Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Saints & Sinners
Religion is a big deal in Sicily. With the exception of the small Muslim communities of
Palermo and the larger Tunisian Muslim community in Mazara del Vallo, the overwhelm-
ing majority of Sicilians consider themselves practising Roman Catholics. Even before the
1929 Lateran Treaty between the Vatican and Italy, when Roman Catholicism became the
official religion of the country, Sicily was incontrovertibly Catholic, mostly due to 500
years of Spanish domination. In 1985 the treaty was renegotiated, so that Catholicism was
no longer the state religion and religious education was no longer compulsory, but this only
reflected the reality of mainland Italy north of Rome; in Sicily, the Catholic Church re-
mains strong and extremely popular.
BRIDGING THE CULTURAL DIVIDE
Maria Sanciolo-Bell was born in Sicily, lives in Australia and spends much of her time forging cultural links
between the island and the rest of the world. A director of
Echoes Events
(
www.echoesevents.com)
, a cultural
tourism and events company with offices in Melbourne and Catania, she and her Sicilian business associate
Gaetano Failla are passionate about Sicilian culture and run a huge range of programs celebrating it. Whether it be
running opera masterclasses with Sicilian maestros, conducting regional cookery courses, sponsoring international
art exchanges or taking international visitors on tours of the locations used in the
Inspector Montalbano
TV series
and
Godfather
films, Echoes plays an important role in raising the cultural profile of Sicily and highlighting its at-
tractions on the world stage. As she says: 'Many people only know of Sicily in relation to the Mafia. We are com-
mitted to raising awareness of its incredibly rich and diverse heritage and to making people aware of the cultural
interrelationships - rather than the cultural divides - between Sicily and the rest of the world.'
In the small communities of the interior you will find that the mix of faith and supersti-
tion that for centuries dictated Sicilian behaviour is still strong. The younger, more cosmo-
politan sections of society living in the cities tend to dismiss their elders' deepest expres-
sions of religious devotion, but most people still maintain an air of respect.
Pilgrimages remain a central part of the religious ritual, with thousands of Sicilians trav-
elling to places such as Santuario della Madonna at Tindari or Santuario di Gibilmanna in
the Madonie mountains. The depth of religious feeling associated with these sanctuaries is
underscored by the large number of
ex votos
(votive offerings) brought to both places by
worshippers seeking divine intervention or giving thanks for a miracle attributed to the
Madonna.
Annual feast days of patron saints are also enthusiastically celebrated throughout the is-
land, morphing into massive city-wide events in the larger urban areas. Palermo's mid-July
