Studio tradizioni
"The study of folk traditions in Italy
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
The study of folk traditions is commonly referred to as folklore (folk, people, lore, wisdom, culture, a complex of knowledge), an English term that means both the study of traditions and the traditions themselves. The word was coined in 1846 by the archaeologist William John Thoms. In Italy, other terms are also used, such as demology, "popular culture," ethnography, demopsychology, and laography. Originally, the field of folklore was limited to fairy tales, legends, songs, and later customs and beliefs. It gradually expanded as further exploration revealed how these manifestations were linked to others of a similar nature, no less important and characteristic. We can say that folk tradition is a spiritual force of the community that creates and preserves the practical and moral forms of life of a population, transmitting its minor history. The language itself used as a means of expression is only the manifestation of this force, and the way in which words become common heritage can help us understand the process by which folk tradition is formed in all its other expressions. At the origin, there is always an individual who creates: the song, the myth, the proverb, the belief, the material object. But this becomes important only when the community appropriates it, using it according to its needs.
The studies of folk traditions in Molise
In Molise, studies on Folk Traditions are relatively recent compared to other regions. While it is true that a Molisan, Francesco d'Ovidio (later renowned for linguistic studies, particularly during the fervent period after the unification of Italy), published an esteemed essay titled "Phonetics of the Campobasso Dialect" in 1873, he did not actively engage in the study of traditions, possibly because his cultural interests led him towards philology and literature.
At the end of the 19th century, occasional articles describing folk traditions began to appear in local newspapers. Among the early enthusiasts of our folklore were Enrico Melillo and Emilio Pittarelli, who published various research papers and conceived an unfortunately unfinished Library of Molisan Folk Traditions. During the same period, Luigi D'Amato also worked, the author of essays such as "A Look at the Current Conditions of Molisan Popular Muse" (1892) and "Prejudices and Religion" (1893), as well as articles on dialectal songs and folk tales.
At the beginning of the 20th century, studies on folk traditions gained new momentum. Berengario Amorosa wrote "Riccia in History and Folklore" (1903), Oreste Conti published "Popular Literature of Capracotta" (1911), and Eugenio Cirese released the booklet "Folk Songs" and the volume "Sonnets in Molisan Dialect" (1910), incorporating songs collected from the people in their rustic but expressive simplicity, along with some of his compositions, written during moments of contemplation. Cirese continued his research on traditional songs in later years.
In 1953, in the preface to the first volume of "Folk Songs of Molise," he wrote: "It was in that distant time (1910) that the idea of collecting and presenting an anthology of their songs to the Molisans took shape, and I also set out to put the plan into action. However, linguistic and philological concerns raised by Francesco d'Ovidio and the dear Emilio Pittarelli always held me back." For them, not only did each inhabited center have a dialect, but there were also sub-dialects within the same settlement. I felt lost because I sensed that those linguistic reasons were foreign to poetry, but I couldn't yet unify the various phonetics to create a text that would be readable and understandable for everyone in Molise, saving me from the chilling irony of the pontiffs of folkloric philology at that time. Therefore, I left the collected songs in the drawer and began writing sonnets in the dialect of Fossalto, forming my own idea of dialects. I saw that all the varieties of timbre, accent, and color of the Molisan dialect found organic unity in common roots. Consequently, for my verses, I discarded phonetic forms and preferred etymological ones, lightening the spelling in favor of clarity. Without any pretense of great discoveries, my goal was to establish this. Francesco d'Ovidio approved, and poets from other regions followed the same path.
The renewed interest in recent years in the study of folk traditions has prompted scholars, in addition to developing new research, to critically deepen the available data. One addressed theme is the identification of the period when interest in folklore studies began in Molise.
A starting point can be represented by Giuseppe De Rubertis, who in 1856, during the funeral eulogy in memory of Alfonso Filipponi, said, among other things: "We concern ourselves with things far away, with antiquity, and neglect those that are closest to us. While we spend our days learning the customs and habits of Americans, Asians, and Africans, as well as those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, with less commendable indifference, we then remain tranquil spectators of our daily affairs without caring to understand the meaning, spirit, and origins, presiding as mere automatons."
