This section unites
documents, articles, stories customs and uses of caulonian tradition
"
I tri sirati "
Palm
Sunday used to be and still represents the culmination of this
intense period in the religious lives of the Caulonian community.
Even today, on the Sunday morning, a procession of men, women
and youngsters bearing big bunches of palms leaves and olive branches,
move from the church del Rosario in direction of the Matrice
church, where, following a suggestive ceremony, a solemn, sung
Mass begins with the reading of the “Passio”. Once the long liturgy
of the Palm Sunday Mass is over, the adoration of the consecrated
host placed on the altar in the chapel of Saint Ilarione begins.
For the rest of the day, as during the following two days, the
bell is rung with resonant strokes at regular intervals to remind
all believers of the exhibbition of the Santissimo Sacramento
(the most holy sacrament). In the evening, after the afternoon
procession formed by all the parishes has visited the Matrice
church, the people assist the processions of the three evenings.
These last processions are so ìimportant
to the Caulonian people that Prota, as usual, gives a richly detailed
description of it from which the rivalry which distinguishes the
followers of each procession. He says:
<
the three evenings
are a display of luxury, races and sometimes, scuffles. Because
of the solemnity of the Quarantore, once the sun sets during the
three days, the functions begin. All Caulonia is present in the
Matrice church, which seems smaller because of the amount of people
crowded inside it. It is also a time for showing off clothes,
hats, and fashion. There is a general wish to see and be seen
and an anxious air of expectation for what will happen between
the rival congregations. Once the preacher’s oratory vein has
been exhausted amidst the pomp and circumstance, the solemn litanies
are intoned and the procession begins to follow the Sacrament
which, removed from Saint Ilario’s altar is borne to the major
altar by walking round the church. Although this “gira” (route),
as the citizens call it, is held in such a small place, it lasts
up to half an hour thanks to the slow and spiteful movement of
the congregations. Ruthless contention for first place arises
among the believers; races and challenges occur for the bigger
or smaller size of the candles. Passing from thought to fact,
slowing their pace, they let slip a stinging comment and sometimes
they push, shove, scuffle, raise their voices, threaten, faint
or give way to hysterics.
And during all this they cry: peace,
peace, peace!>
Even today, during the three evenings,
although with less offensiveness, the same scenes of rivalry between
the two groups which head the congregations of the Arch-confraternity
of the Immacolata and del Rosario occur.
“Tamarri” and
“Scaravagghji” oppose each other. The first group claim the supremacy
of the low area of the town, “jiusu”, the second group claim the
importance of the high area of the town, “Susu”. This division
of the Caulonian people characterised the social life of the historical
centre of the town the whole year round, with mounting tension
specially during this period. There used to be challenges for
the number of people present in each congregation, for the largeness
of the candles, for the elegance of each rochet (brother’s cloak).
Even today, the members of each confraternity wear a dress made
up of a white cotton surplice which reaches down to their feet,
a rope known as “cingolo” which ends in a red pom-pom (Rosario)
or a blue pom-pom (Immacolata), the whole effect is completed
by a long white hood and a rochet. (Black velvet cape with gold
Greek fret for the Rosario members and blue silk with gold fringes
for the members of the Immacolata. On both capes, at the height
of the right hand pectoral, two big medallions are pinned like
badges and bear the effigy of the Madonna del Rosario and the
Madonna of the Immacolata which today we shall call the logos
of the confraternity).
At the end of the religious function
on each of the three evenings, after a heated preach and the benediction,
the two parish processions leave the Matrice church and return
to their respective churches after having crossed the town’s streets
singing the Madonna’s litany and carrying candles. Inside each
church the evenings end with the “requiem aeternam” and the “libera
nos, domine”.
In the afternoon of Holy Wednesday, the
“Via Crucis” departs from the church of the SS. Rosario in the
hands of the chosen Passionist father. The fourteen stops along
the “Via Dolorosa” are the same number of picturesque squares
of our historical centre and during each stop there are alternate
moments of song and prayer.
At night, in the church of the Immacolata,
after a solemn function with a stern speech, the ceremony of Christ’s
Kiss begins.
The followers used to approach, two by two. It is still like that
today, friends, witnesses, brothers and members of the “banca
maggiore”, after a series of reverences, kiss the foot of the
statue of Christ among the intonations of “Populo meo” and the
fragrance of the incense. The great procession of Christ on the
cross follows this ceremony.
The entire town is affected by the funerary
peals of the church bells until the procession reaches Piazza
Mese, where the laments of the “miserere” echo round the square
and the crowdwath the beautiful statue of Christ pass through
it
The statue is
a severe wooden sculpture from the XVII century. The sentiment
that ties the faithful followers to this sacred immage is strong.
We do not know where the statue comes from, nor who its creator
was, but there are a number of legends about it.
One of these
tells of a ship coming from the East with the statue on board.
It is said to have stopped, as if by miracle, in the waters in
front of our town. Apparently it did not shift until a group of
“massari” brothers of the church of the Immacolata, went down
to the beach and exchanged the statue for some sacks of wheat
Another
legend tells of how the statue of Christ spoke to its creator
once it was finished. Apparently the artist died and went to heaven
immediately. It seems that Christ uttered words to the effect
that the sculptor, even though not having witnessed Christ’s passion
in person, had managed to render the image worthy of intense pity.
