Sicily Land of saints: a trip through the patron festivals
by Maria Patrizia Tuzzo

Describing some of the more important patron festivals that spangle Sicilian calendars means, inevitably, leaving out many others no less interesting and rich in history and tradition.
Devotion to religion and veneration of the patron saints of towns, villages and boroughs is a characteristic part of the Isle’s history and has enabled the Sicilians, even under the yolk of the most hostile and tyrannical domination, to express their artistic and gastronomic ability, the deepest and most authentic spirit of the people, even if the festivals were, generally, the occasion of a few to show off their wealth and power.
During the various foreign dominations of the Isle, the cult of saints and martyrs was the object sometimes of limitation and at other times that of innovation: thus, during the Arab domination, the Muslims imposed a tribute to venerate the saints of the places they had conquered, forbidding both the solemn processions and the construction of new churches. Subsequently, under the Norman domination followed by the Swabian, Spanish and Aragon, the Sicilians returned to being free to practise the cult of the saints and martyrs with solemn manifestations. (from Feste patronali di Sicilia by Maria Adele Di Leo, ed. Newton & Compton)
Let’s begin the description of the festivals dedicated to some of the more noted and venerated patrons starting from Catania and a saint who has linked her name to that of Etna and to the fire, as much feared as it is venerated by those living under the presence of the volcano.
The emperor Decius, in the 3^rd century A.D., martyred Agata, the brave, young, noble girl from Catania, to vindicate the pro-consul Quinziano, prefect in Sicily, who wanted to marry her but was refused. The young girl was stripped and beaten, tortured with burning coals, her breasts were cut off and she died shortly after in prison.
At the moment of her death, tradition has it that Catania was shaken by an earthquake and, on the day of the first anniversary of her martyrdom, a steam of larva began to flow from Etna which stopped only when the people of Catania paraded Agata’s veil, the virginal veil worn by Agata consecrated by God, praying intensely to stop the eruption.
From that time on Agata became the patron saint of the city, invoked against the eruptions of Etna and considered the protector against fire. Her miraculous veil, a band of red silk four metres long, was exposed every time the larva threatened to destroy the towns surrounding the volcano.
Catania celebrates the festival of St. Agata from 3rd to 5th February, but the festivities in her honour begin on the first Sunday of January with the exposition of the veil in the church of Sant’Agata al Borgo.
Throughout the centuries the form of the celebration has undergone many variations. The first time that the relics, kept for the rest of the year in a silver bust of the saint located in the chapel of St. Agata inside Catania Cathedral, were taken in procession was in 1519, while the double procession of 4^th and 5^th February dates back to 1712.

Il martirio di Sant'Agata.

However, until a few decades ago, the festival of St. Agata was characterised by the procession of Candlemas; wooden chandeliers several metres high on which scenes of her martyrdom are cut. They were commissioned by the Craftsmen’s Guild and donated to the saint in place of the fourteenth-century wax offerings.
On the occasion of the festival olivette di Sant’Agata are prepared which are small marzipan cakes in the form of olives. According to the legend, while Agata was being taken by Quinziano to her trial, she bent down to tie her shoe and a wild olive with miraculous fruit germinated on that spot.
Moving on to the province of Agrigento, apart from the patron St.Gerlando, during the whole of the first week of July we meet St.Calogero the hermit, considered by farmers the protector of summer harvests. The festival culminates with a contest between the tambourine players of St.Calò. The hermit Calogero, born maybe in Carthage or maybe in Constantinople and reached Sicily in the 5^th century AD, earned the fame of saint because, apart from expulsing the idolatrous priests from Mount Kronio, nowadays Gemeriano, he was a performer of miracles and cured the sick with the vapours of the caves of Sciacca which he understood contained therapeutic values.
The cult of the saint is linked to the miracle which took place in 1578, when Sicily was shaken by a strong earthquake and the company of St.Vito, after various attempts with processions to other saints, tried to promise a procession to St.Calogero if he saved the town, which happened punctually. From that time on, as a thanksgiving, the procession has taken place every year on the Monday after Pentecost and St.Calogero is considered the co-patron together with the Madonna of the Soccorso.
Also in Aragona we find many devotees of St.Calogero, venerated by the offers of the characteristic votive bread. They consist of offerings made of bread rather than wax, in the form of human arms and legs that are blessed and then conserved to be eaten in times of difficulty or sadness.
In Palermo the patron the patroness par excellence is St.Rosalia, or Santuzza as she is called by her devotees who venerate her in July with the feast which last from 9^th to 15^th.