In truth, ethnographic information about the Molisan populations can already be found in ancient monographs concerning the Kingdom of Naples, such as the "Description of the Kingdom of Naples" (1586 and 1601) by Scipione Mazzella and the "Description of the Ancient and Current State of the Molise Territory" (1781) by Giuseppe Maria Galanti. However, we are not yet facing true demological arguments, and folk traditions are still far from being considered scientifically and as a separate field of study. For those who wrote monographs on southern villages, issues related to the survival of the lower class were far more important. They focused primarily on describing the territory, enumerating households, detailing clothing styles, and agricultural resources, sometimes even the physical characteristics of the inhabitants.
Folkloric information can also be found in notarial records, such as the one transcribed in the protocol of the notary Giovannelli by Father Andrea Petti in 1727, titled "Description of the land of Montorio and its boundaries." It describes the character of women, their main occupations, daily and festive attire with a detailed list of accessories. Additionally, it describes the dwellings of peasants and shelters for domestic animals. A meticulous archival investigation in this regard could reveal interesting information by examining notarial repertoires and documents related to the civil jurisdiction of baronial courts. For example, contracts represent a fundamental document for studying the mindset of the parties involved, learning about social and economic life, the value of currency, and the standard of living. They can also provide moral and legal principles. In fact, the baronial, ducal, marchional, or royal governor received, according to a specific procedure, signed declarations from citizens representing true obligations, recorded in a book called "penes acta," as manifestations of the will to fulfill certain commitments in subordinate work relationships or various services, supplies, and rentals.
In this way, a valid act was stipulated not only morally but also legally, often endorsed 'in solidum' by other individuals assuming the same obligations as the contracting party. An important event from a demological perspective occurred during the reign of Gioacchino Murat, namely the inquiry promoted by the Ministry of the Interior, led by Molisan Giuseppe Zurlo, regarding the "Questions about the subsistence and conservation of populations." It is dated 1811-1812 and was conducted for all the districts of the Molise Province. The questionnaire addressed information regarding food, clothing, dwellings, causes of air unhealthiness, causes of harm to health, and diseases.
Useful conclusions can be drawn to compare the general state and habits of inhabitants across different districts. There are sometimes detailed pieces of information about clothing styles. Take, for example, the record for the municipality of Capracotta: "Unmarried women leave their heads uncovered; married ones wear a little gold-trimmed cap; and elderly women use a woolen shawl pierced with large silver needles, mostly adorned with similarly golden trim, and others wear a white handkerchief."
Even more detailed is the description of women's attire in Casacalenda, found in a section of "The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" described and illustrated by Filippo Cirelli (1858) and reserved for six Molisan municipalities: Cercepiccola, San Giuliano del Sannio, Sepino, Casacalenda, Isernia, Morcone, and Sassinoro (the last two administratively belonged to Molise and passed, in 1861, to the province of Benevento). Many traditional customs of these towns are described. For Casacalenda, even the way women comb their hair is noted: "As for the head, they arrange and weave their hair in the following way: those in the front part of the skull are parted on the crown and, after being turned on the forehead and temples, are fastened on the earlobes; those in the rear part are woven in a basket-like form above the occiput, securing them with ribbons, clips, and hairpins."
A work that, for its historical and anthropological interest, should be reprinted is the edition on paper by Pasquale Albino in 1876, and Giuseppe del Re's "Description," which he had published forty years earlier in three volumes, the third entirely dedicated to Molise. Interest in the bell tower, especially in the second half of the nineteenth century, still reflected Enlightenment thought, which had brought about a profound renewal in all forms of cultural activity: politics, economics, history, laws on which human society was formed and governed. In particular, almost all the Enlightenment thinkers of the Kingdom of Naples were strongly influenced by natural law doctrines and Cartesian nationalism.
