Santa Rosalia and Mamma Schiavona: Popular Worship between Religiosity and Identity

History and founding myths

Montorio (1715), prior of the Neapolitan convent of Santa Maria della Sanità, reconstructs the history of Mary’s icon. It is supposed to have been painted by Saint Luke, who carried the icon to Antakya and then to Constantinople. Here the icon, after having performed several miracles, became an object of adoration. It was brought to Montevergine during the thirteenth century.

The sanctuary of Montevergine was founded by Guglielmo from Vercelli at the beginning of the twelfth century. Before, it was a meeting place for hermits who did not follow any monastic order. Guglielmo’s successor, Albert, in response to pressure from the Church, turned it into a Cluny monastic order, while at the same time maintained a certain independence from the Archbishop of Avellino, thanks to its status as a territorial abbey, in which the Abbot is the Bishop of the community.

The sanctuary has also a different founding myth (Ceccarelli, 2008), according to which San Vitaliano, Bishop of Capua, founded the sanctuary in the eighth century. The Bishop was supposedly the victim of a joke: his vestments to celebrate Mass were swapped for female clothes. He did not realize this and celebrated Mass in female clothes, after which he was thrown into the nearby river. After the expulsion of the Bishop, a period of famine and plague followed, and the local population asked the Bishop to forgive them. He refused and retired on Monte Partenio, currently called Montevergine.

Abbot Giordano’s (1649) and Mastrullo’s (1663) chronicles of Montevergine say the sanctuary was partially destroyed by a fire in 1611. It was believed that the anger of Mary caused it, since some people were not fasting during Lent and worshiped her in an unorthodox way, giving too much importance to song and dance. These sources also talk of the discovery, after the fire, of the remains of some men dressed as women and vice versa.

A different founding myth of the sanctuary can be found in the local popular songs, collected by De Simone (1979). According to these, Mary of Montevergine was one of the seven Marys from Campania, ² of which she was the ugliest since she was black. For this reason, she decided to move to a place where people have to walk to find her, and this place is Montevergine, a place where being black is being beautiful. On the chapel of the sanctuary is currently placed the Mary’s icon under which the inscription says: “black and beautiful you are, my friend,” ³ recalling a verse of the Song of Songs (Song 1:5) “I am as dark – but lovely.” The iconography of the black Madonna (or Mary) is present throughout Christianity, but there are no systematic historical reconstructions of the phenomenon.

In Montevergine, during pre-Christian period, Cybele was worshipped. She was the goddess of nature, animals and wild places, an Anatolian goddess depicted between leopards or lions bearing a tambourine and with a turreted crown on her head. Abbot Giordano (1649) and monk Verace (1585) first noticed the relationship between Mamma Schiavona and Cybele. They saw the terrible power of Mary and her control over atmospheric elements and nature in general as the link between the two figures. There are also other similarities: Cybele’s worshipers used to be emasculated and wear female clothes. Besides, the goddess is depicted with a tambourine, the core instrument in the tammurriata (a dance based on a tambourine), which is also used nowadays in the worship of Mamma Schiavona.

The femminielli

In the previous section, we retraced the historical and founding elements of the sanctuary of the Mary icon and highlighted the elements relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. The femminiello is a social figure linked to these worships; femminielli, who nowadays have almost completely disappeared, had a social and religious role in Campania culture and history recognized by different sources. Femminiello could be described as an effeminate male homosexual who in a relationship with an “active” man assumes the passive role. They organize and participate in the iuta (ascension) to the sanctuary (Cuomo et al., 2011). Their presence at the sanctuary and devotion to Mamma Schiavona has been documented since the early seventeenth century (Ceccarelli, 2008).

