The queer pilgrimage of the feminielli to the Montevergine sanctuary

Article by Marta S. published on Blog of the MCC Community Il Cerchio February 9, 2018

Every year theFebruary 2ndThe Catholic Church and most Christian churches celebrate the anniversary ofpresentation of JesusChild at the temple, narrated by the Gospel of Luca (2, 22-39).

The candlestick

The Torah prescribed that this ceremony took place forty days after the birth of the first -born male of Jewish families. Luca tells that the elderly Simeone, inspired by the Holy Spirit, took the child in his arms and, turning to God, he said he is finally ready to die, having his eyes given the Messiah, "Light to illuminate the people". The liturgy is inspired by this song to predict that, during the ceremony that takes place on that day, there is ablessing ritual of the candles, from which the popular expression candelora derives, with which the anniversary is commonly indicated. Similar expressions exist in many other countries (in EnglishCandlemas).

Reinterpretation queer in Campania

The candlestick holiday is particularly felt among homosexual, bisexual and transgender people in Campania, which on that day give life to a very ancient rite, which in Neapolitan dialect is indicated as "A Juta Re Feminielli" , expression whose most appropriate translation is perhaps "Pilgrimage of homosexuals", being "Feminielli" A term with which we often refer not only to transsexuals, but also to very effeminate gay men.

ThereMom Schiavona

In fact, every 2 February hundreds of people belonging to the LGBT world, in some cases also coming from the neighboring regions, go toPilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Montevergine, a medieval place of worship located on Mount Partenio, in the province of Avellino. Therepay homage to the black Madonnathat in the sanctuary is found,commonly indicated as "Mom Schiavona", a late medieval painting depicting the Virgin with the child, both with the skin with a rather dark shade. After the cult homage,The pilgrims find themselves in the churchyard in front of the church where, in a goliardic atmosphere not very different from that of the Gay Pride, with bright colors clothes dance to the sound of popular music instruments, from drums to nacco. For a part of the faithful, the pilgrimage begins already on the eve, when we stop to sleep in the neighboring village of Ospedaletto, which until the Middle Ages was called Fontanelle but then changed the name precisely for the great importance that over time has taken on the dimension of the hospitality given to the many pilgrims.

Origin of the pilgrimage

Tradition wants that "A Juta Re Feminielli" It originates from an episode that would have occurredin the thirteenth century, WhenTwo local guys, surprised in homosexual intimacy, would have been abandoned linked to a tree, so that they died of hardshipsOr, more likely, for the aggression of stray animals of the forest.Tradition has it that the Madonna of Montevergine would appear to them on the day of the candlestick, and with a benevolent face he would have melted themfrom the ropes that bound them. The fellow villagers of the two young people, believing in their story and drawing teaching from the benevolence of the Virgin, would therefore have spared the life of the two, even tolerating (exceptionally) that they continued to live their love story privately without having to hide more. The same tolerance that, over time, has almost always been shown to homosexual, bisexual and transgender people who went on pilgrimage to the sanctuary. The pilgrimagequeerIn Montevergine, he also deeply fascinated many intellectuals of the twentieth century, by Pasolini who recorded the songs of the faithful and made use of it in the soundtrack of hisDecameron, to Vittorio De Sica, who went to the sanctuary in the company of the screenwriter Zavattini in search of ideas on the popular religiosity of the place, to be used in his filmThe gold of Naples.

Pre -Christian origins

This form of popular religiosity is doubly interesting as it sinks itsroots in the ancient age, when properOn Monte Partenio there was a temple dedicated to the Cybele and Attis gods. Being attisEunuca divinity, many of the priests underwent ritual evolution andThe cults had a character that we would define todayqueer, with the priests and many of the male faithful who wore guise and tricks and sang and danced in forms not dissimilar from today. In some cases the cults assumed a real orgiastic character. The cult of Cybele and Attis, of Greek origin, spread to Rome at the end of the third century BC many literary sources of the ancient age speak of it, from Catullo to Virgil himself.

CultsInclusive queer

In the ancient pre -Christian cults of Cybele and Attis, as in the particular form that today in Montevergine takes on the Marian cult,homosexual and bisexual orientation and transgender identityNot only are they not considered as situations incompatible with religious faith, but on the contrarythey are 'channeled' and integrated into ritual formsvery precise and deeply rooted in the spiritual life of the place. It should also be observed thatalso the devotional rites of LGBT people towards the "Mom Schiavona" are the subject of a surprising tolerance by the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities. Only on a couple of occasions, in the early 2000s, tensions were tensions with the abbot of Montevergine (which is also bishop of the place), which, however, had as its object not the nature of the pilgrimage but only the behavior to be kept within the church, which not always, in the opinion of the abbey authorities, was sufficiently composed as it should be within a place of worship.