Ardia of Sedilo

July 06, 2017 Admin

The Ardia of Sedilo, a legendary event, timeless, the re-enactment of a famous battle.
Following an apparition, the young Emperor Constantine ordered his soldiers to write In hoc signo vinces (“in this sign thou shalt conquer”) onto their shields. Despite the fact that he was outnumbered, on 28 October, 312 AD, Constantine won the battle of Ponte Milva, defeating the pagans of the imposter Maxentius, who, with the support of the Senate, had proclaimed himself Emperor of Italy and Africa. A year later, in Milan, Constantine issued the edict that ended the persecution early Christians had been subject to. At Sedilo, a small town in the centre of Sardinia, the Roman emperor is known as santu Antine and is by far the island’s most venerated saint. Worship of him dates to Byzantine times and every year on the 6th and the 7th of July the emotional and mysterious s’Ardia is re-enacted.