Italians who share the common traditions of Roman Catholicism have often felt it necessary to claim one saint as the patron for their province, town, or area. Apulians have certainly done so for centuries.
~~ FOLKLORE: The Sacred & the Profane Narratives ~~
Persecution of the early Christians created the first category of holy people -- or "martyrs" -- and the lives of these saints, a collection of miracle stories, began to be collected not only in Latin and Greek but also in regional dialects. Folklore is filled with supernatural deeds of wooden puppets that come to life ["Pinocchio"], donkeys that produce money ["Ari, Ari! Donkey, Money!"], enchanted virgins who sleep for years ["La Bella Dormezza"], and other fascinating creatures.
Similarly, holy folklore -- or writing centered on heroic, virtuous individuals who perform supernatural acts [miracles] and embody sacred power -- has been created, collected, and re-told by generations of Apulians.
~~ Inventing Apulian Culture through Hagiography ~~
Hagiography (any literature that concerns the saints) has long played a crucial cultural role in how Apulians choose and venerate their halo-ed patrons. The existence of a text about this religious person implied that he [she] had received some form of public honor and institutional recognition of exceptional sanctity, and had entered God's kingdom as a saint. Since the day of death is the first day the holy one enters Heaven, the official recognition of sainthood was the celebration of this death date as a "feast day": the existence of a relic shrine also enters into "official" recognition.
Saints were venerated long after their deaths, well after memory of them had faded, therefore, their lives were rarely written by anyone with intimate, first-hand knowledge. These accounts were not "biographies" in the modern sense. Instead of bios, familiar tales, themes, and motifs were repeated from the life of one saint to another. "Such stories were borrowed, sometimes with little change, from earlier saints' lives and were intended to convey a moral message rather than historically accurate information," explains Dr. Thomas Head of Washington University in Seattle.
Nevertheless, there is an historical aspect all the same: these narratives of saints' lives reveal a great deal about the religious and cultural mind-set of Apulians who have either created, or who have re-told these stories.
~~ How St. Nicholas of Myra became San Nicola di Bari in 1087 ~~
Here's an example of a cultural mind-set:
Why settle for a saint when you can have a star? By selecting such a globally
popular saint -- Nicholas -- as patron of Bari, Apulians have shown that
they have long been interested in promoting tourism and that they are shrewd
marketing managers.
Devotion to Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra [circa 245 - 326 AD; feast day: December 6], was well-established in the West and many miracles had been attributed to him before his corpse and relics were moved from Turkey to Italy in 1087. Legends attached to Nicholas supported his reputation as a kind, solicitous, generous man. [Example: one tale has him saving three poor girls from prostitution by giving them dowries big enough to attract good husbands.]
Factually, however, all that is known is this: Nicholas was born to an affluent family and became Archbishop of Myra [i.e., Turkey in the 1990s] in the 4th century. The rest is "spin" -- not unlike the colorful, spinning of gossip that attracts tourists to a region with year-round resident celebrities.
When Myra and its great shrine finally passed into the hands of the Saracens, several Italian cities saw this as an opportunity to acquire the relics of St. Nicholas for themselves. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia: "There was great competition for the relics between Venice and Bari. The last-named won, the relics were carried off under the noses of the lawful Greek custodians and their Mohammedan masters, and on May 9, 1087 were safely landed at Bari, a not inappropriate home seeing that Apulia in those days still had large Greek colonies. A new church was built to shelter Nicholas's remains and the Pope Urban II was present at their enshrining."
What a prize and there he lay: Nicholas, the patron saint of Russia, Greece, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Sicily, Loraine, etc. And who had him now, magnificently installed as a permanent tourist attraction? Bari had secured both a magnet for souvenir-buying tourists and a moralistic figure to keep children's behavior in check.
Saints, of course, are always portrayed as examples of exemplary conduct
-- and expected to demonstrate "merits and virtues" after death. They work
hard for the right to be on pedestals and centered in stained glass windows
by creating evidence of posthumous miracles (which God is supposed to perform
through his saints) in their shrines, at their tombs, or in relation to their
relics. The non-stop miraculous includes visible marvels [cures, exorcisms]
as well as invisible acts [remission of sins].
The greater the report of miracles, the more popular this saint would become -- and be more sought out by visitors. The devout, naturally, prayed to these holy people or traveled to their shrines hoping for divine intercession. These posthumous narratives were essential for on-going public veneration of the saints.
Hagiographers will note that reading the life of San Nicola (or other saints) inspires Christians to follow these examples -- even as they admit that such ascetic, virtuous models are extraordinary and almost unattainable. But people enjoy hearing about (or reading about) celebrities they cannot be, whether the V.I.P. is Princess Diana of Wales, Mother Teresa, the Virgin Mary, or San Corrado.
And veneration of the saints was always central to medieval Christianity, and continues to be important in modern Orthodoxy and Catholicism. Through these "soldiers of Christ," the Church continues to define virtue in light of a refined asceticism or self-denial, especially through the renunciation of food and sexual relations. Power wielded by holy people necessarily reflects the extremes to which they were prepared to go for their salvation.
Since the faithful are not usually prepared to go to these extremes, the saint becomes even more of an exemplar for others. For an exemplar to have meaning, however, these narratives must circulate. Lives of the saints must be kept in print, researched, revised, published -- and purchased in religious gift shops. [Yes, that's part of the cycle: a commercial interest here.]
Apulians have built some of the most splendid cathedrals and churches
to house their patrons -- and in which to contemplate their saints. These
Catholic saints are often less well-known outside of Apulia. This column
has been a chance to reacquaint Apulians with some favorite patrons and to
introduce others to these extraordinary individuals.
by LindaAnn Loschiavo
[This excerpt originally appeared in L'IDEA Winter 1998.
©Copyright, 1998 L'IDEA. All Rights
Reserved]
~~ Visit St. Nicholas of Myra [San Nicola di Bari] in Puglia ~~
For years, if you have been picturing Santa Claus snow-bound in the North
Pole, it may be a shock to learn that Nicholas was once a real person, an
archbishop, who lived in the 4th century in sunny Asia Minor, and that his
sacred relics are now housed in a
cathedral built
especially for him in southern Italy. Italian children, of course,
have known all along where Saint Nick has been all year: contemplated, visited,
and prayed to by Apulian residents and pilgrims.
~~ Where is the city of Bari? Where is the region of Apulia? ~~
The elongated region of Puglia (Apulia) forms the southeastern part of the peninsula, on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, bordering the Molise region on the northwest and the regions of Campania and Basilicata to the west.
One of the most beautiful parts of Puglia is Gargano, the 'heel of Italy',
the large promontory which juts into the Adriatic Sea, and culminates in
Monte Calvo (1,055 m.).
Size - Population:
Apulia is Italy's 7th largest region; its population density is above the
national average.
Puglia's capital is Bari. Its 5 major cities are: Bari, Brindisi,
Foggia, Lecce, Taranto.
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