There is a big feast at Forio, today, but I think I couldn’t call feast a moment of meditation like this, during the Lent. This feast is an old tradition and it is dedicated to the “Madonna Addolorata” (Our Lady of Sorrows) we venerate at the St. Sebastian’s Parish.
Our Lady Of Sorrows was initially named Our Virgin of the Seven Sorrows (or Swords), but Pope Pio X (1913), fixed the liturgical feast on September 15 and the name we have today. Our Lady Of Sorrows has a broken heart by seven swords, because seven were the most principal sorrows during her life: the prophecy of the old Simeon, the exile in Egypt, the loss of Jesus in the Jerusalem’s Temple, the Way of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Deposition from the Cross and the Burial. Our iconography, often, represents St. Mary with one sword, only the sorrow of the Simeon’s prophecy (the statues of the 19th century).
The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Sorrows begins two weeks before Easter with a solemn procession inside the Church and this year with the preaching of Father Beppe Pireddu, Capuchin, one of the most Italian preacher.
Today is a sad day, as I was saying before, because we remember the Mary’s sorrow. From 6.00 a.m. in the St. Sebastian’s begin the masses. At 11.00 a.m. the big procession from the Parish and across the Forio’s streets.
The procession is very sober, only with prayer and without brass-band and music.
At 5.00 p.m. the liturgy of the meditation about the tragedy of the Golgotha (an old musical composition by Giacinto Lavitrano). On Palm-Sunday all the Forio’s inhabitants will be in St. Sebastian’s to kiss the black mantle of "Our Lady of Sorrows" and on Saturday before Easter the statue of the "Madonna" will be crowned with a flower’s crown, while we, all together, will be singing “Regina Coeli, laetare, Alleluja, quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluja, resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluja. Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluja”. After the liturgy a floral gift for all.
The Addolorata’s statue was carved out of the wood, the black baroque mantle, pure silk and first quality gold.
Actually we have three different Addolorata’s mantles, one of this with the representation of the signs of the Christ’s Passion (Cross, crown of thorns etc.). Another particularity regards the “ceremony of the Madonna’s dressing” before the procession: the women who dress Our Lady of Sorrows are related to the ancient families who dressed the Madonna in the past years. This is an old familiar tradition.
The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Sorrows begins two weeks before Easter with a solemn procession inside the Church and this year with the preaching of Father Beppe Pireddu, Capuchin, one of the most Italian preacher.
Today is a sad day, as I was saying before, because we remember the Mary’s sorrow. From 6.00 a.m. in the St. Sebastian’s begin the masses. At 11.00 a.m. the big procession from the Parish and across the Forio’s streets.
The procession is very sober, only with prayer and without brass-band and music.
At 5.00 p.m. the liturgy of the meditation about the tragedy of the Golgotha (an old musical composition by Giacinto Lavitrano). On Palm-Sunday all the Forio’s inhabitants will be in St. Sebastian’s to kiss the black mantle of "Our Lady of Sorrows" and on Saturday before Easter the statue of the "Madonna" will be crowned with a flower’s crown, while we, all together, will be singing “Regina Coeli, laetare, Alleluja, quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluja, resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluja. Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluja”. After the liturgy a floral gift for all.
The Addolorata’s statue was carved out of the wood, the black baroque mantle, pure silk and first quality gold.
Actually we have three different Addolorata’s mantles, one of this with the representation of the signs of the Christ’s Passion (Cross, crown of thorns etc.). Another particularity regards the “ceremony of the Madonna’s dressing” before the procession: the women who dress Our Lady of Sorrows are related to the ancient families who dressed the Madonna in the past years. This is an old familiar tradition.
(Our Lady of Sorrows by my Parish. My Parish-priest prays for our community)
(Our Lady of Sorrows with the "Ex Voto")
- Mood:
melancholy - Music:silent
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Comments
I've heard of Our Lady of Sorrows but never seen a statue until now. I thank you for sharing the story of the procession and sharing these beautiful photos.
