The legend written on the marble plaque next to the church was created after several attempted incursions by pirates in the 17th century. The people from Tellaro, though, always managed to repel the enemies thanks to their courage and valor. This version was handed down by the oral tradition, and it is not the only one. Many writers wrote about the tale of the octopus. Here you can read the very appreciated words of D. H. Lawrence – on December 18th 1913, he wrote a letter to W. E. Hopkin saying:

“[…] Our village is Tellaro. It grows sheer out of the rocks of the sea, a sea-robber’s nest of 200 souls. The church is over the water. There is a tale that once in the night the church bell rang – and rang again. The people got up in terror — the bell rang mysteriously. Then it was found that the bell rope had fallen over the edge of the cliff m among the rocks, and an octopus had got hold of the end, and was drawing it. It is quite possible.

The men go fishing for the octopus with a white bait and a long spear. They get quite big ones, six or seven pounds in weight sometimes — and you never saw anything so fiendishly ugly. But they are good to eat.”