The femminiello is a particular social figure that could be, with several caveats, likened to the modern figure of the homosexual or transsexual. They constitute a case of institutionalized transvestism within the Campania context; they are biologically males and perform a female gender role in social interactions. The first evidence of the existence and the relative integration of the effeminates in the social local context were reported by Salviano from Marsiglia (450). The first references to femminielli as passive homosexuals attracted by “active” males date back to the sixteenth century, according to Della Porta (1586). The word femminiello is a diminutive of the word “female,” thus meaning “small or pretty female” and at the same time it indicates derision and mocking (Cuomo et al., 2011).

The importance of the distinction between active and passive males is particularly relevant in southern Italy; only the “passive” male is perceived as homosexual, while the “active,” also engaging in homosexual acts, is described as heterosexual (Barbagli and Colombo, 2007; Dall’Orto, 1990). Following Dall’Orto (1990), the figure of the femminiello recalls the notion of Mediterranean homosexuality, typical of Mediterranean countries. It is neither linked to religion, being present in Catholic, Greek-Orthodox and Muslim countries, nor to ethnic elements, since it is present across Latin, Arabic and Balkan countries (Dall’Orto, 1990). The distinction between the passive and the active role recalls the logic of power in which males dominate females (Bourdieu, 1998). A sexual relationship between a passive and an active male neutralizes the scandalous and subversive element of a homosexual relation between equals, and at the same time the active–passive dichotomy of the heterosexual couple typical of patriarchal culture is preserved. According to Buonoconto (1999) and Cuomo et al. (2011), the double nature of the femminiello, showing both female and male elements, recalls the attendance of hermaphrodites in archaic rituals celebrating the birth of the “male–female” (the androgyne used to be thought of as divine amongst the ancient Greeks). The alchemic and spiritual elements of these rituals have been lost, and today the figure of the femminiello could be considered the heir of these rituals and worships.

Femminielli (plural; femminiello in the male form and femminiella or femminella as a pejorative female form) had a precise social role in Campania until the 1980s—a role of almost full integration bound also to camorra members—the local mafia—who controlled the economy of the neighbourhoods (Cuomo et al., 2011; De Biasio, 1897). Femminielli organized raffles, participated in the Candlemas feast, were given small errands, and looked after the children. They were believed to bring luck and even included in the local Neapolitan nativity scene (Cuomo et al., 2011). The presence of the femminielli in the poor neighbourhoods of Naples reflected their ambivalent perception by the local population: on the one hand, local society is fascinated and attracted by them, and on the other they are kept segregated and isolated within poor areas (Cuomo et al., 2011).

Particular rituals take place during their lives: marriage, baptism, and figliata (to give birth to a child). ⁴ The ritual of the figliata seems to descend from ancient fertility rituals practiced in Naples for centuries. These moments constitute a sort of sublimation (or simulation) of the corresponding Catholic sacraments, but they appear to be deprived of the religious component since there is no space for replication or emulation. Marriage consists of descending the stairs in front of the church and having lunch with friends and relatives, not in the celebration of the sacrament; baptism and figliata constitute the presentation of the new born (male) to friends and relatives, not the reproduction of baptism as intended by the Catholic Church.

Femminielli, likened either to the male homosexual or the transsexual, appears to constitute a third social identity. The figure of the femminiello resembles other social figures within eastern societies (Cuomo, et al., 2011). The figure of the femminiello resembles Hijras within the Indian culture: they renounce to their male identity, for a female one; they dress and name after females (Hall and O’Donovan, 1996). They have an ambivalent position within society: marginal and subversive, inspiring awe among the population (Bishop, 1996). Also Berdache among Native Americans share a similar status, constituting a third sex and wearing particular garments (Eskridge, 1993; Zito and Valerio, 2010). They usually became healers, counsellors, therapists, high priests and shamans (Cuomo et al., 2011; Gonzales-Day, 2001; Vitebsky, 1995). Also within Indonesian, Tahitian, and Philippine societies, similar social figures exist (Cuomo et al., 2011). Although a comparison among these cultures could be difficult, it should be noted that a social figure outside of gender dualism is encouraged and promoted within eastern cultures.