I'm also glad you are back with us at lj.
I wonder if you know Matteo Calisi. I have
met him twice and do not know him, how to say
as a person having just exchanged a few words
(he is ,I dont mean he is some great man but he
is a musician who is involved in the renewal in
Bari and other places--I met him once in Prague
years ago and last year in Sicily.
I can say that I like his music, in Prague he
directed music for a world conference I attended.
he gave me last time his magazine with many pictures
of Pope John Paul II but also most of them also
had Professor Calisi...
+Seraphim
but nothing comparable now in the U.S. My great grandparents
immigrated from Turino and Milano and founded the parish in
which I now serve as teacher, choir director and other things.
The roots of the parish are Italian and until recently some
of the old customs were still practiced. This post is so very
moving bringing back some memories. I work with the hispanic community who celebrate some feasts in similar fashion but they do not have a feast comparable to this that is celebrated here.
to add me to yours. Sadly, the ethnic groups here in the
U.S. are becoming more homogenized into the culture, with less expression in Catholicism. The feasts of the mother countries aren't celebrated much anymore like they were when everybody was a fairly new immigrant. We do still celebrate the feast of St. Joseph on March 19th in our parish because our roots are Italian, but as we are now a multicultural parish, the tone of the celebration is very much different. We don't even make a St. Joseph altar anymore with the wonderful cookies for the children.
The biggest celebration for the Hispanic community is December 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We have the matachine dancers in authentic Aztec and Mayan costumes and there is always a dramatical depiction of Our Lady appearing to the poor Indian peasant, Juan Diego. She filled his tilma(cloak) with roses in winter which he presented to the bishop from Our Lady so that the bishop would honor her request to
build a church for the people dedicated to her and to
the suffering poor. The parade to the Cathedral here is
full of dancers and marchers praying the rosary and singing hymns to Our Lady. There is a big float on which rests the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and that is carried at the head of the procession to the Cathedral. The image of Our Lady is a copy of the one left on the tilma of Juan Diego. The Cathedral is filled with roses and the image of Our Lady is carried to the front of the Cathedral and set in a special place. Then, the Mass begins. The Mass Music is normally a Misa Ranchero with the Mariachi's playing the traditional Mexican music. It is beautiful. We have a big party and much dancing afterward.
Right now during Lent, making the Viacrucis (way of the Cross)
is what we do. We sing a capela after each station, a Spanish song called Pardon Your People, Lord. Good Friday we will have
a dramatization of the Passion and Death of Christ at 3pm. Then
the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Mass will be bilingual.
I don't have a scanner, digital camera or any of the
software to do it. I'm not high tech :D.
feast of “ La Madonna Addolorata”. This is of particular interest to me and my family because I am a second generation Italian-American, born in Brooklyn, and my Mom's Mother, Elisabetta Regine and Grandmother, Maria Cira (LaFera) Regine, from Forio,immigrated here in 1904.
Bisnonna, Maria Cira and her sisters were orphaned due to the earthquake in 1883 and were raised in an orphange.
Bisnonno Luigi Regine owned vineyards; he died ca. 1903. We suspect that Maria Cira was his second wife. Plucky gGrandma was age 31, when she brought their seven Regine children, ages 14 to 3 to Brooklyn where she got a job in an Italian radio station. She didn't mind singing operatic arias and Neapolitan love songs but singing commercials for canned tomatos did not sit well with Maria Cira! gGrandma Maria was most influencial in our lives here in America; religion, traditional cooking, a work ethic, house cleaning and getting an education, all tied for first place in the legacy she left us. I don't know how she learned English and the only time she spoke Italian was when she argued with one of her kids! After a few months of studying Italian in school, gGrandma encouraged me to have a conversation with her in Italian but she wasn't too happy when she realized that what I was being taught was the Tuscan dialect. She laughed, pushed up the tip of her nose with her pinky and said I was a 'snob'! And so, Our Lady's Feast in Forio should be in honor of La MARRONA Addolorata...
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