PhD Program in Historical studies
The Vattienti of Nocera Terinese (Catanzaro)
The rite of the vattienti (the faithful who self-flagellate themselves in expectation of a grace or gratitude to divine mercy) of Nocera Terinese (Catanzaro) takes place on the morning of Holy Saturday. It is an ancient form of devotion, practiced in Europe and in Italy since the Middle Ages by the Congregation of the disciplinati. The ceremony began with the procession of the statue of the Pietà , which depicts the Dead Christ taken from the cross and laid in the lap of the Virgin Mary. Shortly after the start of the sacred procession, the vattienti retreat to prepare for the scourging. The faithful wear a dark sweater and short pants, covering their heads with black cloth (the mannile, the traditional headdress worn by elderly Calabrese women) held in place by a crown of thorns. Each vattiente is accompanied by a young man (bare-chested and covered up to the ankles by a red cloth), also donning a holy thorn. This is the acciomu: a translation in dialect of a Latin formula – Ecce Homo, Behold the Man in English – used by Pilate to indicate Christ scourged presented to the Jews. The acciomu, carrying a wooden cross covered with a red cloth, is tied to the vattiente with a cord (a sign of the symbolic communion with the Christ of the Passion). Before heading out for a penitential procession, the vattiente meticulously cleans and prepares the instruments of his flagellation: the rose (a small disc of sanded cork) and cardoon (a rose crowned with thirteen pieces of barbed glass). Meanwhile, in a saucepan (the Quadara) water is boiled with rosemary, with which the vattiente wash his legs before he starts to strike them with the rose. When he has increased the blood flow in the lower part of the body, he begins to strike himself with the cardoon, causing copious bleeding. At this point, he begins his wanderings through the streets of the country, to be reunited with the rest of the faithful in procession following the Pietà . In front of the statue of the Virgin Mary and the body of Christ, all the vattienti renew the ritual of flagellation. At the end of this poignant ritual, the penitents of Nocera Terinese wash their wounds with the infusion of water and rosemary, clothe and come in procession.