According to popular legend, the original community of Sauris was established by two German soldiers who, tired of the war, fled their homeland to take refuge in this isolated, inaccessible valley Like every legend, this story is based on fact.
The first inhabitants actually arrived from a valley on the border between Carinthia and the Tyrol in the middle of the thirteenth century.

For more than seven centuries, their descendants lived in symbiosis with the alpine environment, cultivating the few varieties of crop that can survive at this altitude and in such extreme climatic conditions (buckwheat, rye, barley, white cabbage, broad beans), taking the cattle to higher pastures during the summer months, cutting the meadows up to the peak tops, and collecting building timber and wood to burn from the forests.

During the autumn and winter months, when they weren't busy with agriculture and summer pastures, they would walk or travel by cart or sledge to nearby towns to exchange their own produce with other foodstuffs that they couldn't produce themselves (wheat, fruit and the salt which was essential for food preservation).

Today, the four hundred strong population of Sauris has maintained its dependence on an environment which, after centuries, is still their most precious resource.
They have succeeding in transforming traditional activities (local crafts, niche agriculture and food products) into a modern-day equivalent and providing tourism on a human scale.

"The veneration of Sauris in the Carnia for St. Oswald, King of Northumbria"

The first settlers from Austria brought with them not only their language but also the religious traditions of their homeland, including the worship of particular saints.
It is possible that they also brought with them a relic, St. Oswald's thumb. As far back as the mediaeval period, worship of this saint was particularly popular in southern Germany and in the Alpine area. St. Oswald was a seventh century King of Northumbria, a region in the north of England.

He died in battle but was invoked mainly as thaumaturgist, patron saint protector against the plague and epidemics in general. Thanks to the presence of this precious relic, the vehicle of many a miraculous recovery, the Sanctuary of Sauris became one of the best known and most prestigious centres for prayer and devotion of the Repubblica Veneta. Between 1500 and 1800 it was the chief destination for pilgrims from Friuli, Cadore and the cities of Veneto, Venice in particular.