The magazine MAQ February 2019 March-April 2019 | Page 53

SALVATORE PAOLO GARUFI TANTERI

MAQ MANAGER FOR SICILY

PROFESSOR OF ITALIAN LETTERS, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY, WRITER, NARRATOR, DRAMATIST ART

AND THEATER CRITIC

GARUFISCRITTORE.ALTERVISTA.ORG

Image on the left and the background: Giuseppe Barone Sicilian workshop, Church San Biagio Catania, fresco Madonna immacolata in glory with Trinity and Saints, 1950

SICILIAN BAROQUE SHOWS IN THE HOLY WEEK

The oldest written news I found in the parish archives on Holy Week in Sicily date back to the seventeenth century.

In Militello, in Val di Catania, a tradition that lasted a few years ago meant that Ash Wednesday on the road leading to the Church of Purgatory was hung by a thread, an old-fashioned puppet, with strung seven hen's feathers. Then, one by one, the feathers were removed every Friday of Lent.

In any case, there is no doubt that the prelude to Holy Week was the Lenten predication. The Preacher carried out his work in Santa Maria della Stella, every Saturday and in the second and fourth week.

MAQ Magazine n. 11 / March - April 2019