medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In response to Diana's sending the marvelous
report on the narcosaint, a Franciscan friend
sent me the following report, which I asked his
permission to send on to the list for our
delectation if not edification.
GHB
Patron of coyotes.
You know, there was a very peculiar episode at our friary in Padua
when I was living in Italy in 1991. A relic of Saint Anthony, a piece
of his mandible that was on display in an ornate ostensorium, was
stolen at gunpoint from the reliquary chapel at the Basilica del Santo
in Padua. It was a highly coordinated, well-planned effort that
involved quite a number of persons. They brought automatic weapons
into the Basilica, made everyone lie down on the floor and broke
through the glass of the display case that contained the relic and
ostensorium. There were other things in the case, perhaps even more
expensive things or noteworthy things from an artistic point of view,
but they wanted the relic. So, they took it and were gone.
The Basilica didn't then (and still doesn't) have surveillance cameras
or high-tech security measures of any kind. The "guard" in the
reliquary chapel was an unarmed, but loquacious, older gentleman who
wore a uniform with epaulettes and whose main job description was to
keep the children from pressing their greasy noses against the glass.
The carabinieri investigated, of course, since it was such a high
profile crime. Still, they had no clues whatsoever and didn't have a
notion where to look for the stolen reliquary.
In Italy, however, no crime takes place without the gypsies knowing
something about it. Moreover, they have a strong devotion to Anthony
that derives from the saint's lifetime. Apparently, he was solicitous
of the gypsies and treated them with respect and they never forget
anything. So, anyway, they were upset at the flagrant abuse of the
saint's holy relic and set about surreptitiously gathering
information. Actually, gypsies, precisely because they are so
marginalized socially, are probably better suited to do this kind of
investigation than the carabinieri. In any case, they found the relic
and tipped off the carabinieri who intercepted it just as it was about
be loaded onto a cargo flight bound for Japan. There were several
arrests and it turned out that the robbery had been commissioned by a
Columbian cartelista who was a devoté of santería and practitioner of
brujería. Apparently he believed that having a relic of Saint Anthony
would aid him in the drug trade.
The carabinieri publicly acknowledged the help of the gypsies and the
government of Italy formally returned the relic to us at Santi
Apostoli in Rome, which is our Curia Generalitia and the parish within
which the Quirinale is located. Once the friars had it back, they
organized a pilgrimage to return the relic to the Basilica del Santo
in Padua.
The episode offers an intriguing glimpse into the multifarious
phenomena of popular religiosity. It's got everything: friars, drug
lords, armed robbers, carabinieri, gypsies and pilgrims. It sounds like a
roman that Alexandre Dumas père meant to write, but didn't get to.
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/us/08narcosaint.html?ref=world
>
>DW
>
--
George Hardin Brown, Professor of English Emeritus
Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2087
Home: 451 Adobe Place, Palo Alto, CA 94306-4501
Phones: Mobile: 650-269-9898; Fax: 650-725-0755; Home: 650-852-1231
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