As previously stated, femminielli share some characteristics with homosexuals and transsexuals. With the former, they share the sexual orientation toward men, ⁵ with the latter the adoption of a female gender identity by a biologically male subject. Thus, femminielli could not be identified as homosexuals as they are understood in western contemporary society. “Modern homosexuals” are in fact “different from the once dominant model of gender inversion, they are not effeminate men. Nowadays, people do not define their and other’s behaviour in terms of activity or passivity, but as heterosexuals and homosexuals” (Barbagli and Colombo, 2007: 15). ⁶

It is in the difference between the figures of the modern homosexual and transsexual and the femminiello that lies the meaning of the socio-religious changes we are analyzing. Femminielli are depicted as conservative, and they do not claim equality with heterosexuals or cisgender ⁷ people; they accept the limits imposed by the Church (Ceccarelli, 2008) neutralizing their innovative power. Femminielli’s worship of Mamma Schiavona is a form of resistance toward the hegemony of the Catholic Church (Gramsci, 1975); this resistance, though, does not question the role of the Catholic Church itself in defining the religious field (Bourdieu, 1971).

The decline and disappearance of the femminiello

The devotion of femminielli to Mamma Schiavona reached its peak during the 1960s and ‘70 s, but fell during the ‘80 s with the disappearance of the figure of the femminiello. Several factors contributed to this disappearance (Dall’Orto, 1990). First was the fall of the traditional peasant patriarchal society typical of southern Italy. Second, the spread of the sexual revolution within society changed models of masculinity and femininity. Another element could be the union of the two different models of homosexual (the active and the passive) into the new broader category of homosexual conveyed by the media.

On 2 February 2002, the Abbot Tarcisio Giovanni Nazzaro pronounced an anathema towards homosexual and transsexual participants of the tammurriata at the sanctuary, saying that their prayers were not appreciated by Mary (Bertolotto, 2002; Ceccarelli, 2008; Preziosi, 2014). In 2010 and 2011, the Catholic Church restated the disapproval of homosexual and transsexual’s participation in holy celebrations (Nat. Fe., 2011).

The homosexuals and transsexuals’ banishment was a media event, giving rise to debates on sex, gender and faith. Vladimir Luxuria, former member of the Italian Parliament (she is the first transgender parliamentarian in Europe) and the Association I-Ken from Naples, highlighted the right of the homo/transsexuals to practice the Catholic religion.

Why was the close, centuries-old link between Mamma Schiavona and the femminielli broken at that moment? The answer lies in the passage between the social figure of the femminiello to the modern homosexual and transsexual. The femminiello was well integrated in the social and local context. Though he was tolerated rather than accepted by the Church, he was defined as conservative (Ceccarelli, 2008). The difference between femminielli and their contemporary heirs is the claim for equality, civil rights and public acknowledgment. The invisible presence of homosexuality and transsexuality within Catholic Italy was accepted by an unwritten pact, which is now broken. Furthermore, Preziosi (2014) underlines the role of sexual narratives based on coming out as part of the contemporary LGBT movement. In fact, another difference between the modern homosexuals and transsexuals and the femminielli is that the former rely on the sexual narrative of coming out and tell sexual stories (Plummer, 1995).

The passage from femminielli to homosexuals and transsexuals is marked by the branding of a new founding myth proposed by LGBT Italian movements, even if, as we have written, the history of Mamma Schiavona has many founding myths connected to homosexuality and transsexuality. This myth narrates the miracle of Mamma Schiavona, who in the twelfth century saved two femminielli lovers, who were condemned to death for their prohibited love (Ceccarelli, 2008). The creation of a further founding myth, besides the many already present, marks the need for a new language and a new cosmology (Gramsci, 1966).

