Every year on September 7th and 8th, the people of Pulsano pay homage to their two patron saints, Our Lady of Martyrs and St. Tryphon, with grand civil and religious celebrations characterized by the lighting of illuminations along the main street Costantinopoli, the presence of the music bandstand in Castello Square where the most renowned bands from Apulia perform, and a fireworks display. On the first day, the mayor hands over the keys of the town to the patrons, a symbolic gesture intended to request their divine protection for the entire year to come. The following day, the grand procession of the two figurines takes place, cheered by joyful marches of the bands in the presence of the population and all civil and religious authorities.
The devotion to Our Lady of Martyrs is certainly subsequent but directly linked to the Turkish siege of Otranto (1480) in which, among others, a group of young volunteer Pulsanesi died defending Christianity and the Apulian coasts led by Giovanni Antonio De Falconibus, son of Marino, feudal lord of the Land of Pulsano and promoter of the castle's construction. On May 12, 2013, Pope Francis canonized the 813 martyrs of Otranto and since the following September, a relic consisting of a piece of bone from one of the martyrs enclosed in a wooden case, donated by the bishop of Otranto, a city twinned with Pulsano, has been permanently preserved in our mother church.
The cult of St. Tryphon, a goose shepherd from Asia Minor killed during the persecution of Christians by Emperor Decius (250 AD.), spread to Pulsano following his benevolent intercession for the population who were overwhelmed by an epidemic between the end of 1810 and the beginning of 1812, causing hundreds of deaths. In reality, the idea of invoking Tryphon as a protector came from a significant group of people from the lower Salento region who were residing in the village at that time to carry out agricultural activities related to the production of oil, tobacco, and cotton, and who already venerated the saint in their native villages.
