The curch of Santa Luciella and the skull with ears, Naples

 

*Per leggere questo articolo in Italiano clicca qui.*

With the arrival of Mabon and the beginning of the autumn, we can say that we have officially entered the spooky season, what better time to talk about magical and mysterious places?

I recently went on vacation to Naples, a city that I am literally adoring, full of traditions that refer to the ancient glories of paganism.

In this city you can definitely breathe a vibrant and ancient energy and, despite the advent of Christianity has involved it like any other place in Europe, it’s as if paganism has never ceased to exist and be practiced in that place, making sure that the sacred and the profane blend perfectly.

The city of Naples boasts a history and a succession of remarkable and very varied cultures, having been, among other things, one of the most important cities of Magna Graecia and consequently a very important pole for commercial, political, religious and cultural exchanges. As a consequence of all this, we have the fact that the city hides numerous sites of esoteric interest, real wonders that perfectly express the idea of ​​popular traditions.

So I would like to tell you about one of these places: the church of Santa Luciella.

It’s a small church in the heart of the ancient city center of Naples, founded in 1327 and located at the top of the alley that in ancient Roman times they called "vicus Cornelianus" that connects San Biagio dei Librai to San Gregorio Armeno.

Over the years, between 1600 and 1700, it passed under the custody of the guild of pipernieri, ancient artists who sculpted hard stones such as Piperno. The processing of this material put the sculptor's eyes at risk, as stone chips could easily spring on his face, consequently the pipernieri began to venerate Saint Lucy, protectress of sight, making the Church of Santa Luciella their place of worship, making an association with the Archconfraternity of the Immaculate Conception to which the Madonna on the high altar of the Church was entrusted.

**Click here to read our post about Saint Lucy.

Inside the church, in the central nave, we find in fact some rather disturbing mannequins, dressed in the clothes worn by the confreres, with the detail of the pointed hood which represented faith, penance for the sins committed but above all the equality between each member who thus became indistinguishable from the others.

Closed to the public after the 1980 earthquake as it was unusable, over time it was forgotten and became a small warehouse for building materials and, subsequently, even a landfill. In 2013 a group of young Neapolitans, specialized in art history, decided to open a foundation called “Respiriamo Arte", thus succeeding in regaining possession of this piece of history, proceeding with the restoration, making it safe and allowing the access to the public again, saving this cultural heritage from ruin.

Below the structure of the church we find a cemetery, a burial place dedicated to members of the Archconfraternity and their families. The method used to treat the bodies of the confreres before the inhumation was called "draining". The corpses were in fact entrusted to the "schiattamuorto", a typical Neapolitan figure representing the gravedigger, who pierced the body in strategic points (in particular the neck, wrists and legs) to ensure that the liquids and gases contained inside could escape more quickly. The body was then placed on large tanks of holy land and left to drain, in fact, thus accelerating the drying and decomposition process. Once ready, the bodies were buried in these tanks for a certain period of time, after which they were exhumed, carefully cleaned the bones which were then deposited in the ossuary below the cemetery (an area which today is accessed through a trap door but which has not yet been explored).

The only part of the body that was preserved in this cemetery was the skull, in Neapolitan called "capuzzella".

The skulls in question were venerated according to the local tradition of the "cult of Anime Pezzentelle", or souls in purgatory.

THE WORSHIP OF ANIME PEZZENTELLE:

This tradition was born in Naples in 1656 during a plague epidemic that devastated the city and killed two thirds of the population. The dead were so numerous that, for reasons of hygiene and protection from contagion, they were placed in mass graves, outside the places of prayer and thus depriving them of their identity. Neapolitan women, moved by pity for the souls of the dead, began to adopt skulls, the capuzzelle.

 

They went down inside the cemeteries, chose one of the skulls (the part of the body where the soul was thought to reside) and began to take care of them, cleaning and washing them with fresh water that should have given refreshment and relief to the soul of the deceased while they found in the flames of purgatory.

Through these treatments, the soul of the deceased could access heaven more quickly, however, in exchange, the women asked the deceased to intercede for them in order to obtain a grace.

“Pezzentelle”, in fact, derives from the Latin word petere which means “to ask”. When the required miracle was accomplished, the women brought an ex voto and hung it in the burial place as thanks. The ex-votos consisted of metal symbols, especially in silver, which represented the grace obtained: the arrival of a child, the husband's return from the war, the healing of the eyes or the solution of a love problem. Some of these ex-votos are still visible today on the hypogeum walls.

In the early 1900s this cult began to no longer be frowned upon by the Catholic Church, which defined it as a cult bordering on paganism. In fact, according to Catholicism, it is not possible for a believer to intercede with God through the dead (as it’s done with the pagan worship of ancestors) but only through the saints.

Although in 1969 the cult was banned by the Church, Neapolitan women continued the practice, until 1980 when it stopped due to the earthquake.

In addition to the church of Santa Luciella, the main symbolic places of this cult are located in the center of Naples: they are the church of Santa Maria delle anime del Purgatorio in Arco and the Fontanelle Cemetery.

THE SKULL WITH EARS:

Among all the skulls preserved in the underground cemetery of the Church of Santa Luciella we find the famous Skull with Ears.

This skull has the particularity of having two portions of bone that have spread over time, making it appear as if it still had, in fact, the auricles (which in reality it is not possible as the cartilage is one of the parts of the skeleton which degrades faster).

The Skull with ears was the favorite of women who practiced the cult of Anime Pezzentelle, precisely because it was thought that it had the ability to better listen to prayers and requests, acting as a real link between the world of the living and that of the dead. For this reason the skull, dating back to 1600, once exhibited in the crypt has never been touched or moved.

Personally, I find that this macabre tradition typical of the Neapolitan people actually best represents the particular relationship that these people have with the afterlife and with the cult of the dead. A belief that explains to us that we should not fear or show concern towards the dead, but that it is possible to devote ourselves to them gently, preventing them from being forgotten and still keeping them part of the community.

♄Unornya

www.respiriamoarte.it