This second legend would be enough to admit the statue to the
standards of sacred art promoted by the Counter-reform, according
to which, as work of art, had to have as its first peculiarity,
a highly didactic quality, so interesting as to be able to transmit
a direct and clear message to the public on its first appearance.
For this reason, a sacred work concentrated on one theme, in our
case, “the flagellation”, developed on a grand scale.
The spiritual
creator of this way of interpreting a sculpture or a painting
is Saint Ignazio di Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Saint
Ignazio wants the believer to exalt God with his entire being:
heart, intelligence and all his strength, thus with every sense.
For each episode of Christ’s life, the Saint asks the believers
the questions: “what do you see?” and “what do you hear?”, without
forgetting the other senses: touch, taste and smell. One mustn’t
forget that this Saint is the father of those spiritual exercises
which culminated in ecstasy. The more the Divine is materialised,
the more He is perceived, the more he is concrete, the more one
can feel His closeness. The aim is to push the believer into the
story so that he lives the happenings as if he was a participant
in them and so that he asks the question: “What would I do in
that situation?”. The purpose
of baroque sculpture is a modern theatre, without distinction
between actors and public. In order for the spectator to feel
closer to Christ, the Counter-reformist sculpture seeks to absorb
the spectator in the scene of the sacred work. This is why the
Concilio Tridentino desires a more realistic representation of
the various moments of the Passion. As a consequence, the believer-spectator
easily recognises himself in the natural sizes figures and is
ready to declare his behaviour to Christ and underline the behaviour
to be followed in those circumstances, in those painful stories.
Around midnight, after
the procession of “Cristo alla Colonna” returns to the church,
the evening ends, but the whole day of Holy Wednesday doesn’t
finish until the mysterious and dark voice of the “Paternostro”
rises in all the streets of the town for the last time.
With the Holy Thursday all is ready for
the Mass of the Dinner and the visit to the Saintly Sepulchres.
For many days and in particular during
the days of the two congregations, there is great activity in the
churches of Caulonia for the preparation of the Santo Sepolcro.
From the early hours of the day, the women used to, and still do,
bring a vase or serving plate (vacile), used for preserves, holding
wheat seeds or legumes (lentils, chick-peas and cicerchia) which
have germinated in the dark. These seeds, in their containers receive
the humidity they need from broom stems, now replaced by cotton
wool, and are closed in the dark inside of benches around the Sunday
of the Holy Spirits of Purgatory so that they flower on Holy Thursday. On the Sunday of the Holy Spirits of
Purgatory, the women also set aside dried salamis in enamel coated
clay pots “manali”, which are consumed after the joyful ringing
of the church bells which declare the Resurrection.
The “sepulchre’s
wheat” is what the magno-Greek cities knew as the garden of Adonis;
this similarity is interesting because its use was very common
among the Locrese population and the myth surrounding Adonis,
God of fertility, masculine element of production, was connected
to the myth surrounding aphrodite, feminine element of fertility.
Adonis was represented as a beautiful adolescent full of life
in Spring, but destined to be submitted by the hot summer and
be reborn thanks to Aphrodite after the lonf, dark winter period. The association
to cults belonging to the Magno-Greek world and to rites belonging
to ancient Italic civilisations are not limited to only this case.
All this should induce us to reflect on how many of our rites
which have survived for centuries, even millenniums, are now disappearing,
destroyed by a fast and frenetic homogenising process which necessarily
erases, in the name of a hypothetical progress, the culture, the
traditions and the roots of our populations. P.P. Pasolini was
prophetic in his warning that very soon we would have abandoned
our farming civilisation to be swallowed up by a rapid industrialisation
process.
At sunset, the last peal of the church
bells before the silence representing the death of Jesus, warns
the people that all is ready for the Messa della Cena (Mass of
the Dinner). Prota yet again helps us to describe the ceremony
about which, in the appendix of his work: “Ricerche su Caulonia”,
he writes an interesting page in which he refers to another work,
never published, called “Usi e costumi del mio paese” (customs
and traditions of my town), in which today we would have had another
precious contribution and a vivid testimonial of many of our traditions:
<The
dinner consists in a splendid agape, laid out in the church on holy
Thursday. On the flax table are set out the largest selection of
vases, porcelains, linens and silverware that Caulonia could produce,
all disposed as if twelve princes were to banquet using them. For
each silver piece of cutlery there is a discrete plate of sweets
and after the ritual washing of the feet, the celebrant blesses
the lamb (which is made of cake) which lies on a silver plate surrounded
by Biblical salad. Having completed the distribution of the plates,
each with a bit of cake lamb, and a glass of wine for each apostle,
the women who prepared all this are served cakes inside the church
appeasing the cries of the others with a few sweets
>.
The
story of Lent, otherwise said the
rites of the holy week in Caulonia.
The Caracolo
by Gustavo Cannizzaro www.caulonia2000.it
- March 2001
