctuated by perennial springs and fountains - such as the Acqua del Ceraso - which serve as places of pause, refreshment, and devotion. They anchor the mountain in a living landscape of sacrality.

Ancient Cult Landscape

The very name Stella (star) hints at celestial veneration, and scholars note that Monte Stella was part of the wider mountain cult traditions of southern Italy. Springs along the routes were likely seen as gifts of the goddess, offering purification and strength before reaching the summit. The mountain stands as a natural axis between Poseidonia and Elea, two Magna Graecia centers where water cults were well established.

Madonna della Stella

At the summit sanctuary, devotion to the Madonna della Stella carries forward these ancient themes. As one of the Seven Sacred Sisters of the Cilento, she embodies continuity: a Marian face for an older star-mountain goddess, guardian of springs and fertile lands below. Pilgrims climb on feast days, drinking from the fountains and leaving offerings at the summit, tying together water, mountain, and starry sky.

5 Madonna del Carmine – Carmello Agropoli - Our Lady of Mount Carmel gave us the sacramental cloth scapula and told us to wear it, pray the rosary and life a simple life. This particular shrine dates to the 1100s, but again, the site itself has roots going much farther back in time.

6 Madonna della Neve – Sanza – Our Lady of the Snow. She is particularly special to me. If conditions permit, we will drive up her rocky trail, all the way to the top of Mont Cervati, our sacred mountain. Pilgrims climb up the steep hill and then down the ancient rock staircase leading to the Madonna’s cave to peer into the cave and leave prayers and offerings in this high, holy place.  In ancient times this was the home of Cybele, Demeter and Diana - the flower offerings

left behind remind us of the importance of the honey bees, held dear by the Great Mothers of the Mediterranean and their devotees as creators of both light and of sweetness. It is not a coincidence that the Madonna della Neve is also referred to by local people as Melokia, a local dialect word derivative of the Greek and connected to the Goddess Mellona, who promoted the supply of honey by “taking care of and protecting the sweetness of honey.”

7 Madonna della Pietrasanta is located between the villages of Vibonati, Ispani and Santa Marina. There is an old walking trail and also new drive way right to the top. After we pay homage to. the Madonna we will climb down an ancient stone staircase to gather water at the sacred well. It is famous all over Europe for its miraculous healing waters. Iodine lamps illumine the whole area making the shrine look like a lighthouse that guards the Gulf of Policastro.  We'll most likely head from there down the coast to the sea for a traditional beach day.

This coastline is the home of the ancient and mysterious sirens. The Sirens originally had the bodies of birds and the faces of women. Homer described their voices as "golden-sweet above the sound of wind and wave, like drops of amber floating on the tide." Euripides refers to them as “winged maidens, virgin daughters of Gaia.”

These beautiful, supernatural sea nymphs, believed to inhabit the ocean waters all along the western coast of Sud Italia, were the subject of many of the legends and myths of Old World Sud Italia and ancient Greece. Sirens were goddesses of nature, specifically of the sea and oceans. You can still hear their enchanting songs.

I’m looking forward to introducing you to these sacred healing waters and their guardian Madonnas and sharing the ancient lore that surrounds them. We will want to make spur of the moment fun side trips, carouse with colorful people…and always there will be fabulous foods and lots of love and magic! I hope you can join us! 

testimonials:

Embarking on this journey was like stepping into a meticulously crafted adventure, where every detail was expertly curated by our learned “Professoressa  Gail”, to ensure an unforgettable experience. The hallmark of a superb vacation lies in its seamless blend of convenience and immersion. Every aspect, from transportation to accommodation to dining, was flawlessly coordinated, allowing us to focus solely on soaking in the wonders around us and discovering the strengths within us. Whether we were navigating the bustling harbor at Positano, going behind red altar ropes or traversing and picnicking in the serene mountainside to the gentle sound of cow bells munching on cheese and meats , we were accompanied by our most learned guide Gail who effortlessly unraveled the Sud Italia’s secrets, offering insights that breathed life into every location we visited. Because of our authentic interactions with locals especially our drivers and the family at our B&B, we gained a deep appreciation for the culture and heritage that defined our tiny, idyllic little village in the South. The true magic of this pilgrimage with Gail lies in the fact that it transcended mere sightseeing, transforming into a journey of personal growth and reflection for all of us. Each moment, be it honoring a Madonna or peering into an ancient cave, served as a catalyst for introspection, inviting us all to ponder life's mysteries and realize our own unique place and value within the vast universe. As the days too quickly unfolded and the journey ended, I was left with cherished memories.  If excellence is measured in the transformative power of shared experiences and the enduring bonds forged along the way, then I consider my time with my Sisters of the Cilento as the most excellent journey of my life.  I thank you Gail for being the catalyst and Rosa, Monica and Teresa for being my beloved journeywomen, for I truly did have the time of my life.  Eileen O’Donnell

I sit here in deep gratitude for you and all your wisdom in creating such a beautiful pilgrimage. Everything was planned beautifully and we were well taken care of from the moment we landed. Your choice in drivers, locations, activities and accommodations was well thought out of and considered all guests on your retreat.  Any apprehension I may have had, as a result of some recent surgery, was completely erased on meeting you at our accommodation. 

This pilgrimage was a sacred gift to myself. Your intention to open each day with smudging, drumming and prayer set the tone of the magic that we woukd embrace . 

I leave Italy with a deeper understanding, of life, culture and healing. I leave with a hunger for more knowledge on my own lineage and a deep love and respect for this beautiful village and region we called home for the last 10 days. 

Thank you for your authenticity, compassion and love .. the respect and love you have for your culture and lineage is evident in all that you share. 

I highly recommend this pilgrimage to anyone who wishes to connect; deeply with the blessed earth/terra,  with the mysteries of our sacred mother, with a culture that understood universal laws, with women who feel the call to delve deeper and reconnect with their physical, mental and spiritual body and with a teacher who has experience in living the culture and understanding how to run an engaging retreat with sacred rituals. Teresa Corso