THE FEAST OF SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

La Festa di San Michele Il Arcangelo

A personal Experience of the Author

 

In 1950, a family contracted my father to build a shrine to St. Lucy at the St. Michael’s Grove in Paterson, N.J. After he finished it, he wanted to show my mother and me his work along with attending a religious feast in progress at the grove. Mom was up to going so they went with me in tow. I was fourteen years old at the time.

Italian feasts are wonderful experiences, and this one was the most impressive I ever attended. It was sometime in September of that year, the weather was still warm and we wore summer clothes. When we pulled into the place, there was a large flat parking lot next to a sizeable beer garden. From the parking lot and the beer garden, the land went uphill.  On the slope of the hill were many trees amongst which were small shrines dedicated to different saints. These were all personal shrines. The road on which we entered continued to the peak of the hill stopping at a small parking lot next to a white chapel with a steeple and a bell. The bell rang all day because anyone at any time could pull the cord, which many children did. We were welcomed to the grounds by the ringing of the bell. At the bottom of the slope were picnic tables, a beer garden, food concessions, and midway up the slope was a little flat bunker, with a number of picnic tables close to it. One of the most beautiful activities I ever witnessed in my life took place there.

When we arrived we walked directly to the shrine my father built; the family that contracted him was there and a priest to give a blessing. When we entered I noted there were six pews, three on each side with a narrow aisle in the middle. At the end of the aisle was an altar on which stood a life size statue of St. Lucy, the patron saint of eyesight. I saw many religious statues before in my life, but never one like this. I was in awe for the statue was of a woman, dressed in a long robe and hood. The color of the robe was similar to the garb of Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus, which tends to be in shades of blue. The statue had her right arm extended and in her hand was a plate with two blue eyes on it. I didn't know what to make of it. As we entered we all genuflected and moved into the pews. The priest stood at the small altar, he said a few words and then he gave the blessing.

I learned that in the family someone had an eye illness and they prayed to St. Lucy and she answered their prayers. Afterward, I walked the grounds, and I went up to the chapel, children were ringing the bell, and I rang it a few times myself.  The big event was yet to come. As I was coming down the hill, I heard Italian music, and over at the flat bunker were men playing Italian musical instruments and on the bunker was a young dark skinned girl, with long black hair dressed in a brown knee-length pullover dress, barefoot, and dancing the tarantella. She twirled, clicked her fingers, and kicked her feet with such ardor that dust rose around her adding to the allure of the attraction. People were standing nearby clapping their hands to the rhythm. I was spell bound. It was so vivid I can still see her dancing until this day.

When she finished there was a loud clamor from loudspeaker, telling the people in Italian the next event was about to occur. People rushed to the center of the grove, and soon I heard a grinding noise coming from above, I raised my eyes to it and saw a cable that had suspended from it a little boy dressed as St. Michael with wings attached to his back. He was singing in Latin and blessing all those beneath him.  As he passed over the people, those below him, fell to their knees, rolled their eyes in ecstasy, and howled. Some of the women that were on their knees beat their breasts, and threw the dusty dirt upon themselves, as if it they were ashes for cleansing of the soul.  When he arrived at the thickest part of the crowd the people emitted a greater uproar. The cable men then slowly pulled him away as he waved and in Latin blessed everyone. Soon after, there was another clamor; four men, carrying a platform with the statue of St. Mary in a standing position entered the crowd with a small band playing traditional Italian music appropriate for the scene. Blue ribbons were streaming from the shoulders of the statue. The crowd was thick, people were pushing to get close to the statue to pin money on the ribbons and ask for forgiveness of sins. There was lots of money, no singles but mainly twenty dollar bills. After this we went to the beer garden, ate zeppole, and sausage and pepper sandwiches.

 

Below is a picture of a procession of St. Mary as Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal similar to what I experienced, following is a portrait of St. Lucy by Mackenzie Moran on Prezi and St. Michael the Archangel from a 13^th Century Byzantine icon from the Monastery of

St. Catherine, Sinai. (Wikipedia) and The Alba Madonna – St. Mary by Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)

 THE TOWN OF ALBERO BELLO

 

Albero Bello is a town of 11,000 people in the province of Bari in the region of Puglia, Italy. Interestingly, the words, albero and bello, mean pretty tree or pretty poplar tree. The town is famous for its unique style of buildings called trulli, singular trullo. These are dry-stone buildings with cone-shaped stone roofs. The history of building these structures dates back to 1200 BC, when the first wave of Indo-Europeans from the East settled there, developing into the following ancient Italic tribes; Veneti, Picinum, Umbrians,  Latins, Osci, Messapi, and Greeks. The Messapi settled in the area of Puglia. Linguistics conjecture that the word trullo derived from the Greek word tholos, because in Mycenea there are conical tombs called tholos. Mycenea is located across the Adriatic Sea from Italy and at the end of the Balkans where its shores are on the Ionian Sea. The civilization was of Greek origin.

The buildings are round and because of this either a very large one needs to be built to have various rooms in the interior. But, instead of doing that for each additional room they build a separate attached trullo. During the summer they are comfortable given that hot air rises; however, in the winter they are difficult to heat for the same reason. The trulli exist throughout the region in a number of different towns and are very popular tourist attractions to Italians. They tend to be the most frequent visitors to the area. Another main attraction is the making of pilgrimages to the Basilica dedicated to Sts. Cosmas and Damiano in Albero Bello, twin brothers who were physicians and Christian martyrs of the 2nd century. (www.cahtolic.org)