Festival of Saint Agatha in Catania | From February 3 to 6, 2025
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Sede: Municipio, Piazza Duomo.
CATANIA | Sicilia
comitatosantagata22@libero.it
Pec: comitatosantagata22@pec.it
Sede: Municipio, Piazza Duomo.
CATANIA | Sicilia
comitatosantagata22@libero.it
Pec: comitatosantagata22@pec.it
The Feast of Saint Agatha is the most important religious festival in the city of Catania. It is celebrated in honor of the city's patron saint, and it is one of the most attended Catholic religious festivals, precisely because of the number of people it involves and attracts.
The Feast of Saint Agatha is the most important religious festival in the city of Catania. It is celebrated in honor of the city's patron saint, and it is one of the most attended Catholic religious festivals, precisely because of the number of people it involves and attracts.
THE STORY
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THE FEAST OF SAINT AGATHA
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The story of Agata
The martyrdom of the young and beautiful Agata, belonging to a noble family from Catania, must be seen in the context of the persecutions against Christians decreed by Emperor Decius, who in 250 issued an edict of persecution against Christians. The edict forced all citizens to sacrifice to the gods by adhering to the official religion in order to obtain protection and wealth for the Empire. But Agata publicly refused to renounce her love for God.
The oldest text that has come down to us tells that it was February 5, 251 when, after enduring atrocious tortures, the young Agata died, showing her complete devotion to God. But before her merciful death, Agata was arrested, interrogated, and handed over to Afrodisia, a woman of ill repute, so that she might convince her to abandon her faith; since the flattery was of no use, there was a new interrogation, imprisonment, amputation of her breasts, miraculously healed in prison by the Apostle Peter, and finally the torture of burning coals over which the young girl was rolled naked. After another transfer to prison, Agata died after reciting her prayer: “Lord, who has taken from me the love of the world, has preserved my body from contamination, has made me overcome the tortures of the executioner, the iron, the fire, and the chains, has given me, among the torments, the virtue of patience; I pray you now to receive my spirit: for it is already time for me to leave this world and come to your mercy.”
On her tomb, tradition says, a young man dressed in white, her angel, placed a tablet that reads: Mentem sanctam spontaneam honorem Deo et Patriae liberationem, Holy mind, spontaneous honor to God and liberation of the Homeland. And the city immediately recognized Agata's role as protector: already on February 5, 252 the veil that covered her tomb was carried in procession against the lava flow that was furiously heading towards the gates of the city. And the flow stopped.
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The history of the festival
The feast of Saint Agatha is an ancient celebration. In fact, for several centuries Catania has celebrated three occasions in honor of the Patron Saint: the anniversary of the martyrdom, on February 5th; the translation of the relics from Constantinople on August 17th; and the patronage for the end of the plague of 1576, on June 17th.
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The oldest description of the celebrations dates back to the “ceremonial” of Don Alvaro Paternò, from 1522. The main festival took place between February 1st and 12th. On February 1st, a solemn mass in the Cathedral marked the beginning of the festivities. February 3rd was marked by the procession for the offering of wax, which started from the church of Saint Agatha the Vetere: all the authorities and social classes took part. There were about thirty votive candles from the guilds of arts and crafts (then called “gilii”). On February 4th, the only procession with the Saint’s relics took place, making an external circuit of the city walls to avoid the narrow medieval streets unsuitable for the crowd. The reliquary bust and the chest with the relics were carried on the fercolo under the supervision of ecclesiastical and civil authorities, shouldered by 180 devotees, all belonging to the upper middle classes of Catania. The devotees, called "ignudi" (“naked ones”), were wrapped only in a cloth around their waists and walked barefoot. From the second half of the seventeenth century, they began to wear the current “sacco” (robe).
On February 5th the celebration took place only inside the Cathedral, with the exposition of the relics and the solemn Mass presided over by the bishop. The Cathedral remained open all day, closing with the singing of Vespers and fireworks. Throughout the octave, the relics were on display. On February 12th there was a new solemn rite and a procession of the reliquary bust inside the Cathedral.
The festival of August 17th, initially only a liturgical celebration, was later accompanied by external festivities lasting several days. After the exposition of the reliquary bust in the Cathedral and the solemn Mass, following Vespers there was a procession of the relics inside the cathedral and through the adjacent streets. The eruption of Etna in 1669, with lava reaching the city, and the earthquake of 1693, which destroyed Catania, also brought changes to the festival program. The celebrations were suspended for about twenty years; the processional route was redesigned within the city walls, highlighting squares and new streets. And on February 4th the procession route was extended to the central station and Piazza Palestro. From 1846, on the 5th, a second procession of the relics with the fercolo was added to visit the six cloistered female monasteries. After the Second World War, the procession was extended as far as the Borgo.
The Symbols of the Celebration
The festival of Saint Agatha is also made up of symbolic objects much loved by the people of Catania.
The candelore, "Baroque in motion", which symbolize the Light that pierces the darkness of the night, have always accompanied the procession. In 1514 there were 22 of them; in 1674 even 28, while at the beginning of the 1900s there were 13.
Today there are again 13, weighing from 400 to 900 kilos, carried on the shoulders, depending on the weight, by 4, 8, 10 or 12 men. Each of them is linked to a guild of arts and crafts, or to a "district" except for the first, the smallest, commissioned by Bishop Ventimiglia after the eruption of 1776, and the one belonging to the Circolo Cittadino di Sant’Agata founded by Blessed Cardinal Dusmet.
The procession is always opened, after the small Ventimiglia, by the candelora of the Rinoti, called “First Candle” and donated by the inhabitants of San Giuseppe la Rena. Following are the candelora of the Horticulturists (gardeners and florists), called “The queen,” that of the Fishmongers, that of the Greengrocers, called the “young lady,” that of the butchers, the candle of the Pasta Makers, the candle of the Grocers, that of the Tavern Keepers, and then the Bakers, the heaviest of all, the “Mother,” carried by 12 bearers, that of the Civic Circle of Sant’Agata, that of the Village of Sant’Agata and that of the Master Artisans of the Parish of Santa Maria Assunta.
The relics of St. Agatha are transported during the procession by the fercolo, a refined silverwork masterpiece from 1519 by Vincenzo Archifel. Over the centuries, the work has undergone various transformations, including technological ones, as well as damage, such as during the Second World War. But it is the reliquary bust, which contains the head of the beloved Patron Saint, that draws all the attention of the devotees, who greet what has now become the official image of young Agatha with a thousand flashes and a thousand invocations upon her appearance in the Cathedral. The reliquary bust, in embossed silver and enamels, was made between 1373 and 1376 by the Sienese artist Giovanni di Bartolo and later covered with jewels and votive offerings. Other anthropomorphic reliquaries hold the femurs, hands, feet, a breast, and the sacred veil and are kept in a large reliquary chest in embossed and chiseled silver, made between 1470 and 1556.
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