Priapus "unveiled" in an ancient Molise tradition

The ancient gods can mockingly hide in the most unexpected folds of the stratified and lively popular devotion, such as in Isernia in Molise, where until 1780 a ceremony connected with the ancient fertility cults was held.


di AnnaMB
originally published on
The Measure of Things, Author's blog

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The ancient gods can mockingly hide in the most unexpected folds of the stratified and lively popular devotion, and an austere Benedictine cloistered monastery to be dedicated to a martyr to whom a cult defined as "indecent" was paid in Central and Southern Italy until the eighteenth century; and in fact in 1780 the feast that was celebrated near was suspended Isernia, Molise, due to the increasingly large crowd of devotees by now unmanageable who made an appointment on September 27th to attend the exhibition of the "big toe of St. Cosma", much to the embarrassment of the city authorities. An itchy question, but that's not all: the saint also renewed every year the miracle of fertility, and many, including "spinsters, married women, widows and women of pleasure", after the party returned home "pardoned" by a pregnancy that otherwise they could not obtain.

To testify are two letters, real ethnographic documents, the first signed by a Scotsman passionate about culture and antiquity dated 1781, the other of the previous year, written in Italian by an unspecified "person resident in Isernia" (A Person Resources at Isernia) and direct source of the first; both were collected and published in London in 1786 in a volume entitled An Account of the remainins of the Worship of Priapus, Lately Existing at Isernia, in The Kingdom of Naples, from which the images are also taken. The translations are mine.

Naples, 30 December 1781. His Majesty's minister Sir William Hamilton writes to his compatriot Richard Payne Knight, a parliamentarian and illustrious patron who, like him, is interested in the arts and letters and who will be editor of the volume:

"I made a curious discovery last year: in a province of this Kingdom, not more than 15 miles from the capital, a cult is paid to Priapus, the ancient obscene deity, albeit under another name, in circumstances worth recording. I had already noticed how, in Naples and in the suburbs, women and children of the lower social classes often wear some sort of amulet, which they believe dismisses the bad eyes [sic], which very much resembles those used by the ancient inhabitants of these lands. These objects often represent a Concha VenerisΒ {shell, symbolizing the female genitals [1]} or a crescent and are made of silver, ivory, amber, crystal coral or with stones or gems. But the most common form is that of an open and squeezed hand with the tip of the thumb between the middle finger and index finger. Well the test that these amulets have a direct connection with Priapus is given by a small bronze statuette of the god preserved in the Museum of Portici and found among the ruins of Herculaneum: Priapus has a huge phallus and extends his right hand with the gesture described above; not only that: in the British Museum there are many ancient objects where the hand in the same posture holds a phallus, and it is probable that over time only the hand remained in the amulets, eliminating the most indecent image. "

The report proceeds by describing the circumstances in which the writer had become aware of this characteristic festival which took place on a hill at the gates of the Β«Samnite city of Isernia, one of the oldest in the Kingdom and still very populous today "in what is called the Contada del Molise: a gentleman, a liberal and cultured person who worked on an infrastructural project and stayed in the city (the anonymous of the original letter), knowing the interests of his friend, writes to him that he had witnessed the feast of St. Cosmos and to have been very impressed by it for the similarities with the cult of the "god of the gardens" (God of the gardens) [2].

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Unfortunately, Sir Hamilton was unable to satisfy his curiosity to participate: on going to Isernia that same February, he was told "by the governor himself that, due to the indecency of the ceremony and the resonance he was getting in recent times" due to the opening of a new road that went towards the Province of Abruzzo and crossed the city, they had decided that from that year onwards the great toe of the saint would no longer be exposed.

