God provides in unexpected ways
Djego
In the dramatic gorge of Val di Non in northern Italy — a landscape carved by waterfalls, cliffs, and ancient pilgrimage trails — the story of Saint Romedius has been preserved for nearly a thousand years. Medieval tradition recounts that Romedius, a nobleman turned hermit, intended to travel to the bishop of Trent when tragedy struck: his horse was killed by a bear on the mountain path.
Rather than abandon his journey, Romedius did something that astonished his disciples. He approached the wild bear calmly, slipped a halter over its head, and rode it down the steep and narrow trail to Trent. The earliest written forms of the legend appear in medieval hagiographic collections and were later tied to the hermitage complex built at the site of Romedius’s cave.
Today, the cliffside Sanctuary of San Romedio remains one of Trentino’s most visited spiritual sites. Pilgrims climb more than 130 stone steps to reach the hermitage, where the bear remains the sanctuary’s most visible symbol. Interpretive signs recount the ancient story, and visitors are still shown the place where — according to local memory — a saint once rode a bear as a mount.
God provides in unexpected ways.
In Zingerle’s 1891 Tyrolean version of the legend, the bear is never given a personal name — it is simply “der Bär” — though the servant who bridles it is named Djego (Diego); the bear’s name Djego in our Advent series is therefore a storytelling choice we introduced. (Source: Ignaz Vinzenz Zingerle, Sagen aus Tirol, 1891, “Der Bär des heiligen Romedius.”)
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THE HOUSE OF APPLEJAY ADVENT CALENDAR
This story is part of The House Of Applejay Advent Calendar, an original collection of 24 bear stories conceived, developed, written, edited, assembled, and curated by Caroline Porsiel. Created as a House Of Applejay Christmas tradition, the collection follows its bears through 24 stories, one for each day leading up to Christmas. Published by House Of Applejay, Inc.
This story and The House Of Applejay Advent Calendar collection © 2026 Caroline Porsiel. All rights reserved. Copyright is claimed in the original writing, characters, storylines, narrative treatment, creative expression, selection, coordination, arrangement, and presentation of the individual stories and the collection as a whole.
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