Rite of the Hundred Onze
Description
Rite of the Hundred Onze
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Technical sheet prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library
N. Prog. 78
Well: Rite of the Hundred Onze
Book: REI - Book of celebrations
Approval date: 13-04-2007
Category: Party / Ceremony
Province: Palermo
Location: Historical Center of Palermo
Municipality: Palermo
Local denomination: Rite of the Hundred Onze
Chronological News:
During 1624, the year of the terrible plague, the two most important religious cults of the city were established in the city of Palermo: the cult of Santa Rosalia, nominated main patroness of the city of Palermo following the discovery of her "sacred bones" and the cult of the Immaculate Virgin, already present in Sicilian celebrations, which maintains its pre-eminent role in the organization of the city festivities. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, in fact, was recognized by the Church only in 1854, but before then, already in 1439 at the Council of Basel, the archbishop of Palermo together with the Franciscans had defended the dogma. In fact, as the canon Mongitore recounts, it has been since 1425 that the Conceptions it is repeated every year as a feast of obligation, but its devotion is so ancient that "not knowing the beginning».
During the Public Council of July 27, 1624, the Senate of Palermo takes the vow to defend the doctrine of the immaculate conception and approves of "to honor His Immaculate Conception by making the feast on his day at his expense in the church of Saint Francis of Assisi in this city, with the presence of the Senate presentially at the said feast with all its officers". To do this, the city undertakes to honor the feast with a worthy celebration, the "rite of one hundred ounces", which was officially born on November 18, 1624.
Since 1655 the Senate of Palermo reorganizes and stabilizes in ten rules, with an "obligation" for all future municipal administrators, the provisions concerning the cult of the Virgin, the "rite of one hundred ounces" and the solemn oath. In the eighteenth century, several congregations disseminated the formula of the oath through loose leaflets that promised a plenary indulgence at the point of death to those who took it.
Recurrence: Annual
Date: December 7-8
Occasion: Vow of the City of Palermo to the Immaculate Virgin expressed due to the plague of 1624, to be held annually on the occasion of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, between 7 and 8 December
Function: Urban celebration
Actors: Civil (the Mayor) and religious authorities (Archbishop)
Participants: Entire city community and devotees, tourists
Description
The "rite of the hundred onze" is an urban rite instituted in 1624 by the Senate of Palermo on the occasion of the sworn vote in defense of "Mary conceived without sin», Or rather the Catholic dogma of the" Immaculate Conception ", which will be officially proclaimed with the bull Ineffabilis Deus by Pope Pius IX on 8 December 1854. It establishes that the Virgin Mary has been preserved immune from original sin since her conception.
The first formula of the oath by which the Senate of Palermo undertakes to defend the mystery of the Immaculate Conception "ad ultimum vite spiritum»Was pronounced by the Senate on 15 August 1624 in the Cathedral, on the occasion of the Feast of the Assumption, in the presence of the Cardinal and the Clergy. In addition to the solemn oath, the Senate undertook to pay a cash donation (the hundred ounces) to the convent of San Francesco d'Assisi in order to furnish the chapel of the Immaculate Conception in the church of the same name, a custom that will become one of Palermo's identifying moments and which still today takes on the role of an "urban rite". The rite, currently active, provides for a wide popular participation, but the main actors are the civil authorities (the Mayor) and religious authorities (the Archbishop of Palermo).
The ancient celebration began on the eve of the 7th with a day of fasting and the setting up of the festivities in the church of San Francesco, while the Franciscan fathers "walked in double line the Cassaro with grenades in hand"; on the night between 7 and 8 December, in the church of San Francesco the clergy, the Senate and thousands of faithful renew the oath with great participation; on 8 December the statue of the Madonna Immaculate in the cathedral where he remained there for eight days. In the testimony of the Mongitore the Cassaro, the current Corso Vittorio Emanuele, was filled with torches in procession (mazzuni) which were lit in front of the church of San Francesco.
Today it is the Mayor who makes the traditional offering, renews the oath of fidelity and raises the petition for the protection of the entire city during the solemn Mass. The procession of the simulacrum consisting of the silver statue of the Immaculate Conception is also perpetuated from the ancient rite, which remains on display in the Cathedral for public devotion until the following Sunday.
The vote and the offering of the hundred ounces continue to be repeated every year through the centuries, showing a lively devotion that challenges modernity and which, with its permanence, offers a key to understanding the public function performed by the municipal institutions.
REFERENCES
Calandra, Eliana, edited by. 1996. The Immaculate Conception and the one hundred ounce rite. Historical-documentary sources, Palermo: Municipal Historical Archive of Palermo.
Calandra, Eliana, edited by. 1996. The Book of the Oath to the Immaculate Conception. Memories of an urban rite (1795-1912), Palermo: Municipal Historical Archive of Palermo.
Ciccarelli, Diego and Marisa Dora, Valenza, edited by. 2006. Sicily and the Immaculate Conception. Not just 150 years, proceedings of the conference Palermo 1-4 December. Palermo: Franciscan Library Workshop of Medieval Studies.
Di Natale, Maria Concetta and Maurizio, Vitella, edited by. 2004. Beautiful like the moon, pure like the sun. The Immaculate Conception in art in Sicily, Palermo: Religious Province of Sicily of the Friars Minor Conventual Sts. Agata and Lucia.
Gulotta, Peter. 1996. The offering of one hundred ounces to the Immaculate Conception and the "bloody vote" of the Senate of Palermoin The Book of the Oath to the Immaculate Conception. Memories of an urban rite (1795-12). Rome: anastatic printing.
Palermo, Gaspar. 1816. An instructive guide to get to know each other… all the magnificence… of the city of Palermo, Palermo: Royal Printing House Palermo.
Tinaglia, Vivi. 2005. The basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi in Palermo. History of transformations and restorations, Palermo: Editions of the Salvare Palermo Foundation.
Footnotes
The restoration of the silver statue of the Immaculate Conception was recently carried out by Maestro Piero Accardi, exponent of the ancient craftsmanship of the Silversmiths of Palermo together with the Master silversmith Antonino Amato, a living human treasure.
The rite of the "one hundred ounces" on the occasion of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is linked to another Franciscan feast called the "Stellario", still celebrated today on the last Sunday of August in memory of the 12 Marian privileges.
Card Author: Chiara Dell'Utri
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