The exhibition 'Good Friday. Sackcloth and Scapular, Genesis of a Penitential Movement' opens on Saturday afternoon, February 24th (6 PM) at Villa Fiorentino, curated by Massimo Fiorentino, prior of the Archconfraternity of Santa Monica.
The exhibition will remain open until March 31st, every day from 10 AM to 1 PM and from 4 PM to 7 PM; on Saturdays and Sundays it will close at 8 PM. The exhibition is part of the tradition of the Sorrento peninsula, which during Holy Week, encompasses a series of events that showcase the history, faith, and tradition of a people who, at the dawn of the third millennium, still look with trepidation to a dusty village in Galilee, where Redemption was born. This worship culminates in the numerous processions that are organized.
At Villa Fiorentino, an exhibition will be presented that through images and symbols aims to express the feeling of gratitude of the institutions and the population towards those who have managed to keep alive that torch of knowledge that comes from ancient times. The exhibition does not only focus on the evocative rites that animate the Coast, but also highlights the activity of the brotherhoods of other Mediterranean countries, such as Spain. 'This exhibition - explains anthropologist Giovanni Gugg - is a valuable opportunity to reflect on a centuries-old rite that distinguishes Sorrento and, intrinsically, inlays its temperament and marks its bonds. Documentary and photographic exhibitions are always an opportunity to take stock: it's as if a community said to itself, 'we are these, we do this'.
The exhibition on the rites of Holy Week curated by Massimo Fiorentino is a significant cultural event for several reasons: for the documents proposed, all of great historical-cultural and artistic-religious interest; for foreign visitors, who can thus deepen a local practice and not limit themselves to being 'spectators'; for the Sorrento community, which has the opportunity to sediment collective memory and discover similarities and differences with similar rituals in other locations, but above all has the opportunity to observe and think about itself, to re-establish an order and a balance between memory and identity. The Sorrento peninsula, during Holy Week, encompasses a series of events that showcase the history, faith, and tradition of a people who, at the dawn of the third millennium, still look with trepidation to a dusty village in Galilee, where Redemption was born. This worship culminates in the numerous processions that are organized. Evocative rites centered on mysticism and popular religiosity. Hooded figures, lanterns, polyphonic choirs, bands with their poignant marches, crosses and symbols of the Passion, banners and gonfalons, make the 'dies terribilis' full of pathos and sacred rituals.
This year, the Municipality and the Sorrento Foundation want to pay tribute to these events that characterize the faith of the inhabitants of the Coast through this exhibition. An exhibition that through images and symbols aims to express the feeling of gratitude of the institutions and the population towards those who have managed to keep alive that torch of knowledge that comes to us from ancient times. The exhibition does not only focus on the evocative rites that animate the Coast, but also highlights the activity of the brotherhoods of other Mediterranean countries, such as Spain. Everything on display is authentic. The albumin period photos, engravings, watercolors, statutes of the brotherhoods are original. The collection of many medallions is interesting. The material on display is the result of over fifty years of passionate research into everything that revolves around the world of brotherhoods. Precious documents that allow new generations to discover a modus vivendi that for centuries has marked the life of obscure brothers, with their participation in what were the obligations and various initiatives promoted by the pious brotherhoods. To bring residents and tourists even closer to these fascinating cults, on the days when the exhibition will be open, a rehearsal of the Miserere on the steps of Villa Fiorentino is planned to allow everyone to attend. An initiative that wants to retrace the deep religious feeling that Sorrento and its peninsula have always had.
From Vico Equense to Massa Lubrense there are many churches and chapels, as well as many convents and monasteries. It is precisely in these places of worship that the brotherhoods have arisen, associations of lay people with aims of piety and devotion, where, unlike monastic ones, the associates are not obliged to live in common, and do not take vows. Their origin is uncertain but they certainly take inspiration from the mystical movement of the Flagellants, or Disciplinants, from 'discipline', a bundle of five cords, in memory of the wounds of Jesus, which arose through the will of the hermit Raniero Fasani in Umbria in 1260. When this movement died out, the companies or rather, the brotherhoods were born and developed, all moved by a strong sense of religious association that pervaded every social class. Depending on the regions, they were called fraternities, confraternities, guilds, collecta, sodalities, scholae, estaurite, congregations, companies, and centuries. The brotherhoods had a great spread between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, contributing to the social and cultural growth of society, building hospitals and hospices, orphanages and conservatories. Organizations that can be defined as daughters of medieval corporations. Much of their cultural heritage has come down to our days, overcoming the fashions and difficulties of the present times.
'The confirmation of the existence in the Sorrento peninsula of many sodalities is also given by an edict of 1825 by Archbishop Gabriele Papa, from which it is clear that in Sorrento, at that time, there were fifteen brotherhoods, one in Capri, one in Anacapri, eight in the area of Massa Lubrense and eight in that of Vico Equense, together with three Monti dei Morti - explains Prior Fiorentino -. In February 2024, there are as many as 40 operating in the territory of the Sorrento peninsula. Most of them carry on the popular traditions of Holy Week, with rites that involve a wide and solemn ceremonial. Every moment is repeated with an unwritten script that everyone draws from, almost as if to mark the sense of belonging to the territory. Strong bond, almost sacred, with what represents an indissoluble red thread that unites the different generations. It is important to be there, to participate, to relive those key moments that have so much of that feeling that is nestled in the so-called expressions of popular religiosity'.