The party was annual and lasted three days; "Every year on September 27 there is a fair of the class of pardons (so called in Abruzzi li gran markets [...])" which takes place "on a hillock, which is in the middle of two rivers, half a mile from Isernia ", where on the highest part there is an ancient church with a vestibule which is said to have been the church and monastery of the Benedictines" when they were poor ". During one of the feast days they came exhibits the relics of the saints and then carried in procession from the cathedral to the church on the hill; the big toe was also carried in procession - almost a Dionysian phallophory, whose open allusiveness was not suited to a composed and sober ceremony dedicated to a martyr of the Holy Roman Church.

Then many wax votive offerings of various sizes were publicly offered to the saint, mostly depicting male genitalia. The vendors would go to the fair with a basket full of these objects hanging on one arm and a plate for money in the other shouting loudly "San Cosmo e Damiano!", And if you ask them how much a vote costs they answer "the more we put, the more you deserve ". At the central altar you can then anoint yourself with "The saint's oil", prepared according to the canons of the Roman Ritual but with the addition of a prayer to the two martyrs, where "sick of all evil", discovering the sick part, are anointed with oil while the intercession is invoked. In particular this one miraculous mixture sold in bottles is indicated for pathologies of the lumbar region and adjacent parts, and it is sold out (the observer wonders if this business of the miracle is not too "profitable" compared to what should be the canons of the Church).

Where the British timidly advanced the suspicion that the sale of objects could hide profit-making purposes, the Italian openly admits it: "the whole great celebration revolves around the profit of the members of the generation", Without counting the earnings deriving from a real tourist activity, in fact it is noted that" the canons rent the shacks, some 10, others 15, 20 pugs each "and the tavern for 20 ducats including "edibles" which are blessed for the occasion.

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The original letter from the Italian official "Informer" of the British diplomat and man of letters is written in a less formal tone than the first, it reports here and there some salacious comments between the lines and ends with a spicy celia ("If you don't taste them, when you have read it / It will be good to make a revelry: / Which will at least give you some delight / The nuns when they go to bed ").Β Here is the description of the ceremony. The royal governor in the capacity of Master of the fair has the task of starting the celebrations: he raises the flag with the insignia of the city, and a procession with the relics starts from the cathedral to the church on the hill. But, our anonymous commented laconically, she "is not very devoted".

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The festival held after the religious celebration, that yes, it is very popular and popular: around the church a "great competition of inhabitants from Motese, Mainarde and other nearby mountains" [3]. They are above all women, adorned with clothes of singular "strangeness" and great diversity, for those not accustomed to seeing them, very colorful, to whom he dedicates lines of unexpected poetry: from the Land of the Rooster comes a female order of the Capuchin Seraphic who dresses in the "cloak ”, The girls from Scanno, on the other hand, appear to be young Greeks and those from Carovilli are Armenian; some have red handkerchiefs embroidered with white thread with an "Etruscan taste" on their heads and they are all a "real beauty".

During the fair they are sold to devotees "Virile members of wax of different shapes, and of all sizes, up to a palm ", in much greater numbers than other figurines representing legs, arms or other organs. These wax members will then be collected in two basins placed on the tables "in the vestibule of the Temple", accompanied by a cash offering, "as has always been practiced in all presentations of members". In the vestibule, therefore, the canons gather the wax members in one basket and the offerings for masses and litanies in the other: the vows are always accompanied by a coin and a phrase such as "Saint Cosimo benedetto, so I want it", " I recommend you to me Β». The devotion is "almost all of the women" who go in large numbers to ask for the grace and intercession of St. Cosmas, "each kissing the vow that presentΒ».

Despite the rent of all the shacks available, it was difficult to find where to sleep for two nights "as there are no houses in Isernia to house all the number of people who compete". The women were housed some in the church of the friars minor of the order of the clogs, others at the Capuchins, while the external places, such as the arcades, were intended for men. The party ends with the canons sharing wax and money and Β«col many women become pregnant again", To the great advantage of the provinces which are seeing a conspicuous increase in population, not only the" barren married "who had gone to ask for the grace of a child, but often" the grace extends without wonder "even to single women who for two nights they had slept inside the churches "guarded by the guardians, vicars and fathers more than worthy", resulting in an abundance of miracles "without the inconvenience of the saints".

