NORA ➜ PISA ➜ CAGLIARI
The Relics
A 900-year journey between Nora, Pisa, and Cagliari
The relics of Sant'Efisio have travelled a story as long as medieval Sardinia itself: from the martyrdom beach at Nora to the shrines of Pisa, and finally the triumphant return to Cagliari in 2011. A tale of faith, politics, and identity that has lasted over sixteen centuries.
The Journey of the Relics
Martyrdom at Nora
After the beheading on the beach of Nora on January 15, Efisio's followers kept his body. The first relics are venerated in a small temple on the coast — precisely where the Romanesque church bearing his name still stands today.
Fleeing the Saracen Raids
Arab incursions in the Mediterranean threaten the sacred heritage of the Sardinian coast. The relics are transferred to Cagliari for safety. The small church at Nora remains a place of worship, but custody of the saint's bones shifts to the urban hinterland.
The Pisan Period — Pisa Becomes Custodian
During the hegemony of the Republic of Pisa over Sardinia, the relics of Sant'Efisio (together with those of San Potito) are taken to Tuscany. The chronology of the translation is debated:
- 1088 — earliest date proposed by 17th-century sources (Tronci, Roncioni, Annales Sardiniae).
- 1092 — bull of Urban II, indirect reference.
- 1119 — Callixtus II consecrates an altar to the saint in Pisa Cathedral.
- 1126 — certain attestation (bull of Honorius II): «cuius corpus in eadem ecclesia requiescit».
The Cult Endures at Stampace
During his pastoral visit to Sardinia, the Archbishop of Pisa Federico Visconti officially attests the «sanctum Ephyseum in supradicta villa de Stampace»: despite the exile of the relics, devotion and place of worship in Cagliari have never died out.
The Pisan Cult — Reliquaries, Frescoes, Sculpture
The Cathedral treasury inventory (1369) mentions a silver-gilt reliquary in the shape of the bell tower. Spinello Aretino (1390–91) frescoes the life of Efisio in the Campo Santo. Giovanni Battista Lorenzi (1592) sculpts the marble statue. Pisa appropriates the Sardinian saint.
The Agreement Between the Two Archbishops
Archbishop of Cagliari Msgr. Berchialla and Archbishop of Pisa Msgr. Capponi agree on a partial return of the relics. Part of the saint's bones begins the journey back to Sardinia after almost eight centuries. Cagliari regains custody of its patron — at least in part.
The Definitive Return
With a solemn Eucharistic celebration in Cagliari, the relics of Sant'Efisio return definitively to their homeland. The rite takes place on May 12, 2011: after nearly nine hundred years in Pisa (from the first attestations of 1088–1126), the patron of Cagliari now rests on the main altar of the Stampace church.
The Relics Today — Where They Are
Stampace Church — Cagliari
On the main altar of the Sant'Efisio church in the Stampace district sits a silver reliquary crafted for the 2011 return by Cagliari goldsmith Francesco Busonera. It holds the saint's remains and is the place where, every year at the end of the procession, the statue returns and the Vow is solemnly released.
Pisa Cathedral — Cult Still Alive
In Pisa the cult of Sant'Efisio has not faded with the transfer of the relics. The marble statue by Giovanni Battista Lorenzi (1592) is still in the Cathedral. The great chapel of the Archbishop's Palace is still dedicated to Saints Efisio and Potito. The Pisan feast of the saint is celebrated on November 13.
The Reliquary and the May 1st Statue
The May 1st Statue
Dates from the 17th century. Depicts Sant'Efisio as a Spanish nobleman with goatee, moustache, armour, and courtly attire. Before every procession it is adorned with votive gold — gold jewellery donated by the faithful over three and a half centuries of devotion.
Sant'Efis Sballiau
The oldest statue, 16th century. The saint is shown with the stigmata on his left hand and the martyr's palm on the right — reversed from tradition. Hence the nickname "wrong one" (sballiau). Not used in the procession.
Maundy Thursday Statue
Work by Giuseppe Antonio Lonis, 18th century. Used for the Maundy Thursday procession, Easter Monday, and January 15. Today on display at the Diocesan Museum. The blessing of the oxen yoke takes place at the end of the Easter Monday procession.
The Bell-Tower Reliquary of Pisa (1369)
◉ PISA INVENTORY 1369 ◉ CATHEDRAL TREASURY
Relics Inside the Tower
A 1369 inventory of the treasury of Pisa Cathedral describes an object unique of its kind:
«Campanile de argento aurato ad similitudinis campanilis maioris ecclesie factum, in quo sunt de reliquiis Eufisii et Potiti.»
A silver-gilt reliquary shaped like the bell tower of the same Pisan cathedral — the famous Leaning Tower. The Sardinian saint's relics kept inside a miniature of Pisa's civic emblem: cultural appropriation rendered in precious metal.
The Sanctuary of Nora — The Proto-Romanesque Church
◉ PULA ◉ 11TH CENTURY
Where It All Began
The current sanctuary of Nora — just a few hundred metres from the martyrdom beach — is late 11th-century proto-Romanesque, attributed to masons arrived with the Victorine monks of the Abbey of Saint Victor of Marseille.
◉ THE DEED OF DONATION
A deed dated 30 June 1089 (pontificate of Urban II) records the confirmation, by the Judge of Cagliari Constantine-Salusio II de Lacon Gunale — with his wife Giorgia and son Mariano — of the Marseillaise abbey's possession of the churches of San Giorgio and San Genesio. Between 1089 and 1090 Constantine-Salusio II extended the donation to numerous churches, including San Saturnino of Cagliari, Sant'Antioco of Sulci, San Pietro dei Pescatori, Santa Maria di Cepola, San Lucifero di Pau, Santa Maria del Porto and — in turn — Sant'Efisio of Nora.
