Patronal Feasts

All Italian and Spanish towns have at least one Feast of a patron saint, to which other important religious observations are added. On such occasions, statues, statuary groups and scenic apparatuses (“machines”) parade along the city streets, carried in procession (on their shoulders or with the help of wheels and mechanical means) to stage episodes inspired by the Holy Scriptures, the lives of the saints and the most famous mysteries of the Christian religion. The Misteri (Mysteries), in particular, are evoked especially on the occasion of Corpus Christi. The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament is a liturgical ceremony of medieval origin (thirteenth century), in which the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is celebrated. It is held on the Thursday after Pentecost (a movable Feast which falls on the fiftieth day after Easter Sunday). Since its inception, the Feast of Corpus Christi has been interpreted by the Church as an opportunity to stage episodes inspired by the Holy Scriptures or the lives of the saints, first with the help of actors and then with puppets, statues and statuary groups and scenic apparatuses. Corpus Christi, as well as being an extraordinary religious theater, was the occasion on which European cities accounted for and put to the test, the delicate balance between their social and institutional components. In the past, especially during the Baroque era, the celebrations envisaged the setting up of extraordinary scenic apparatuses, of which important traces remain today in places like Valencia, Toledo, Seville and Campobasso.

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