PhD Program in Historical studies
The Feast of Sant’Agata in Catania
The feast of Saint Agatha in Catania, which takes place every year from 3 to 5 February, is a great civic feast that takes place, with a huge crowd of people, in memory and in honor of Agatha, a martyr of the Christian faith who was executed at the time of the Emperor Decius, in 252, after having been tortured and having suffered the mutilation of her breasts. The hagiographical tradition has it that Agatha was martyred not only for her insistence in not wanting to abandon her faith in Christ but also due to her desire to remain a virgin, rejecting the advances of the Roman governor Quinziano.
While the cult of Saint Agatha already spread widely in ancient and medieval times, the celebration in her honour was established after the return of the relics to the city, in the twelfth century. Stolen in 1040, Agatha’s remains were brought back to the city on 17 August 1126 and it is precisely from that date that celebrations began in honour of the saint, who became patroness of the city. In memory of the return of the remains of Agatha to the city every 17 August a feast takes place, which is of lesser importance but nonetheless prominent.
Though much has changed with the passing of the centuries, the feasts in honour of Saint Agatha retain many elements of a continuity with the past. The feast takes place in February as a parade of big candles carved in wood, now twelve in number, gilded and richly decorated, each of which represents one of the old professional associations and guilds. In the days before the feast of these candles, called cannalore, are moved around the quarters, stopping in front of the houses and shops of the most prominent members of the professional associations and in return they receive adequate offers of money for the feast. The cannalore are followed during the festival by the fercolo, a wagon on rubber wheels which carries the relics of the saint, kept in a half-length bust of the saint, finely chiseled in gold and silver and protected by a canopy. The procession follows a predetermined path that begins at dawn on the 4th and ends on the night of the 5th, often very late. The fercolo is pushed but mainly pulled by long ropes that see hundreds of people take turns in transporting it. During the two days the procession follows a different route: on the 4th it follows a so-called outer circle in which it traces the line of the old city walls, almost as if it wanted to leave its mark on them and, and so to speak, “embrace” the city. On February 5th, instead the procession follows a so-called inner circle, it moves – back and forth – along the city’s main street, Via Etna, and some of the other main streets of the historical center.
The faithful, in the thousands, organized by special associations such as the circolo cittadino di Sant’Agatha, don a special white habit (called sacco, literally “a bag”) with white gloves and black berets. It is said that the use of these vestments was inspired by the legend that holds that the saint’s relics were brought to the city by night and unexpectedly, so the people came rushing in their nightgowns to greet them. During the feast gloves, used to drag the fercolo are also shaken as a sign of rejoicing, responding to the cries of the crowd which are repeated every few seconds.
The most famous and repeated cries expresses the aspect of the cult of Agatha as a civic one, a civic celebration par excellence. The cry, in fact, obsessively repeated, exclaims, in the local dialect: “All loyal citizens! long live Saint Agatha!” The patron saint is a protective mother and the population of the city has an intimate rapport with Her which is emotionally intense, as evinced by the diminutives with which she is invoked: Santuzza or Aituzza.