The Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel (Santuario di San Michele Arcangelo) is a Roman Catholic shrine on Mount Gargano, Italy, the oldest shrine in Western Europe dedicated to the Archangel Michael and has been an important site of pilgrimage since the early Middle Ages. The Parco Nazionale del Gargano protects the historic site and its environs. In 2011, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a group of seven inscribed as Longobards in Italy: Places of Power (568-774 A.D.). Monte Sant'Angelo was a popular pilgrimage site on the way to Jerusalem; pilgrims traveled from as far as Ireland to visit the “Celestial Basilica.” Among the pilgrims who visited the Saint Michael Archangel Sanctuary were many popes (Gelasius I, Leo IX, Urban II, Alexander III, Gregory X, Celestine V, John XXIII as Cardinal, John Paul II), saints (Bridget of Sweden, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas), emperors, kings, and princes (Louis II of Italy, Otto III, Henry II, Matilda of Tuscany, Charles I of Naples, Ferdinand II of Aragon). St. Francis of Assisi also visited the Sanctuary but, feeling unworthy to enter the grotto, stopped in prayer and meditation at the entrance, kissed a stone, and carved on it the sign of the cross in the form “T” (tau).