Galatina

[upbeat music] When the tradition of tarantism became associated with St. Paul and the Catholic Church, it moved from a community affair that took place at home to a religious one with a pilgrimage attached.

In the 1700s, a chapel was built in the town of Galatina.

It was dedicated to the town's patron saint, St. Paul.

A well next to the chapel, the legend goes, was blessed by him as he traveled through the Mediterranean.

And so they were starting to make fun of everything which was considered ignorant and poor and as, uh, something which belonged to the past.

But even in those last moments, people would, wouldn't abandon who was suffering, and instead, by using this ritual, they would be cured.

In the 1950s and '60s, a team of academics led by anthropologist Ernesto De Martino traveled to Galatina to see what remained of the tradition.

They found only a few dozen women there receiving care.