Beneath the south nave of the present church is a semi-hypogeum: probably the earlier Early Christian martyrium, where the remains were kept before the translation to Pisa. The funerary use of the area is much older — in 1889 a sea-storm uncovered over 150 Punic cinerary urns in the strip between the church and the shore.
The Romanesque building is made of large sandstone and limestone blocks taken from the nearby Punic-Roman walls: a systematic reuse of ancient materials. A reused Punic funerary stele from the Nora tophet is embedded in the masonry, and inside the central nave a fragment of a 1st-century Roman pilaster has been reset as building stone.
Construction is attributed to Catalan masons who came to Sardinia with the Victorines, but with details that reveal an unexpected Asturian sensibility, with precise reference to San Salvador de Valdediós: a memory of pre-Mozarabic Spain transferred to Sardinia through French monastic networks.
During the 1981 restoration, the relaying of the floor brought to light a chest tomb with a polychrome funerary mosaic from the 4th–6th c. AD, now kept at the Civic Museum of Pula: direct evidence of an Early Christian cemetery developed around the martyr's memory.
◉ TWO KEY DATES
1102 — Official consecration of the proto-Romanesque church.
1656 — Restoration commissioned by Don Alfonso Gualbus, Marquis of Palmas, as a personal vow for being spared from the plague after invoking the saint's protection. The restoration coincides with the end of the baroque plague in Cagliari.
◉ Source: A. Pala, V. Deidda, The church of Sant'Efisio at Nora, in «Talking Stones», UNICApress 2024.
Historical Notes and Curiosities
The Chronological Paradox
The Passio Sancti Ephysii — the main source on the saint's life — is considered by many scholars a possible medieval forgery built on the pattern of the martyrdom of Saint Procopius. The narrative structure echoes the conversion of Saint Paul and the Vision of Constantine. Historically, Diocletian's persecutions began on February 24, 303 — after the alleged martyrdom date of January 15, 303.
The Dual Pisa–Cagliari Cult
For about 900 years devotion to Sant'Efisio lived in two distant cities: Pisa celebrated him on November 13 as its protector, Cagliari as patron and saviour from the plague. This dualism produced an extraordinary artistic corpus — frescoes, sculptures, chapels — scattered between Tuscany and Sardinia.
The Cross on the Palm
According to hagiographic tradition, during the mystical vision on the Italian battlefield, a visible cross was imprinted on Efisio's right palm. This sign became one of the saint's fundamental iconographic attributes — martyr's palm on the right, imprinted cross, military helmet — recognisable in every artistic representation from the Middle Ages to today.
Festival heritage
Art & Heritage →
From martyrdom to festival
The Full History →
Fonti e Bibliografia
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Fonti e Bibliografia
I contenuti agiografici, iconografici e storici di questa pagina sono tratti da fonti accademiche peer-reviewed. Riferimenti essenziali:
- ◉ A. Virdis, Sant'Efisio: il culto, la leggenda e le immagini nel Medioevo, fra la Sardegna e Pisa, in «L'agiografia sarda antica e medievale» (a cura di A. Piras, D. Artizzu), PFTS University Press, Cagliari 2016, pp. 453-476.
- ◉ G. Fois, Passio Ephysii (BHL 2567), in «Passiones martyrum Sardiniae», Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 279, Turnhout (in uscita).
- ◉ P.G. Spanu, Martyria Sardiniae. I santuari dei martiri sardi, Oristano 2000.
- ◉ R. Coroneo (a cura di), Chiese antiche e moderne lungo la via di Sant'Efisio, Edizioni AV, Cagliari 2011 — saggi di E. Pinna (devozione e itinerario) e N. Usai (schede storico-artistiche di 16 chiese del percorso).
- ◉ N. Bazzano, Efisio Martire. Il culto di un santo nella Sardegna spagnola, in «Chronica Nova», vol. 43, Universidad de Granada 2017, pp. 85-108 — peer-reviewed; lettura della genesi barocca del culto come risposta alla peste del 1652, con comparazione fra Cagliari e Palermo (santa Rosalia).
- ◉ H. Delehaye, Les légendes grecques des saints militaires, Paris 1909.
- ◉ M. Dadea, La sagra di Sant'Efisio, grafica di M. Frau, Capoterra 2008 — saggio storico-antropologico illustrato sul cerimoniale processionale e sulle famiglie storiche legate al cocchio (Lecca, Bolla, Ballero).
- ◉ ICCD, Scheda di catalogo OA n. 00071459 — Statua di Sant'Efisio di Giuseppe Antonio Lonis (1764), Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, MiBACT (recepisce A. Virdis 2013 sui documenti di pagamento; restauro 1997 G. Malorgio).
- ◉ S. Weppelmann, Spinello Aretino e la pittura del Trecento in Toscana, Firenze 2011.
- ◉ Cod. Vat. Lat. 6453, cc. 201-208 (XII sec.), Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana — edito in «Analecta Bollandiana» III (1884), pp. 362-377.
Fonti contemporanee e divulgative:
- ◉ Cagliaripad (a cura di G. Dessì), Speciale 370ª Festa di Sant'Efisio, Cagliari 2026, 20 pp. — fonte primaria per le citazioni dell'Alter Nos 2026 Giovanni Porrà e dei suoi predecessori (Mura, Ena, Cilloccu) e per la storia del voto di Giorgino. Sfogliabile online.