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Venerated
saints |
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| OUR
LADY OF GRACES |
| The
cult of the Our Lady of Graces, or Madonna of the Milk,
is also very ancient. There was in St Antuono's an "imago
relevata" (possibly a bas-relief, or more probably
a painting on boards with the heads and the haloes of the
Virgin and Child in relief) greatly venerated by the faithful. |
| When,
in 1739, the church was rebuilt, the high altar was dedicated
to the Madonna of the Milk. |
| About
1820, there was a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Graces,
of which the Tozzoli family were patrons, and in 1866, near
the castle, a little church by the same name was built at
the expense of the reverend Francesco Maffucci. |
| It
collapsed after the earthquake of 1980, during which the
statue of the Virgin, that used to be taken in procession
on July 2, survived. This statue also was modelled after
a Neapolitan one, located in the church of Our Lady of Graces
in the Toledo quarter of Naples. |
| In
via Berrilli, by street number 18, an effigy of the Virgin
is painted on the wall with the Latin inscription "Maria
Mater Gratiae" [Mary Mother of Graces]—additional
evidence of the great popularity that the Madonna of Graces
enjoyed in Calitri. |
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| ST.
LUCY AND THE FIRST MARTYRS |
The
cult of some of the first Christian century martyrs was
widespread in all southern Italy: prominent among them were
St. Lucy  ,
St. Donat and the twin physicians, St Cosmas and Damian. |
|
Statue
of St. Mary of the Saints in St. Antuono |
|
| In
Calitri, the devotion to Lucy, the virgin girl of Siracusa
(Sicily), martyred during the rule of Diocletian, precedes
the 16th century: in 1500, an altar in old St. Peter's was
dedicated to St. Lucy and St. Donat. |
| About
1580, a chapel was entitled to St. Lucy; it now houses her
statue, which is taken in procession on August 31. |
| In
a remote era, the saints Cosmas and Damian, two twins killed
at the time of Diocletian's persecutions, were also venerated.
These may have been the first patron saints of Calitri:
Vito Acocella asserts that, in the wooden choir behind the
high altar of the old Mother-Church, there was a little
walnut statue of St. Canio with at its sides two smaller
statues representing the two twin physicians. |
| St.
Cosmas is also remembered in an 18th-century epigraph walled
outside the presbytery of Calitri’s Mother-Church,
where, strangely, he is associated not with St. Damian,
but with St. Desiderius, one of the traditional companions
of St. Gennaro’s martyrdom. |
| Among
the most ancient cults, we need mention the worship of a
few biblical personalities who lived before Christ, such
as St. John the Baptist and his father St. Zachary. |
| Various
church altars were entitled to St. John the Baptist, deeply
worshipped in Calitri. St. Zachary was the name of an ancient
farmstead (near Castiglione) built around a little church
dedicated to this saint. |
| . |
|
An
inscription over a small entrance in Via Berrilli,
below the Clock Tower |
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