Celebrations for Santa Margherita at the foot of Rutor
Resorts: La Thuile
Cappella di Santa Margherita e San Grato
Free
- 7am - Rendezvous in the hamlet of La Joux
- 11am - Holy Mass at the Santa Margherita and San Grato chapel
- Homecoming scheduled for about 5pm
Contact
This event is meaningful for the local populations, since it takes place to commemorate a tragic event that took place between the XVI and XVII centuries. Climate changes and the melting of the Rutor glacier caused the overflow of the Rutor basin and a great deal of damage. After this tragedy the surviving population went in procession to the Rutor lake to ask for divine protection: they even brought the reliques of San Grato. After that a local inhabitant had a vision, locals built a chapel, which was dedicated both to San Grato and Santa Margherita, who was invoked against the disruptive force of avalanches. Locals went in procession every year for more than two centuries. In 1937 the new chapel dedicated to San Grato and Santa Margherita, which lies on the promontory that dominated the lake, was solemnly blessed.