In Italy almost 225 places are dedicated to the saint, equally distributed in the North (in Friuli there's the oldest Italian church dedicated to this saint 774) as well as in the South where the shrine was introduced by the Normans. The shrine can be found even in Italian islands such as Sicily, Sardinia, Ischia, Procida. In September 2004, a National Meeting of the Italian parish churches dedicated to the Saint took place in the small village of Panza d'Ischia where a small chapel of St. Leonard was transformed into a church in 1536.