Francesco De Sanctis, in his "History of Literature," wrote that "the past is for us a present and real thing, and we feel its stings every day. Let us destroy it, and then we will be fair to it." This could explain the interest of some intellectuals in writing about their own country, certainly not with a strictly historiographic method, but predominantly descriptive and sometimes even with a certain literary style. This is the case of the previously mentioned Berengario Galileo Amorosa. The third part of his "Riccia in History and Folklore" (dedicated to folklore) can be considered a true classic of Molisan demology. To write this work, the author spent four years, relying on first-hand documents not only from parish records but also from the archiepiscopal archives of Benevento and the State Archive of Naples (cf. B.G. Amorosa, Conference Proceedings, Riccia 1987, presentation by Salvatore Moffa). The monograph contains a very high number of information on customs, fairy tales, superstitions, sayings, games, and songs. It provides an exemplary reconstruction of the environment. Of particular interest are the customs related to the annual cycle. It begins with New Year's songs called "maitenate," followed by the carnival representation of the Twelve Months, the ritual lunch for the feast of St. Joseph (March 19), the Majo festival (May Day), and so on, up to Christmas. Amorosa also studied man and his existence. He described the 'corella' (the true meaning of which is unknown), a peasant custom expressed in fieldwork, especially during harvesting: "If someone passes through the public streets adjacent to the fields, especially if a stranger, the harvesters begin to load them with insults and atrocious invectives, without respecting gender, age, or condition. If it's a man, they shout their outrageous invectives. If it's a woman, they increase the dose. Then they approach the passerby, offer them a drink in their flasks, and, in return, ask for tobacco and a few coins.""
A collection of objects from the folk world to set up the first Exhibition of Italian Ethnography in Rome in 1911 also included Molise, which welcomed the Livornese Athos Foco Mainardi as a researcher and scholar from January 1910 for several months. Renato Cavallaro, consulting the correspondence between Mainardi and Baldasseroni, in charge of organizing the Exhibition, reconstructed the authentic adventures in various municipalities to procure the necessary and useful material for such a review. In these Molisan itineraries, many aspects, even unpublished ones, of the difficulties in approaching the inhabitants emerge, who are usually hesitant to confide in strangers and not at all interested in the professor's research. However, he found some people who were completely at his disposal to facilitate his work, first and foremost Alfredo Trombetta. In this regard, he wrote to Professor Baldasseroni: 'But don't you know that I am a dear friend of Alfredo Trombetta, the talented photographer, who has been working for us for a long time not only in photographs but also in reconstructing things that are anything but easy to obtain. Imagine, his father in 1860 worked on the colladione and made a collection of costumes that, given the time when he photographed them, are extremely important for us.'
Unlike certain oleographic chronicles concerning the social reality of the municipalities in the region, Mainardi does not mince words and writes, 'I return from a tour in villages where the wheel never reached.' When he succeeded in achieving something, he was full of enthusiasm and communicated it to Baldasseroni, such as when he informed him of having managed to have a beautiful costume made for the populations of Albanian minorities in Lower Molise and again in Baranello, where he managed to obtain two costumes, 'one of which is splendid and the other somewhat similar to a stockfish.' He was also enthusiastic about the costumes of Guardiaregia and Campochiaro. He wrote: 'Imagine that I have seen beautiful costumes even in villages where I didn't think there were any at all.'
For the collection of the most significant dialectal words, Baldasseroni himself gave advice to Mainardi: 'Often in transcribing words, you feel the need to put apostrophes, which, I am sure, correspond to vowels that you have not grasped well. The final mute "e" in Italian dialects, as little felt in pronunciation as it may be, should still be noted in writing: therefore, fewer apostrophes and more final vowels.'
In the same cited correspondence, he let it be known that Alfredo Trombetta had had the costume of the woman from Campobasso made with authentic material, 'one of the simplest, modest, but also the most charming.' At that time, dairy activity dependent on pastoralism was still important in the regional economy, so the objects obtained by Mainardi for the Ethnographic Exhibition in Rome were appreciated, namely wooden molds for cheeses, butter, dairy products, and a whole series of tools used for processing these products. Mainardi personally acquired a rich set of photographs with his own camera (9 x 12) and the constant advice of Trombetta, who also provided him with many photos, not only documentary but also artistic.
The traditional society of Molise
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
The social structure of the Molisan people has been characterized, for centuries and until a few decades ago, by a division into classes: the "galantuomini" (the so-called "civilized"), the massari (landowners), the artieri (artisans), and the cafoni (peasants).
The galantuomini, the first class, held authority and prestige, exercising real civil and economic power over the other classes. People had to respectfully greet them by removing their hats when they appeared on the street. Over time, however, the galantuomini class gradually lost prestige due to the less-than-impeccable conduct of its representatives, mostly without a profession and family, often living in concubinage, thus undermining what the family represented as the center of civil coexistence.
Replacing the old aristocracy, a new plebeian-based aristocracy emerges, where massari, artisans, and merchants compete to contribute professionals and employees to society. Meanwhile, the cafoni, who live with a small piece of land to cultivate, providing their labor with various compensations to the galantuomini and massari, remain in a miserable state. Those who wish to escape these living conditions often emigrate to distant Americas. Some, after making good savings, return to purchase some plots of land and a small house.
The condition of women also changes over time. Once engaged in plowing, harvesting, and all tasks like men, including going to the woods to gather firewood and carrying a copper tub on their heads, women were subjected to subjugation. However, gradually, they were relieved of these burdensome tasks and dedicated themselves to domestic work, wool weaving, preparing dowries for their daughters, tending to the garden, and caring for courtyard animals.
Regarding their clothing, it is noteworthy that the peasants' attire adheres to an ancient tradition and is characterized by a strong resemblance to the garments worn in various regions. For example, men wear wide black wool capes with lamb fur collars, accompanied by "uose" (short trousers) and a little jacket. Women wear high-necked bodices with colorful ribbons, pleated skirts, "zinali," "mandazini" large scarves with large floral motifs, as well as silk, cotton, and linen fabrics (once silk cultivation was not uncommon, especially in the neighboring Campania - as well as linen cultivation). They also wore low-value jewelry, few in terms of gold quantity, necklaces, "puntantiffe," rings, and other ornaments, completing an elegant attire that indicated a somewhat refined feminine taste.
Today, few traditional costumes are preserved, and most of those seen during local celebrations worn by folkloric groups are recently made, although very similar to the originals. The preserved examples within some families provide precise indications for crafting new costumes.
Religious Events Folk Faith
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
In the traditions of the people, a point of reference is religiosity, not only in relation to worship practices but also in the more specific field of spirituality. It represents a phenomenon of life and faith, sometimes experienced alongside liturgy, often in an alternative dialectic with official worship, expressing very primitive sentiments related to the sacred and the mystery of God. In Molise, religiosity is an integral part of peasant culture and directly refers to the world of collectively experienced feelings, never elaborated by systems of thought but rather spontaneous and deeply rooted in sensitivity and the subconscious. For this reason, certain traditions still resist and oppose attempts at erasure or radical changes.
Anthropologically, popular religiosity is rooted in the major mysteries and moments of human existence: the meaning of life and death, illnesses and misfortunes, joys and celebrations, birth, growth, marriage, memory of the deceased, the rhythm of time and seasons, and the harvest of the fruits of the earth. These celebratory rhythms of existence have been consecrated by Christian festivals and ordered in an evangelical sense to praise God and express solidarity. Devotion to saints, as intercessors for graces and protectors, is manifested in typical forms, expressed in pilgrimages to shrines, village festivals, processions, ex-votos, and the veneration of images.
The popularity of folk religiosity lies especially in the particular expressiveness of celebratory rites, born spontaneously and found in all cultures, transmitted with the force of ancestral custom, repeating and tracing continuity in collective memory. In Molise, these characteristics are observed, but often it is also noted that in certain periods, the people, dissatisfied with the celebratory forms of a distant, sometimes incomprehensible, and excessively clericalized liturgy, developed paraliturgical forms more in harmony with their feelings. Consider, for example, certain popular representations of Christmas and the Passion, legends of patron saints, and pagan-origin popular rites and manifestations.
Religious popular festivals, therefore, represent significant events that allow scholars to recognize various elements of archaic religiosity that Catholicism has integrated for a more evident characterization of the popular imprint. The very term "festa" (from the archaic Latin "festum") indicates the meaning of public joy as a collective cultural fact. With the advent of consumerist civilization, many behavioral aspects of the festival have changed, becoming the most important moment in the consumption economy, as it predominates with playful and daily enjoyment aspects. Festival committees have been replaced by public institutions that prioritize, depending on ideology, the less religious aspect.
In traditional society, religious popular festivals had the function of renewing time, also as a moment of purification for the prevalence of aspects that fell within the concept of the "sacred." Once, existence was marked by the calendrical cycle of festivals for patron saints and beloved saints, up to major solemnities such as Christmas and Easter. There was no separation between religious and civil aspects, and moments of solidarity were sought, with no need for entities or associations to encourage people to gather.
For centuries, the cult of Saint Anthony Abbot embodies one of the most lively and intensely participated expressions of popular religiosity. His annual celebration, falling in the middle of the winter period and within the New Year festivities, is characterized by intense ritualization aimed at addressing the existential needs of the agricultural and pastoral world. A world entirely focused on seeking supernatural protections to ensure the realization of expectations of well-being, security, and the continuity of life. Although transformations in economic-production systems have made this world no longer reliant on traditional symbolic-ritual precautions, it continues to see in the figure of St. Anthony the divine mediator capable of absorbing the crises of the present and giving rural communities the opportunity to recognize themselves as historical, identity-oriented, and heritage entities."
Pilgrimages
An ancient popular celebration, subsequently linked to pilgrimages, is associated with seeking intercession from God and the Saints to invoke help in overcoming existential weaknesses.
Even today, pilgrimages are common in Molise, including those leading to other regions, especially in Puglia and Campania. Once undertaken on foot, modern means of transportation are now used. The pilgrimages traditionally most frequented by Molisans include those to Santa Maria di Canneto, the Sanctuary of Castelpetroso, and San Michele sul Gargano in Puglia (though an increasing number of pilgrimages are directed towards San Giovanni Rotondo, near the tomb of Padre Pio). They have as their destination places laden with ancestral power, referring to historical memories of miraculous events (apparitions, sacred objects, tombs, and relics of saints). Especially in the Middle Ages, penitential journeys were aimed at obtaining absolution for sins and acquiring protective energy, following ancient forms of superstition.
Today, everything has fundamentally changed because the essential elements of pilgrimages are integrated with utilitarian components represented by fairs and sales of itinerant traders, with an organization that often subordinates the needs of worship.
However, pilgrimages have influenced various aspects of civilization by giving rise to new trade routes, bringing together crowds from different rural and pastoral areas, justifying historical affinities in customs and culture. Consider the existing resemblance between various traditional pilgrim chants. Furthermore, the physical suffering aspects, such as burdening backpacks with stones, long barefoot walks, and other bodily mortifications, no longer exist. Pilgrimages, especially during the era of transhumance, represented a form of linguistic intermingling that influenced the evolution of dialects during long and strenuous journeys on foot, interspersed with daytime and even nighttime stops.
A sanctuary that has increased its importance from year to year, also due to its suggestive environmental position, where the cult of Saint Michael the Archangel is very much alive, is located in Liscia, a small locality in the Vastese. Every year, on the eighth of May, an hour's walk from the village, the cult of the saint is celebrated, tied to an ancient tradition. According to this tradition, simultaneously with Gargano, the Archangel also appeared in the territory of Liscia, in a cave where Lucifer was nesting, later crushed by the saint.
A legend tells of a shepherd who repeatedly lost his bull while grazing. However, the animal would suddenly reappear towards evening. One day, intrigued, the shepherd decided to follow it. Astonished, he noticed that a dense and closed forest opened miraculously as the bull passed through. Finally, arriving near a cave, the animal knelt down. From a distance, the shepherd observed the scene when suddenly, amidst a flash of lights, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared. Overwhelmed by emotion, the shepherd fainted, and when he regained consciousness, he felt his throat burning and a strong desire to drink. Then, as if by a miracle, he saw water dripping into the cave, and he quenched his thirst.
Since that distant time, every eighth of May, the cave has been a gathering place of faith for thousands of believers from all of Abruzzo and the neighboring Molise (especially from Castelmauro and Acquaviva Collecroce), to come together in prayer and drink that miraculous water, believed to drip from stalactites.
There is an ongoing dispute to establish (though historically impossible!) the priority of the apparitions: first in Liscia or in Gargano? In the latter, there is the medieval Sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo, in whose territory there are many caves, the most famous of which houses the altar of Saint Michael the Archangel. The presence in Gargano of an ancient sanctuary, where thousands of faithful flock every year, suggests that the cult of Archangel Michael reached Abruzzo precisely from Puglia, through the shepherds of transhumance."
Evocative is the collective ritual of purification when the pilgrim groups are about to reach the summit of the mountain: the ritual is called "perdono" (forgiveness), as pilgrims, kneeling around the cross and the banner, exchange the kiss of peace. For over thirty years now, the journey on foot has been replaced by buses, and the route to Gargano usually takes pilgrims to Bari for the worship of Saint Nicholas. Marian devotion is also very strong. Here is how Gabriele D'Annunzio, in the novel "The Triumph of Death" at the end of the last century, describes the arrival of pilgrims at the Sanctuary of Madonna dei Miracoli in Casalbordino, near Vasto: "…. the groups that arrived, preceded by the crucifers, singing the hymn, in long lines [...), in the church, the women dragged themselves on their knees, sobbing. Some crawled on the floor, supporting the weight of their horizontal bodies on elbows and barefoot thumbs, gradually advancing towards the altar, crawling like reptiles, trembling around the mouth that kissed the dust, near the tongue, which marked crosses with saliva mixed with blood."
Today, we are far from that cruel ritual; however, the devotion remains the same. The faithful arrive by bus from the towns of Valle del Sangro and the nearby Molise, covering the last stretch to the sanctuary on foot. It is a genuine salvific anchor, an intimate need for a relationship with divinity to draw comfort and strength against life's adversities. A sanctuary that involves the faithful from Campomarino, Portocannone, and the Abruzzo towns of Lentella and Fresagrandinaria, in the upper Vastese, is that of Madonna Grande di Nuova Cliternia, originating from the finding of a painting of the Virgin in the mid-15th century. According to tradition, the painting was found by Marquis D'Avalos during a hunting trip in the Ramitello woods, near Campomarino. The dogs accompanying the hunters, chasing three deer, suddenly stopped and started digging, bringing to light the painting, which was three times taken in procession to Campomarino, as it disappeared only to return to the place of discovery. There, on the morning of August 15, 1460, the locals witnessed a miracle: it had snowed during the night, and the outlines of the church to be built were marked on the snow. Over the years, the devotion of the populations nearby grew enormously, and the people of Fresigrandinaria, for the most part, make a pilgrimage to the church every year, of which they "own" one of the three entrance doors and an altar.
Numerous pilgrims, every Monday of Pentecost, head to the Sanctuary of Madonna Grande, crossing the Trigno river through Guglionesi and Montenero di Bisaccia, continuing towards Portocannone. Here, there is a meeting with the population that has just finished watching the "carrese" (ox race) in honor of Madonna di Costantinopoli, and an "embrace of populations that share the worship of Madonna Grande and Madonna di Costantinopoli." Pilgrims from Abruzzo, after stopping in Portocannone to venerate the image of Madonna di Costantinopoli, continue their journey for about ten hours and arrive at the Sanctuary of Madonna Grande di Nuova Cliternia, where moving scenes of devotion can be witnessed, according to an ancient and suggestive ritual.
History and legend intertwine to explain the genesis of local worship for Madonna di Costantinopoli. Around 1460, groups of Albanians, to escape domination due to the heroic resistance of the great leader George Castriota Skanderbeg, emigrated in search of new land and landed in the plain of Saccione near Campomarino. There was a dispute over where to settle. So they decided to leave the decision to an ox-drawn cart, on which a painting of Madonna di Costantinopoli was placed: wherever the cart stopped, there they would settle.
To commemorate the event every year, on Pentecost Monday, the people of Portocannone celebrate the event with an ox-drawn cart race, thus renewing the ancient myth, not only as a auspicious sign but as an act of thanks and devotion to Madonna di Costantinopoli, the patroness of pilgrims and refugees. In the race, two carts are involved, one for the young and one for the young men. The prize for the winning cart is to carry the painting of Madonna in procession. It is tradition, after the race, to receive pilgrims from Abruzzo, specifically from Lentella and Fresagrandinaria.
A few kilometers from Vasto, in the territory of Monteodorisio, according to popular tradition, a small church dedicated to Santa Maria delle Grazie was built in the 12th century. However, it was only in 1886 that a miracle gave it the fame of a sanctuary. It is told that during the repairs of the church's foundation walls, a spring of water gushed out, performing healings on the sick and causing death to animals that drank from it. The healing of a critically ill girl, who, after drinking this water, suddenly recovered, caused great excitement. Since then, the sanctuary's reputation spread, and pilgrimages, increasingly numerous, began not only from neighboring towns but also from the Molise region, particularly from Larino. With generous donations, a new sanctuary was built, and the Madonna's water is collected in a well, where devotees go to drink. The solemn celebration takes place on the first Sunday of September. A twinning has also been established between Monteodorisio and Larino, giving Larino the privilege of leading all others in the ceremonial order. It's worth noting that in 1992, the Madonna's statue was temporarily transferred to the Molise town.
The presence of churches in certain areas of the Abruzzo-Molise Apennines has contributed to pastoral economy and, therefore, characterized the life of our populations. The transhumance of flocks to Puglia facilitated economic, cultural, and religious exchanges, giving rise to legends and new cults along those routes.
It is understandable, then, how in the territory of Castiglione Messer Marino, bordering Agnone, in the center of a pasture-rich locality called Lupara, along the Pescocostanzo-Pescopennataro drover's road, there existed a village with a church containing an ancient statue of the Madonna, attracting numerous pilgrims. Due to the transhumance crisis, the village was gradually abandoned, and the 14th-century wooden statue of the Madonna was transferred to the parish church of Castiglione. According to tradition, the statue was found by a deaf-mute shepherdess precisely in the place where the church was later built.
The inhabitants of neighboring villages such as Roio and Monteferrante claimed ownership, so it was decided to entrust a cart, with the statue pulled by oxen, to indicate the beneficiary of the trial, which concluded in favor of Castiglione. This is a recurring theme in the foundation legends of many sanctuaries, leaving oxen free to choose the location.
This Madonna del Monte is also an object of veneration for the devotees of Molise from neighboring Abruzzo, as she was considered the Madonna of the drover's roads, with a dark "Slavic-style" complexion.
Another sanctuary frequented by Molise residents from Lupara, Acquaviva Collecroce, Montenero di Bisaccia, Petacciato, and other locations is located in Furci, in the Vasto area, and is dedicated to Blessed Angelo. Popular devotion for this Augustinian friar dates back many centuries (born in Furci, Vasto, in 1246 and died in Naples on February 6, 1327). In Naples, he was buried in the church of the Sant’Agostino convent, and after much insistence from the people of Furci, on August 1, 1808, King Joseph Bonaparte decreed the transfer of his body to his hometown.
Every year on September 13 (the date moved a month later because August heavily occupied farmers in the fields), a grand celebration takes place, and the "bambagia benedetta" collected by the faithful in small cloth bags (garments) is distributed. These bags are worn around the neck to ward off fevers and ear diseases.
Noteworthy is the cult of Saints Cosmas and Damian, whose liturgical feast was celebrated on September 27, the day of their martyrdom. They were two brothers who practiced the medical arts with the ability to perform miracles. During the reign of Diocletian, they were beheaded for refusing to make sacrifices in honor of the Roman gods. Many testimonies exist in popular culture, especially in Abruzzo, Puglia, and Molise. In Isernia, for example, the cult was associated with the cure of female infertility and male impotence, and in the 18th century, it was celebrated with the offering of wax ex-votos representing phalluses. Abruzzese scholar Giovanni Pansa, in his book "Miti, leggende e superstizioni dell’Abruzzo" (Myths, Legends, and Superstitions of Abruzzo), wrote: "Due to the frailty of the male sex, dependent on many destructive causes, in the territory of Isernia, devout mothers flocked to the Sanctuary of SS.Cosma and Damiano to obtain healing for infected or lost male organs, and they offered in thanks a votive offering consisting of the genuine reproduction in wax of the same organ."
