The gaze of this young Saint is turned towards the horizon, that border line and ultimate limit beyond which the eyes cannot see. His right hand is raised to his heart in a solemn gesture that communicates resolution and indicates the conclusion of an embrace.

The young Saint seems to call out to the entire city lying at his feet. His gesture of recollection symbolizes an infinite embrace aimed at the whole population. This magnificent representation of firmness communicates the Saint’s oath of faith, the fulfilled promise to honor his obligations toward God and the city that hosts him. The fundamental concept of the oath is, in fact, an act or formula by which the divinity is invoked as a witness to the truth of what is being affirmed.

The tales of the statue in the Duomo’s building site:

The specific events that led to this statue being positioned on top of spire G24 are not yet known. We only know that it is a reproduction based on a model by Arturo Malerba, the author of several other spire tops on the Cathedral.

The work was carried out in 1953, the same year in which many other statues were replaced. These replacements were necessary due to the deterioration of the marble caused by the passage of time and, above all, by the war events of the previous decade.