Conflicts between the Church and groups of homosexuals and transsexuals appear to be the product of the civil, political, and religious claims made by these groups, as well as more and more rigid and exclusive doctrinal positions. In fact, analyzing documents from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1975, 1986) and subsequent documents of 1992 (Ceccarelli, 2008) and 2003 (Ceccarelli, 2008; Navarrete, 1997; Presidency of the Italian Episcopal Conference, 2003), the Church reaffirms that homosexuality and transsexuality are illnesses and disordered conditions, suggesting a particular pastoral care towards such individuals. They are called to chastity since neither sentiments nor another life could spring from their relationships.

In conclusion, the relationship between homosexuality and transsexuality and Christianity was more tolerant within the context of popular piety than the official religion of the institution. During the process of secularization, the identities of both Christianity and homosexuality and transsexuality were reinforced. This produces a hypostatization both of the doctrinal and identitarian positions. Homosexual and transsexual people shifted from a position of resistance to agency (Green and Ives, 2009), forging their own myth, questioning the Catholic Church’s authority of defining the field (Bourdieu, 1971).

History and founding myths

Santa Rosalia is the patron saint of Palermo in Sicily, and represents a fundamental element of the identity of the inhabitants of Palermo. She is celebrated on 14 July, with a festino (celebration) that gathers together thousands of participants. There are performances, parades, and the procession from the Palace of the Normans to the sea. She is celebrated also on 4 September; the Saint’s annual commemoration day, with the acchianata, that is the ascent to Monte Pellegrino, where the church dedicated to the Saint is located (Salerno, 2014).

Rosalia Sinibaldi, or Sinibaldo, is thought to have been born in 1130 to a local aristocratic family apparently descended from Charlemagne; she left her comfortable house to retire as a hermit on Monte Pellegrino. Starting from the thirteenth century, several hermits retired to Monte Pellegrino. This hermitage aroused considerable concern within the Church, since several heretical movements were developing. These movements were critical of the Catholic Church inasmuch they were searching for the origins of Christianity (Noto, 2008).

Rosalia was a hermit, without a definite monastic order; for centuries, both Basilians and Benedictines claimed the Saint belonged among their ranks. Rosalia died on 4 September 1165 and was forgotten for almost 500 years. In 1624, during a devastating plague, her remains were discovered, and the plague ended shortly afterwards. This episode was claimed as a miracle, and Pope Urbano VIII in 1630 declared Rosalia a saint.

According to several traditions, the discovery of her remains was made by three different figures: Saint Benedict the Moore, Geronima La Gattuta (Noto, 2008) and Angelo (Staiti, 2000). These three figures were in different ways marginal within the socio-cultural context: Saint Benedict was illiterate as was Geronima, while Angelo was described as a woman wearing male clothes. Following Marrone (2010), the worship of Santa Rosalia was linked to the local community of poor, illiterate people and to marginal groups in general.

Romani people and Santa Rosalia

The Romani people of Palermo, ⁸ of Slavic origin, both Christian and Muslim, celebrate the day of Saint George, or Dzurdzedan, or Ederlezi (Berengo Gardin, 1997; Di Giovanni, 2009; Staiti, 2000), on 6 May at Santa Rosalia church. The term Ederlezi comes from the Turkish hidirellez that derives from the Arab hadru, green, which is a sacred color in Islam.

This is the day during which “kids are killed” (Staiti, 2000: 32), ⁹ recalling the sacrifice of Isaac or Ismael, depending on the tradition, that God ordered Abraham. During this celebration, sheep are slaughtered and children’s heads are painted with their blood.

Usually, in Italy this feast is small, except in the community of Palermo, which brings together Romani people from all over Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and Belgium. The feast lasts for three days and is celebrated in the area of the Romani people’s camps, Monte Pellegrino and the Sanctuary (Berengo Gardin, 1997; Staiti, 2000). On 6 May, every householder takes the children to the sanctuary of Santa Rosalia to collect water in bottles. Then, they go to the nearby forest to cut fronds to decorate cars and some leaves are put in the holy water, which they collected. Finally, cars return to the camps, sounding their horns to celebrate the feast. The fronds are used to decorate houses. Sheep are slaughtered and children are painted with their blood. The party continues with song and dance. The day after, Romani people go to the sanctuary to pray, make offerings, and set up a temporary camp for the night (Staiti, 2000).

The relationship between Romani people and Santa Rosalia is complex. Staiti (2000) and Berengo Gardin (1997) highlight two core elements of this relationship. The first is the adoration of the seven sisters, known among Muslim and Christian Romani people and widespread in Italy, particularly in the south. This worship is difficult to understand, since it varies not only among different religious traditions, but also within the same tradition depending on the country of origin. This worship is devoted to seven sisters, sometimes three, among which there is a black one, who is particularly important. Santa Rosalia for the Romani people of Palermo is the black one (they called her kalì), while the other six are spread all over Europe.

The other element at the core of the Romani people’s religiosity is its strong dynamism; in fact, the adoration of the seven sisters is still evolving. Thus, new saints and sisters are created following their travels, since adapting to a new local context also means reconstructing their own tradition, changing saint’s names but keeping the rituals and meanings. Accordingly, we can understand how Santa Rosalia, Mary from Pompei, and Mary of Saint Luke in Bologna progressively replace saints from Kosovo and France. This religious reworking is a form of sacralization of a new territory, of re-creation of the community in relation to a new place to settle in, and an affirmation of their own identity and presence.

The relationship between Romani people and Catholics, as well as with Italian society in general, is problematic, reserved on both sides, and made hostile by xenophobic policies and mass media representations over the last few years. The religious manifestations of the Romani community are practiced separately from local Italian Catholics. This separation cannot be ascribed solely to cultural differences, but has to be understood in the separation between Romani people and society, which took place in the twentieth century.

In fact, in the south of Italy, as well as in the rest of Europe, until the twentieth century Romani people were integrated in the social and cultural life, and several of them since the fifteenth century abandoned nomadism to settle down definitively in the region (Piasere, 2004; Staiti, 2000).

The so-called “gypsies” (Romani and Sinti people) who arrived in Italy around the fifteenth century had similar activities; they were blacksmiths, horses merchants, acrobats, street vendors, beggars, and street performers. Their participation in the local context was linked to mercantile activities and crafts and they were involved in religious celebrations, such as Saint Rocco in Torrepaduli near Lecce and Saints Cosma and Damiano in Riace, near Cosenza. They celebrated together with the local farmers and they played a precise role in the celebrations according to Staiti (2000).

This spatial and social proximity has now disappeared, first due to less value placed upon Romani people’s activities and second due to the end of rural tradition. The end of traditional society has created splits and disagreements between Romani people and the local population. Furthermore, the arrival of new Romani people from former Yugoslavia, with different languages, cultures and traditions, sharply increased those differences.

To conclude, Santa Rosalia’s worship by Romani people is detached from the local Catholic popular religion. Romani people are often perceived by Italians as dangerous and connected to petty crime. This disconnection is due to: (1) the xenophobia of many Italian politicians (2) the dismantling of a rural tradition where Romani people and peasants were connected, and (3) the inner dynamism of Romani people’s religiosity, which is created and recreated in accordance with their nomadism.

Santa Rosalia and Tamil people

The Tamil community in Palermo has a population of almost 5000 individuals (Burgio, 2007; Istat, 2013a) and is the largest in Europe. ¹⁰ The Tamil community in Italy has developed over the last 30 years, but has not been the object of scientific research (Henayaka-Lochbihler and Lambusta, 2004) with a few exceptions.

The main reasons for the presence of the Tamils in Italy seem to be: the escape from the racial persecutions of the Sri Lanka Government, in the hands of the Sinhalese majority (Piovesana, 2008) and the escape from the civil war of the 1980s (Burgio, 2007; Piovesana, 2008). Other sources state that 65% of Sri Lankans (we do not have estimates for the Tamils) came to Italy to work since the 1980s (Caritas, 2004 in Henayaka-Lochbihler and Lambusta, 2004). In particular, since the 1970s, Catholic Sri Lankan women started coming to Italy to work in aged care facilities. People who had previously worked for Italian entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka immediately followed (Henayaka-Lochbihler and Lambusta, 2004). The majority of them are Hindu and Christian, while a minority is Muslim.

The religious differences between Hindu and Christian ¹¹ are not divisive in the Tamil community. In fact, even if there is a Hindu temple shared with Bengali and Mauritians and a Tamil church called Saint Ninfa, religion does not create opposed identities within the Tamil community.

Christian Tamils participate in the Catholic Mass in Palermo where some churches celebrate mass both in Italian and Sinhala, and they play mostly Tamil music in Saint Ninfa church. Moreover, pilgrimages to the sanctuary of Monte Pellegrino are frequent. Every weekend there are Tamils who hike up to the sanctuary to pray, make offerings and spend their leisure time together (Burgio, 2003; 2007; Mazzola, n.d.; Villino, 2014). The climb culminates with Mass in the sanctuary. The Tamil community participates en masse in the acchianata, namely the pilgrimage that takes place on 4 September. In contrast to the Romani people, Tamils celebrate Santa Rosalia during the same days as the Catholics. This helps Tamil people to be acknowledged by the inhabitants of Palermo and the Church itself (Colosi, 2000; Villino, 2014).

The devotion to Santa Rosalia is not limited to Christian Tamils, but it is also present among Hindus (Burgio, 2003, 2007; Villino, 2014), who participate to the acchianata every Sunday. Unlike for the Christians, their climb does not end with the Mass, but instead they stop at the churchyard near Sant’Antonio’s statue, where they pray and burn incense. Their devotion can also be seen in images of Santa Rosalia, the Sacred Heart or other Christian iconography, juxtaposed with Hindu divinities, both in Tamil shops and private houses. Moreover, it is not uncommon to see a Hindu Tamil performing the sign of the cross during the prayers. In fact, according to Burgio (2003), Santa Rosalia can be placed in the Hindu pantheon as a Catholic Saint. To worship her, they have to follow the prescript Catholic ritual. Moreover, for Tamil people worshiping the local saint is an act of politeness, a duty of hospitality.

This devotion cannot be reduced to the categories of syncretism, absorption, and appropriation of the worship, nor to an adapting strategy or an individual reworking; it would be better described as a specific porosity innate to Hindu religiosity, as a coherent and collective action of religious and social reworking, founded on the permeability of Hinduism and Tamil Catholicism. In fact, Tamil people’s religiosity, independent of their actual religion, shows an explorative dimension toward other religions. Boundaries among religions are more blurred with respect to western theological and sociological categories. “What happens is not an appropriation: it is a gift, a commitment, a faith. To venerate the Saint you should follow the rites that all follow: catholic rites” (Burgio, 2007: 56). ¹²

Burgio (2007) underlined the absence of religious and ethnic conflicts amongst the Tamil community in Palermo. They manage to stay together as a group also in the name of the Saint. The instrumental use of religion as a means of identification and social differentiation on behalf of the political class loses its strength, replaced by the force of the community, thanks to the Tamil trans-cultural and trans-ethnic network.

According to Burgio (2003), the Tamil community in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 2000s was closed to the inhabitants of Palermo. They had strong social control within the community, due to: (1) the nature of the migration which was constituted mainly by political refugees, (2) a strong cultural identity, (3) the Tamil disinterest for economic and social western values, and finally (4) the scarcity of Italian political policies about migration and integration. The distance is fading slowly within the second generation of Tamil people. In fact, in the last years, the Tamil community has been opening and mingling with the local society. These changes are expressed by the religious, social and political participation of the Tamil in the local context (for instance see Romano, 2013).

Santa Rosalia’s worship is playing and has played a major role as an instrument of knowledge between cultures and as an instrument of social acknowledgment for public institutions. Using a religious language, we could say that Santa Rosalia is performing a social miracle, helping society to cross the distance between coexistence and sharing.