The Holy Week rituals in San Biagio Platani are steeped in a form of ritual that becomes a profound expression of the community’s lived experience. The rites begin, as is traditional in many other towns, on Palm Sunday and culminate in the symbolic encounter between the Risen Christ and the Madonna beneath the central Triumphal Arches—spectacular structures made of bread architecture—set up along the town’s main avenue. It is a unique mix of theatrical and oral performance interwoven with processions of religious statues.

The central theme of Holy Week in San Biagio, leading up to Easter Sunday, is the representation of the so-called “Martorio”—a travelling play with costumed performers inspired by “The Redemption of Adam”, an 18th-century poetic drama by the Palermo-born Filippo Orioles.

The performance begins on Palm Sunday morning with the dressing of the characters—Jesus, Mary, the pious women, and the Apostles. A procession starts with the actor playing Jesus riding a donkey from Piazza Carmine to the Mother Church, where certain characters read parts of the Passion. On Thursday evening, the twelve Apostles participate in the Mass of the washing of the feet. Afterwards, a procession with Jesus and four apostles—including Peter and John—heads to the town park. A second procession, featuring Caiaphas and soldiers, begins at Carmine and reaches the park, where Jesus prays and the arrest scene is performed. Jesus is then taken back to the Carmine area and confined inside the oratory. More scenes from Orioles’ script follow, up to the hanging of Judas.

On Friday morning, the drama resumes with the reading of the death sentence. The actor playing Jesus is disrobed, scourged, crowned with thorns, and burdened with the cross. A solemn procession begins with the statues of the Madonna of Sorrows and Christ carrying the Cross. Along the route, the Stations of the Cross are reenacted. Arriving in front of the church, between the two unadorned arches, there is the dramatic encounter between Mary and Jesus, followed by the meeting of Jesus and Veronica. The morning’s performance ends at the Calvary in Piazza Carmine, where the statue of the Crucified Christ is mounted on the cross next to the statue of the Sorrowful Madonna. That evening, the Deposition from the Cross takes place. Under the Calvary, the two confraternities—the Madunnara and the Signurara, dressed in traditional garb (blue for the Madunnara, red for the Signurara)—chant the sorrowful hymn “Ah, sì, versate lacrime” (“Oh, yes, shed tears”). The Crucified Christ is then lowered from the cross by the priests and placed in the funeral urn. A final procession returns to the Mother Church, with all characters—soldiers, pious women, the Madonna, clergy, etc.—accompanied by the Giuseppe Verdi band and a torchlight vigil. The urn bearing the Dead Christ is carried by the Signurara confraternity, while the statue of the Madonna of Sorrows is carried by women of the same confraternity. Upon arriving at the church steps, the simulacra enter in darkness, to the sound of funeral marches and a final rendition of “Ah, sì, versate lacrime” by both confraternities.

The apotheosis of Holy Week comes on Easter morning, when the statues of the Risen Christ and the Madonna meet beneath the central arches along the Easter Arch Avenue, now fully assembled and unveiled in all their splendour for the first time. The day’s rites begin in the morning, when the Madunnara, dressed in the blue robes and sashes of their confraternity and holding the so-called “Cristi”—wooden staffs topped with a painted cloth image of the Virgin shrouded in black—accompany the statue of the Madonna, still veiled in a black mantle, in procession from the Mother Church. The priest and the band, playing funeral marches, follow them. The procession passes beneath the Signurara’s arches and proceeds to the Church of Carmine, where the statue of the Risen Christ stands on the church square. Once the Madonna’s procession has passed, the statue of the Risen Christ, accompanied by the Signurara in their red robes and banners, begins its procession in the opposite direction. The two processions finally meet at the Easter Arches from opposite ends—Madunnara entering from one side, Signurara from the other—until the encounter takes place under the central triumphal arches. At this moment, a ceramic angel, sliding down a suspended wire, symbolically removes the Madonna’s black veil. The black cloths on the Cristi held by the Madunnara are also pulled away. A jubilant outcry erupts with shouts of “Long live the Risen Christ!” and “Long live the Blessed Virgin Mary!” The statues touch repeatedly, embraced symbolically in joy, and the procession resumes. This “encounter” is repeated three times in the same manner, concluding in a chorus of joy and exultation with unending invocations.

The ritual of the Holy Week in San Biagio Platani is inseparable from the division of the town into the two confraternities of Madunnara and Signurara. The joyful outburst under the Easter Arches during the encounter between the Risen Christ and the Madonna — joined in a symbolic embrace — is the ultimate expression of the community’s cultural identity. The Easter Arches are the external symbol; the Holy Week rites, from which the arches themselves originated, are the inner essence of this identity.

 

This element has been included in the Register of Intangible Heritage of local interest of the Municipality of San Biagio Platani, as part of Intervention 4 “Activation of the Observatory on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Territory through the application of the REIL methodology – Register of Intangible Heritage of Local Interest”, within the “RiGenerAzioni Archi di Piano 2030” project, funded by the NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), Mission: Digitalisation, innovation, competitiveness, culture and tourism, Component: Tourism and culture 4.0, Investment 2.1 “Attractiveness of villages.” CUP: J29I22000110006.