270. Corpus Christi and a church without a name
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| The Mass was held outdoors in the courtyard of the old presbytery |
Every year, weather and governments permitting, Roman Catholic parishes all over the world have a Corpus Christi procession. There are many processions Catholics may choose to have throughout the year, but the procession of Corpus Christi is the only one prescribed by the Church.
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| The altar |
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| The Celebrant was Fr Fabio, a local guy who comes back now and again to visit us |
This means that the children who have made their first Holy Communion that year, usually, dressed in their white Communion tunics, strew flowers in front of the Blessed Sacrament which the Priest carries in a special Host container.
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| The children from the three parishes who made their First Holy Communion this year |
With the dwindling of church attendances, but mainly due to the shortage of priests, parishes club together to form one group. Therefore, the parishes of Sarmede, Anzano and Cappella Maggiore gather together to form one single procession which is hosted alternatively by each village. This year the procession was held on 25 June in Anzano.
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| Kneeling to adore the Blessed Sacrament |
Last time Anzano hosted the Corpus Christi procession was three years ago, an event I remember clearly because it was then I started seriously taking photos of church events for the diocese archieves; but of which at the time I was totally unaware that was where they would eventually end up.
The Mass was held outdoors in the playground outside what used to be the Priest’s Presbytery and the “Oratorio” which takes its name from the tradition of John Bosco. As there is no longer a priest in residence the Nuns, apart from saying Mass, do it all.
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| The children strew the flowers |
The nuns are called Suore Dimesse Figlie di Maria Immacolata. They were founded in 1579 by Fr. Pagani. They were called "Dimesse" because it referred to ladies of noble birth who retired to the convent life. But as one of the sisters was quick to inform me, none of them now are of noble birth... just normal.
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| The Blessed Sacrament is taken through the streets |
The nuns, aided by select, strong muscled parishioners prepared the setting for the Mass and procession which this year, as Corpus Christi fell quite late, and not wanting to be fried under a noon sun opted for the celebration to take place on Saturday evening, at sun-set.
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| A view from the back |
After Mass the procession proceeded downhill onto the main road of Anzano and then uphill to the small church of Anzano- When I was blogging on this three years ago, I had to stop here and scrape around to see if I could find anyone who knew what the name of the church in Anzano was- after all I couldn't post a whole album of photos on the parish website and not know the name of the church it revolved around, now could I? This is what happened next, and even if it is 3 years old, it is worth repeating the memory, just for the record.
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| The Children and the Catechists |
“So off I trot to ask my sister, my brother-in-law, my neighbours... The name of the church in Anzano? That was to all and sundry a complete mystery and I too asked myself, how strange I had never known what it was called, after such a long while living in the area, nor even heard others call it by name, come to think of it.
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| The local band leads the way |
Out of desperation I phone the unofficial village town crier... there's always someone in every village that knows everything about everyone and sure enough he knew the name of the church.
"Who?" I said, "Vito the modest?" I asked since it isn't just the Internet lines that are not at their best on this side of the mountain.
"No," he said, "Vito and Modesto!"
"Christ!" I said, "What a name to call a church."
"Vito, was some-kind of important Roman Official" he began to explain, "and so as not to intimidate the locals they made one of the peasants around here a saint and called him "Modesto" then tagged him on to Vito."
"Ah," I said, "I see," but I didn't at all. How on earth can you just make up a saint so as to name a church after him?
It was best to take the town crier's explanation with the usual pinch of salt and looked up the names in a more reputable source and found a totally different story. The saint name of Vito was that of a seven year old kid, Modesto was his instructor and strangely enough this was a threesome of saints not a twosome because there is also a certain Cresentia who was the nurse maid: now, why on earth they were all made saints, that I couldn't tell you, because IT doesn't say.”
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| The Blessed Sacrament is placed in view outside the Church |
However, that explains why no one knows what the church is called or ever mentions it by name... with a bunch of names like that. I wonder why though, they left off the nurse-maid, Cresentia, in the official version... Perhaps it was simply too much to ask.
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| People waiting for the benediction at the foot of the church |
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| Our P.P. says thank you to all who prepared the event- But he was the cause of it all |
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| Mother Superior of the convent who planned it all pops her head from the convent door. |
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| This is the Church without a name, but blogger won't let me publish it the right way up- I guess this church is really jinxed! |
The below mentioned article was one of the posts which got me banned from China:
