cofrancesco.net

Login Form





Lost Password?
No account? Register
 
  • Italiano
  • English
 
Welcome arrow Our Traditions
Print E-mail
Saint Nicholas, the Saint of the people of Massa*
by Pacifico Cofrancesco

Thanks to Anna Di Leone for the historical research and the photographs, and  John A. Cofrancesco for the support in the translation into English.


(*) The people living in Massa di Faicchio (Benevento, Italy) are called “Massesi”

The devotion to Saint Nicholas in Massa di Faicchio (Benevento, Italy) dates back many centuries. Before the present church was built and dedicated to this Saint in 1693, there was an ancient church called “San Nicola Vecchio” (“Old Saint Nicholas”) which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1688. Only some small walls and tombs remain today. So the devotion to Saint Nicholas started long ago, and remains very strong today.

  La chiesa di San Nicola di Massa negli anni 1960
 
The church of  Saint Nicholas in the 1960s
When I was a little boy I went to Massa to visit uncle Michele Cofrancesco, brother of my paternal grandfather Pacifico, and aunt Battista Lavorgna, sister of my maternal grandmother Giuseppina, I remember a church in the middle of small village made of limestone bricks covered with darkened plaster. Buildings made of bricks of the same type and color surrounded it. The church was not ancient, just a few centuries old. I did not know much about its history. I knew that my parents got married in that church, many years before. I saw a black and white photograph of their wedding, and the gray of the walls in the pictures was not very different from that which I was seeing with my own eyes.

The church of Saint Nicholas of Massa has nearly a mythical reference in my personal memory. Among my parent’s photographs, I remember a post card of the church of Saint Nicholas, with the statue of the Saint. I can’t find it anymore, but the statue should be very similar to the one printed on the holy picture that Gaetano Cofrancesco always kept in his wallet, and after his death, that his wife Angelina carefully keeps today.

sannicola.jpg
The very old holy picture of Saint Nicholas of Bari
kept by Gaetano Cofrancesco and his family


I remember my father saying, “today in Massa they celebrate the feast of Saint Nicholas”, as if he was speaking of an event with a special meaning. He was a boy and a young man when he saw the feasts of Saint Nicholas, since he left Massa when he was only 24. The feasts were an opportunity to meet and exchange “looks” with the girls. For my grandmother Angela, who lived in Massa until 1956, the feast of Saint Nicholas also had a special meaning. And it was the same for every “massese”, no matter where they had moved.

After the earthquake of 1980, the church was restored. The bricks were cleaned. The nave, which I remembered as always dim, was repainted and renewed. The rectory built against the side of the church remained, but the great stairs, which the archpriests of Massa would go up and down every day, disappeared. The small area near the rectory has been transformed into a little square. Also the houses of Massa have been restored. The limestone bricks (“c’ment” in the local language) have been covered with modern plaster, which not only hides the bricks, but also the traces of history.

email0258.jpg
The church of Saint Nicholas, partly restored,
after the earthquake of 1980 (the stairs of the rectory are still in place)

But the historic memories and attachment of the people of Massa to their traditions has been kept intact, as well as their devotion to their Saint Protector, Saint Nicholas, and their Madonna, Our Lady of Sorrow. They celebrate Saint Nicholas twice per year, on the last Sunday of May and on December 6, and Our Lady of Sorrow on the third Sunday of September. At Massa, they also celebrate Saint Antimo and Saint Michael. They have statues of all of those saints in the church, and well as one of Christ. The statue of Saint Nicholas, a recently restored wooden bust, is situated, in the respect due the saint to whom the church is dedicated, in a central niche just behind the main altar. The statue of Our Lady of Sorrow, which may have come from the Masseria of the Baron not far from the village, is in another niche along the little left aisle.

The feast of Saint Nicholas had a very definite structure. At the top of the hierarchy there was the “bursar”, who was the person to whom everyone should look for the organization of the feast. The main duty of the bursar was to collect sufficient funds for the needs of the feast. Long ago everyone who owned land planted with wheat would offer some “regne” (great sheaves of wheat) when they reap, for the feast of Saint Nicholas. All the “regne” were given to the bursar who would thrash them and sell the wheat at an auction held in front of the church, with the proceeds going to the support of the feast. The possible opportunity to carry the statue of the Saint or his banner was also sold at an auction. Only those who offered the most could have those special “privilege”. Nowadays instead of the bursar there is an “organizer committee” and instead of the auctions there is the “collection”. Funds are also collected in the neighboring towns, such as Faicchio and San Lorenzello, because the feast in not just for the Massesi. Not so long ago, these kinds of feasts were the only opportunity to have some fun and meet people coming from other towns. The people of Massa also contribute money for the feasts of Faicchio and San Lorenzello.

As in every feast in southern Italy, fireworks were always featured. After the advent of electricity, strings of lights and lighted displays were added. Those were the biggest expenses, but some money was also spent for the musical bands. Today’s residents of Massa remember that the Massesi, who had immigrated to the United States years ago, sent money back to Massa around 1918 and used the money to buy a red silk covered sedan-chair for the procession of the Saint. Some years later, the American Massesi, probably living in New Haven Connecticut, again made a contribution. As archpriest Zarrella noted: “in 1953 donated to the Holy Virgin of Sorrow, here venerated, a rich cloth embroidered with pure gold floss, costing 90.000 liras”. The attachment of the Massesi, who immigrated abroad or to other parts of Italy, to their church and Saints has always been very strong. This was especially true of the generation of people who were born and grew up in Massa before their emigration. My father remembers that his uncle Vincenzo, who immigrated with his family in 1956 to Garlasco in northern Italy, collected money every year for the feast of Saint Nicholas of Massa. He collected from the Massesi living in Garlasco (mostly Cofrancescos) and in Magenta (province of Milano, Italy). He sent the money to Massa with a detailed list of all the people who contributed. I remember, even if not too clearly, when uncle Vincenzo came to us for his little “collection” for the feast of Saint Nicholas, who always has been the Saint of the Massesi, even those living far from their land of origin.

When my father was a boy, the fireworks were set off by “Pepp i’ bummar” (Joseph the “bomber”) of San Lorenzello. Lately it has been done by “Micc Micc” (“Fuse Fuse”) of Ponte, a town in the province of Benevento. Of course those nicknames show that they were fireworks “professionals”. My father’s cousin, Rinaldo Cofrancesco, remembers Massa fireworks as a very special thing and he keeps telling me that, “the fireworks of the northern Italy are trivial when compared to them”. To reduce the cost of the ever present musical band, every family was asked invite some musicians (“sunatur”) for lunch. The musical bands were always chosen carefully. The best bands came from the regions of Abruzzi and Puglia, even though travelling was difficult in those early times.


Per la festa di maggio, una famiglia di Massa aveva il compito di preparare le “panelle” di San Nicola. Oggi quasi nessuno fa il pane in casa, e le “panelle” di San Nicola vengono cotte nel forno del paese dalla panettiera Assunta, e anche per la festa di dicembre. Alla messa in onore del Santo, ad ogni fedele vengono distribuite tre panelle, simbolo della Trinità, a cui San Nicola era molto devoto, insieme ad una piccola bottiglia con una speciale “acqua”. Questa “acqua” contiene la “manna di San Nicola”, ossia un liquido trasparente che tuttora viene raccolto sul corpo del Santo. La manna viene prelevata ogni anno il 6 maggio dalla tomba di San Nicola, nella Basilica di Bari, dove è sepolto, mediante l’inserimento di una cannula d’oro e d’argento che aspira il santo liquido. Una parte della manna viene consegnata al Vescovo in un’ampolla e la restante parte viene distribuita ai fedeli presenti nella Basilica quel giorno, in piccole boccette. Alcune di queste boccette arrivano ogni anno a Massa e vengono utilizzate per ottenere l’acqua di San Nicola distribuita alla funzione del 6 maggio.Essa viene considerata dalla Chiesa e dai fedeli una vera e propria reliquia del Santo, dal momento che sgorga dalle sue ossa. Il giorno della festa il prete di Massa versa alcune gocce della “manna” di San Nicola in un’anfora (“lancella”) piena d’acqua e la benedice. L’acqua mista a manna distribuita il giorno della festa ha proprietà taumaturgiche e deve essere bevuta contro le malattie della gola e della voce.

manna-2.jpg
Cruets with Saint Nicholas’ “manna”

For the feast of May, one family of Massa had the duty to prepare some little round loafs, called “panelle” of Saint Nicholas. Nowadays no one bakes his bread at home, and so Assunta, the local baker, who also bakes for the December feast, bakes the “panelle” of Saint Nicholas. At the Holy Mass for the Saint, every person receives three loafs, symbolic of the Trinity, to which Saint Nicholas was very devoted, and a little bottle with a “special” water. This “water” contains the so-called “manna” of Saint Nicholas (“manna” literally means “boon” or “godsend”), which is a transparent fluid gushing out of the bones of the Saint. Every year on December 6 the “manna” is taken from Saint Nicholas’ tomb, in the Basilica of Bari where he is buried, by means of a gold and silver pipe that aspirates the holy fluid. The Church and the believers consider it as a relic of the Saint, because it comes from his bones. Part of the fluid is placed in a cruet and given to the Bishop. That which remains is put in little bottles and given to the people present in the Basilica that day. Some of these little bottles are sent to Massa and are used to prepare the “water” that is distributed during the Holy Mass of the 6th of May. On the day of the feast the priest of Massa pours some drops of the “manna” of Saint Nicholas in an amphora full of water and then he blesses it. This mix of water and “manna” has some therapeutic properties and can be used against throat and voice diseases.

Before the practice was banned by recent hygienic rules, people who went to the church to pray on Saint Nicholas Day could, at any time during the day, draw some “manna” from the cruet and drink it from a special container, a true little bell (“cuampanegl”). As it happens with many traditions, the meaning of this act is lost, but certainly it must have had a very important symbolic and ritualistic meaning. In the inventory of the goods of the church prepared by Don Zarrella when he arrived in Massa in 1918, it is written: “a little bell, said ‘of Saint Nicholas’, without clapper”.

The religious celebration of December 6 started on November 27 with a novena (nine days of prayer) in which all the people of Massa participated. Nowadays, for some reasons not dependent on the will of the Massesi, the prayers, which now start on December 3, last only for three days.


chiesa-c.jpg
The church of Massa during the Saint Nicholas celebrations
The statue is put on display on the left side of the main altar

When the prayers for the feast Saint Nicholas start, his statue is taken from its niche and put on display on left side of the main altar. On December 5 at noon, five mortar shots are fired and the feast officially begins.

A procession of many years ago in Massa

email0255-c.jpg
email0254-c.jpg
The exit from the church

The return to the church

When the prayers for the feast Saint Nicholas start, his statue is taken from its niche and put on display on left side of the main altar. On December 5 at noon,On the day of the celebration, the Saint’s statue is carried in a procession on the shoulders of several men. The statue is adorned with golden objects that were donated by devote people who had received some special graces. In accordance with an ancient tradition these golden objects are always kept by the same Massa family, except for one special case when Bartolomeo Cofrancesco had the privilege to keep the Saint’s mitre and staff.

email0253-2000.jpg
Saint Nicholas' statue in procession at Massa (2000)
From left, Alfredo Di Leone, Biagio Federico,
Michele Di Leone, Emilio Branca

The procession winds through the streets of Massa and ends with a solemn blessing in front of the church. They always sing during the Holy Masses for Saint Nicholas and the singing never stops during the procession. For the Holy Mass of Saint Nicholas one preacher was invited every year at the expenses of an individual for the eulogy (“parigiricu” in the local language) of the Saint. It was an intensely awaited opportunity for the people of Massa to strengthen their devotion to their Saint Protector. To be appreciated, the preacher should praise Saint Nicholas with vigour and conviction. The Massesi loved to listen to the name of Saint Nicholas repeated many times during the eulogy, and were very strict judges of the preacher’s oratory ability. Some of the Massesi nostalgically remember certain preachers who were able to keep the attention of the people for long periods of time without boring or tiring them.

Around the 1920s Don Ernesto Zarrella, an archpriest who was in Massa for 52 years and whom the Massesi remember very well, had the idea to create a sacred play about the story of the life of Saint Nicholas. The tradition is still alive. The play about the story is performed on the little square of Massa at the May feast every 5 or 6 years. All the families of Massa provide some “actors” for the play and the roles are often inherited from father to son.

scena.jpg
Saint Nicholas’ life performed in Massa in the middle of the 1990s.
From left, Giuseppe Cofrancesco, Sebastiano Di Leone, Nicola Mazzarella,
Michele Mazzarella, Bernardo Tacinelli, Marco Festa, Talio Di Leone,
and Valerio Ciarlo, as Saint Nicholas

In the 1920s Don Zarrella created a "Congrega", a brotherhood of men who were devoted to Saint Nicholas. The “Congrega” had its own statute, clothes and banner. It was active for more than 40 years. The group organized the processions and the prayers, and during funerals transported the deceased to the church and cemetery.

congrega.jpg
The “brotherhood” of the “Congrega” of Saint Nicholas
entering the church at the end of a procession
(detail from a previous picture)

As it was celebrated in the past, the religious feast of Saint Nicholas was also an opportunity for a special “menu”. It is evidenced in the following traditional proverb in the local language: “Ogg’ è Sant N’cola, s’ magna carn e maccarun’, duman a zappà a serua d’iun. That is, “Today is Saint Nicholas’ day and we eat meat and macaroni, tomorrow we will hoe at Selva with an empty stomach”. (the “Selva” is a place near Massa). This proverb helps us understand the alimentary “habits” of the past: meat and macaroni, which are so common for us today, were very rare foods at that time and were eaten only at special feasts. On other days there was the “usual” hunger.

Saint Nicholas is truly the Saint of the people of Massa, the one who all massese keep in their heart, wherever they may go. They also keep in their heart the small and cosy church that is dedicated to him, and where for many centuries all the people of Massa were baptized, received their First Communion and Confirmation, and where many of them were buried before the construction of the new cemetery. The life cycle of the people of Massa occurs within, and in the shadow of, their church, and under the protective gaze of their Saint, Saint Nicholas

email0257c.jpg
The statue of Saint Nicholas of Massa

email0285c.jpg
 

To download the PDF file of the paper,
right click on the following link
and chose "Save object as..."
   

acrobat.jpg

 
SaintNicholas-Massa.pdf
(c) 2008 - cofrancesco.net

Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 November 2009 )
 
< Prev

© 2024 cofrancesco.net