On Mount Titano

It is the year 257 AD when the emperor Diocletian orders the rebuilding of the walls of Rimini, destroyed by Demonstene, king of the Liburnians. Among the stonecutters and engravers summoned from all over Europe, two, who came from Dalmatia, are destined to remain in many people's memory: Marino and Leo. God-fearing and full of charity, they help spread the Christian faith until the time of their retreat, Leo in Montefeltro and Marino on Mount Titano. Of the period Marino spent on Mount Titano, great wonders are told, such as the healing of a possessed woman or the taming of a bear. The most important moment, however, was the meeting with Verissimo and his mother, Felicissima, the owners of the mount. Verissimo disputes Marino's residence on his lands, but providence does not abandon the latter, causing Verissimo to be left paralysed.

The desperate mother begs Marino for help; he does not delay and heals the paralysed man. The gesture wins the faith of the two, who convert to Christianity and, in thanks, give Mount Titano as a gift to Marino and his descendants. Marino continues his life of prayer and retreat and, on the third of September of an unknown year, he dies. That day is solemnly commemorated in the Republic. This is, in short, what is written in the 12th-century hagiography of Saint Marino. How much of it is true is hard to say; what is certain is that Demonstene, king of the Liburnians, never existed, and that if Diocletian had the walls of Rimini rebuilt, he didn't do it in 257. In-depth studies place the life of Saint Marino between 500 and 700.

It is also likely that the hagiography was, at least in part, falsified in order to protect the territorial patrimony of the monastery of St Marino from the attempts at reclaim by the bishop of Rimini at the time of the Placito Feretrano. Whatever the truth, the legend is certainly the expression of the strong will for independence of the inhabitants of Mount Titano and seals the evocative image of an "ancient land of liberty".