Cuore di Santa Rosa

The celebration in honor of Santa Rosa continued yesterday with the second event, the solemn procession of the heart of Santa Rosa. This is not a representation of Santa Rosa where people flock to the street with bouquets of roses. Instead, it is a manifestation of the Italian/Roman Catholic fixation with relics. The veneration of objects must surely be some form of holdover from pagan traditions. While it is true that relics can be things such as a shawl or burlap shirt worn by Saint Francis of Assisi, they more often than not take the form of mummified body parts such as the actual finger or ear of the person. Blessed indeed is the church that snags the part of the saint most closely associated with that for which the individual is famous. For instance, the tongue of a saint noted for conversion through preaching the word is highly prized.

Here in Viterbo, they go all out. Santa Rosa was a local girl and the city has laid claim to her entire body. However, it is not all in the same location. Each year the heart of Santa Rosa is reunited with the rest of her body in a parade which snakes through the city. Normally there is an historical procession containing many groups dressed in costumes representing the various periods in Viterbese history. This year, because of persistent light rain, that portion of the procession was eliminated. Additionally, the parade route was reduced to the shortest possible path between the two parts of her body. The process still began with the facchini walking arm in arm to bear the relic. These are the same men who will carry the macchina on the following night. Compared to that 6 ton monster, this berm must seem miniscule.

Unfortunately, the switch meant the route no longer went past the school where we were waiting to watch its passage. Thus we scrambled to find a place from which to view the procession. The various religious orders still participated including these sisters of mercy.

Local congregations participated.

Also present was the Cardinal of Viterbo who stopped along the way to bless the young children along the route.

He was immediately in front of the float bearing Santa Rosa’s heart.

This year I got a decent shot of the reliquary, although it is still essentially impossible to make out the actual heart contained within.

Those of the facchini not directly carrying the relic marched behind, still linked arm in arm. The parade concluded with different civic groups and elected officials.