The connection between fertility and the male genital organ is more than an allusion in this "scandalous" popular festival which has in fact suffered the cut of censorship; but the numbers speak for themselves, and also the gender composition: to women - those who belonged to female orders devoted to rigor and sacrifice and the beautiful and dreamy "puellas" of mountain villages, those alone and accompanied, the licentious and the fearful ones - it was allowed to suspend during the three days (and two nights) of the feast that restrained behavior that was imposed on them by social duty, "submit" to the will of the saint and let themselves go to the exceptional event, to the "miracle".

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Di Cosma and Damiano the Acts of the Greek martyriologists already report "improbable and imaginative elements, macroscopic inventions, proven improbabilities", a manipulation considered legitimate perhaps by the fact that the first compilers were aware of direct information [4].Β The saints are defined twins and thaumaturges who care for free not only men, but also animals: "Experts in the medical art, they solicited no other reward for the therapies, if not faith in Christ" [5]. Their feast, according to the liturgical calendar, falls on the 27th Kalende of October (283 September), but the date of their martyrdom is not in agreement; of noble Arab origins, they lived in Rome and died under the Emperor Cute (285-498). In all versions, "excellence in medical art" and beneficial and gratuitous works are mentioned, especially towards the poor. The cult in Rome spreads soon: Pope Symmachus (514-526) dedicates an oratory to them near Santa Maria Maggiore and Felice IV (530-XNUMX) raises a basilica that bears their names "in a place called Via SacraΒ», Near the temple of Apollo [6].

Their remains have been moved several times and some of them are found in Italy, part in France, England, Portugal and Germany.. In Munich, for example, the skulls of the two martyrs are kept in an ark covered with gilded bas-reliefs placed in the center of the church of San Michele Arcangelo. Every year the relics are solemnly exhibited on the occasion of the supplication held on the Sunday included in the octave of All Saints, to commemorate the victory over Frederick V of the Palatinate achieved in Prague in 1620, a feast established a few years later by the electric Maria Anna d 'Habsburg. No mention by local commentators on "rough" activities following the celebration, in cold Bavaria - and perhaps a skull lends itself less to an erotic undertone than a big toe: it is only said that the archduchess's devotion to the two martyrs was followed by citizens with great enthusiasm, and "many wax and silver statuettes attest to how great was their faith and their gratitude" [7].

In Italy there are many ancient churches dedicated to the two saints. In Abruzzo-Molise, in addition to the famous hermitage of Isernia, other significant places of worship are in Sulmona, Roccascalegna, Caprara fraction of Spoltore, Cognano Amiterno, Castel di Sangro and Tagliacozzo (ibid, p. 83). Here, in that monastery of San Cosma which is already mentioned in the Carolingian sources with the note in Heloritu (in a laurel wood), now the Benedictine cloistered nuns reside.

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Note:

[1] On the symbolism of theΒ Concha Veneris, see M. Maculotti,Β The symbolism of the Spiral: the Milky Way, the shell, the "rebirth", on AXISmundi.

[2] Here Sir William Hamilton, with the name of "God of the Gardens", probably refers to green man British, related to the symbolism of the annual rebirth of the vegetative-seasonal cycle and of fertility; in this regard, see M. Maculotti,Β From Pan to the Devil: the 'demonization' and the removal of ancient European cults, on AXISmundi.

[3] We have already talked about the folklore and rites concerning the Mainarde region; in this regard, cf. M. Palmesano,Β The magic of the Mainarde: on the trail of the Janare and the Deer Man, on AXISmundi.

[4] Cfr. A. Bucci, The holy doctors Cosma and Damiano, Armando Publisher, 2016.

[5]Β Ivi, p. 17.

[6] Ivi, p. 75.

[7] Ivi, p. 106.


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