Bozzetto di Fabrizio Lupo per il festini di Santa Rosalia (elab. grafica Cusimano)

Legend tells that one day the saint appeared before a hunter who had lost his way on Mount Pellegrino. She showed him were her bones were buried and predicted that he would die of the plague. Shortly after the man fell ill but talked about the apparition of the saint only on the point of death. Meanwhile the city had been infested by the plague. It was decided to go to the grotto indicated by the saint where the bones were found and taken in procession around every part of the town. Tradition holds that with the passage of the procession the plague disappeared and from then on St.Rosalia supplanted her four co-patronesses (St.Oliva, St.Ninfa, St.Cristina and St.Agata) in the hearts of the people of Palermo.
But who was Rosalia? According to hagiography, the daughter of a noble Sinibaldo di Quisquina. She became a hermit first on Mount Quisquina and then on Mount Pellegrino above Palermo, where she died, according to tradition, on 4^th September 1160.
A suggestive sanctuary, the destination for traditional pilgrimages, now stands in the grotto where the bones were discovered.
Characteristic of the festival, apart from the floats, designed and constructed every year according to different projects, is the fireworks display on the promenade ending up with the typical masculiata, a long series of bangs one after another which close the festival in grand style.

Il carro della Santuzza (foto ed elab. grafica Cusimano)

In the past, apart from the processions, services and acts of devotion which involved every quarter of the city, there was the benefit performance, the grand lottery in Piazza Marina, the horse race through the city streets and finally the novena during which street singers wandered the streets singing about the history and miracles of Santuzza.
St. Rosalia is also the patroness of Stefano di Quisquina, a town in the province of Agrigento where the festival is held on the first Sunday of June. The tradition originates from the hermitage on Mount Quisquina, where the saint lived for twelve years and next to which there now stands a church dedicated to her name.
Finally a warrior saint, St. Michael Archangel, considered the head of the Angels faithful to the Creator and, therefore, represented as a fighter against the Devil.
Archangel Michael is depicted with a set of scales in hand because tradition has it that they are used to weigh the souls of the dead. Here is the prayer recited by the followers to invoke the protection of the Archangel, "Patri nostru chi stati in celu, siti un ancilu San Michele, siti un ancilu maggiuri ca parrati cu lu Signuri d’Ogni mali chi ‘nni veni, libiratini san Micheli" (Our Father which art in Heaven, thou art an Angel, St.Michael, an Archangel, talking to the Lord about every evil concerning us, save us, St.Michael).
Local legend tells that he appeared before a Capuchin monk announcing that he would protect the town. (Feste Patronali di Sicilia by Maria Adele Di Leo).
Caltanissetta celebrates its patron twice a year from the time when, in 1652, according to the legend the saint fulminated a plague-stricken person who had managed to elude the control and enter the town with the intention of spreading the disease. During the procession, the statue representing St. Michael is taken from the cathedral to the sanctuary where it stays for a few days so that the faithful can venerate him.

Processione degli incappucciati (incisione tratta da "La Sicilia" di G. Vuiller)

The tradition holds that if it rains when St. Michael should come out of the cathedral it is a sign that he wants to stay inside. On the other hand if it rains when he is due to re-enter it means that he is not going to return. In these cases the processions are postponed.