Hello Monaco #09 Spring–Summer 2020 | Page 118

HISTORY PAGES
PROCESSION OF THE
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Do you remember the feeling at the
end of the lockdown this May 4th..?
Such was the feeling of relief and
elation in 1632 that Prince Honoré II took a
vow of remembrance. Almost 400 years later
that Vow still plays out in a Monégasque
tradition. Having just experienced the end
of the Covid-19 confinement the urge to
make a vow of thanks now feels very real.
The traditional yearly Procession leaves the
Cathedral, traverses the streets and arrives
at the door of the last known victim of the
1631 plague. And the ceremony includes
a prayer of thanks from the surviving population
for deliverance.
© https://en.wikipedia.org/
RUS
КАРАНТИННЫЕ
ЗАПРЕТЫ
В
средневековые времена
нарушение карантина и
выход за пределы жилища
карались смертной казнью.
Даже самостоятельная покупка
самого необходимого
— продуктов питания — оказалась под
строжайшим запретом. Власти организовали
доставку еды на дом, но этот сервис
был далеко не таким удобным и приятным,
как в наши дни: на длинную палку
насаживали скудный паек (обычно хлеб
или рыбу) и сбрасывали на порог дома, а
взамен запертые в доме люди протягивали
деньги на деревянном подносе.
IN THOSE MEDIEVAL TIMES,
VIOLATING THE QUARANTINE
AND LEAVING YOUR HOUSE
WAS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH.
Thus was perpetuated the «Procession
of Penance» known as the «Vow» testifying
to the loyalty of the inhabitants to the
promise fulfilled in 1632.
A typical costume of a plague physician of the
time (Paul Furst. Doctor Schnabel (viz Dr. Beak),
a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome,
circa 1656)
Since 1987, the Council of the Archbishopric
has decided to take up this tradition and make
it coincide with the patronal feast of the Cathedral
«the Feast of Immaculate Conception»
which is universally celebrated on December
8. The procession stops at number 7, Rue
Basse, an offering (ex-voto) recalls the place
where the last case of plague was noted.
Epidemics and pandemics sadly are not just
historical events with legacies in our ceremonial
traditions. Covid-19 has been only
too real. And, still almost in living memory,
only one hundred years ago, «the Spanish
Flu» pandemic spread worldwide, causing
an estimated 50 million deaths. Fortunately
the influenza pandemics of 1957, 1968, and
2009 did not approach levels of morbidity
and mortality comparable to those of the
1918 «Spanish flu» but they are a reminder of
the fragility of our life.
В СРЕДНЕВЕКОВЫЕ
ВРЕМЕНА НАРУШЕНИЕ
КАРАНТИНА И ВЫХОД
ЗА ПРЕДЕЛЫ ЖИЛИЩА
КАРАЛИСЬ СМЕРТНОЙ
КАЗНЬЮ.
Рыбой весь город снабжали два местных
рыбака, вынужденных жить на берегу.
По узким переулкам Княжества сновали
мрачные фигуры «врачевателей чумы»,
облаченных в зловещие костюмы и «носатые»
маски, похожие на клюв птицы. Перемещаться
по городу также имели право
© depositphotos.com
Being good seamen and traders, living their lives so close to the sea, Monegasques knew that mortal danger could also easily come from there.
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