The miraculous tradition of sanctuaries persists with a large number of ex-votos: once painted tablets depicting the received grace, later replaced with photographs and prints, and still ex-votos of gold, silver, and wax casts of anatomical parts, orthopedic tools, clothing, hair braids, and other objects. It is a testimony to humble tales of pain and despair, of narrowly escaped dangers in specific historical and social contexts.
Sociologists, psychologists, and ethnologists agree in considering that these manifestations of religiosity primarily reflect the economic and social aspects of the popular classes. These are mechanisms typical of the predominantly rural world, based on a rigidly formalistic ethic of 'give and take.'
Researchers believe that sociology and popular traditions can draw from painted or sculpted tablets a material of great historical value to deepen the understanding of various social classes, customs, work tools, housing structures, means of transportation, professions, and trades. These are mainly crude little squares created in a rudimentary way, or jewels, ornaments, wedding rings, and other valuable objects offered as a return for the graces and miracles received. For example, some painted subjects include a peasant family escaping lightning in the stable with their livestock, a man falling from a tree and miraculously remaining unharmed, a driver escaping a road accident, a wheat field spared from hail damage, and more. All these images are invariably surrounded by a little cloud with angels, the image of the saint, and the Madonna.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows in Castelpetroso
On March 22, 1888, in the district of Cesa dei Santi in the Municipality of Castelpetroso, a thirty-five-year-old peasant woman, Bibiana Cicchino, while searching for a lost lamb, noticed an intense light coming from a cave. She approached and saw, kneeling with her eyes turned to the sky in an act of supplication, a beautiful woman— the Virgin Mary. At her feet lay Jesus, covered in blood and wounds. Ten days later, the apparition repeated itself in the presence of another peasant, Serafina Valentino. The news spread throughout Molise and neighboring regions, and the number of pilgrims quickly reached thousands.
The Church, with its usual scrutiny in the face of such extraordinary events, tasked the Bishop of Bojano, Francesco Palmieri, with conducting initial investigations. To confer greater authority, Pope Leo XIII appointed him Apostolic Delegate with the specific task of a survey at the site of the apparitions. The Bishop expressed his belief that these were not hysterical phenomena or illusions but rather a truly extraordinary event.
The press began to take an interest, and especially a Marian magazine published in Bologna by the Servants of Mary kept the public informed with a series of updates. The director of the magazine, Carlo Acquaderni, in November 1888, went with his son Augusto to the blessed rock to invoke the healing of his son, condemned to die from the consequences of an incurable disease—bone tuberculosis. Augusto was miraculously healed. In gratitude, Carlo Acquaderni initiated a fundraising effort, which, along with his significant financial contribution, would be used to build a small chapel at the blessed site of the Madonna's special presence.
In February 1890, engineer Francesco Gualandi of Bologna submitted the project and drawings to Bishop Palmieri, and on September 28 of the same year, in the presence of thirty thousand faithful, the first stone was laid. Since the start of the construction, there have been numerous financial difficulties, but the generous offerings of the faithful have never been lacking. Therefore, the achieved goal can be considered a triumph of faith in September 1975 when the Sanctuary was consecrated by Bishop Alberto Carinci. Meanwhile, in 1973, Pope Paul VI, with his decree, proclaimed the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows as the Patroness of Molise, venerated in the Sanctuary of Castelpetroso.
Nowadays, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows is considered one of the most important in Southern Italy. In the central chapel, there is a sculpture reproducing the Virgin Mary and the dead Jesus in the same attitude as the apparitions. Another six chapels are each dedicated to one of the Virgin's sorrows, in the representation of the well-known Molisan painter Amedeo Trivisonno. The bronze door panels reproduce the "Mysteries of the Rosary" in the Revelation and history of the Church. The bell towers are enriched with a concert of bells made by the Marinelli foundry in Agnone. The environmental position of the Sanctuary exudes a particular charm that contributes to enhancing this mystical place in an atmosphere inviting to prayer and reflection on the great mystery of faith."