Benedicaria
Encyclopedia
Benedicaria, which means "Way of Blessing," is a relatively new term for a number of loosely-related family-based folk traditions found throughout Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, most notably in southern Italy and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

. Though referred to by some as "Folk Magic
Folk religion
Folk religion consists of ethnic or regional religious customs under the umbrella of an organized religion, but outside of official doctrine and practices...

" or even as "Witchcraft," the various Benedicaria Traditions are concerned almost exclusively with healing, cleansing, spirituality, and religious devotion.

Benedicaria is also known as Benedicazione (Blessing) in the Cattolichese dialect, Benedica (blessed) in Catanian, and Fa Lu Santuccio (lit. "do a little holy thing") in Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

.

Unlike practitioners of Stregheria
Stregheria
Stregheria is a form of ethnic Italian form of Wicca originating in the United States, popularized by Raven Grimassi since the 1980s. Stregheria is sometimes referred to as La Vecchia Religione The word stregheria is an archaic Italian word for "witchcraft", the modern Italian word being...

 and some practitioners of Stregoneria
Stregoneria
Stregoneria is an umbrella term for the Folk Magic practices of Italy. The word Stregoneria itself is simply Italian for witchcraft. The use of the word Stregoneria to describe Italian Folk Magic is common mostly among Italian-American practitioners...

, practitioners of Benedicaria consider themselves to be devout Catholics
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, and the practices of Benedicaria are inextricably linked with Italian popular devotions found in Traditional Catholicism.

History of the term

Amongst Italian communities, there is generally no word for "Benedicaria," and often it is simply called "the things we do and have always done." However, the word for a practitioner is Benedetto (for a male) or Benedetta (for a female), both of which mean "Blessed One." In Giuseppe Tornatore's 2000 motion picture Malèna
Malèna
Malèna is a 2000 Italian romantic drama film starring Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. It was directed and written by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni.-Plot:...

, however, there is a scene where the older ladies of the village are exorcising Renato with Holy Cards
Holy card
In the Catholic tradition, holy cards or prayer cards are small, devotional pictures mass-produced for the use of the faithful. They typically depict a religious scene or a saint in an image about the size of a playing card. The reverse typically contains a prayer, some of which promise an...

 and praying Rosaries. The boy's father sees this and says "Va fanculo cu la benedicaria!" ("Go fuck off with the Benedicaria!")

In the English language, the word Benedicaria itself first appeared in writing thanks to Sicilian-American author Vito Quattrocchi, who self-published his book Sicilian Benedicaria: Magical Catholicism. Quattrocchi had already been a published author, with The Sicilian Blade (1993, Desert Publications) under his belt. However, this move towards self-publication
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...

 on Quattrocchi's part has proven to be successful, and now the word Benedicaria is in common use, at least throughout the internet, as a way of identifying these traditions of spiritual practices.

Along with Quattrocchi, another name associated with Benedicaria is that of Agostino Taumaturgo, a Roman Catholic priest who maintains Quattrocchi's website and whose book, The Things We Do: Ways of the Holy Benedetta was published in 2007.

Discussions on the subject of Benedicaria could be found on the forums at the Stregoneria Italiana website (now inactive), whose membership consists of both Catholics and Pagans who work together to debunk the stereotypes prevalent regarding Italian culture and spirituality. The discussion on this site also covers the subjects of Italian Folk Culture(i.e. Stregoneria, Fattura, etc.), Christian Magic, and many other aspects of Italian language, food, history, politics, and culture.

Practices of Benedicaria

Benedicaria is catch-all term for a number of family-based spiritual traditions with a great deal of flexibility, and as a result, the practices found in Benedicaria may vary from family to family and from individual to individual. Amongst the more commonly-known practices are the use of olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...

 and/or eggs as a cure for the Malocchio or Evil Eye
Evil eye
The evil eye is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike...

, the use of candle
Candle
A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...

s, the Rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...

, herbs, and Novenas in honor of the various Saints. According to the information given at the Italian Benedicaria website, most of the prayers used in Benedicaria are taken directly from Catholic prayerbooks.

The same sacramentals
Sacramentals
Sacramentals are material objects, things or actions set apart or blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Churches, and Old Catholic Churches to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these...

 used in the Catholic Church are used in Benedicaria, whereby the sacramentals are never disrespected. However they are also used, to a small degree in stregoneria, where there is more of a grey area and therefore a practitioner may find themselves walking the fine line between the sacred and the profane or, stepping right into sacrilege.

One example of the sacramentals
Sacramentals
Sacramentals are material objects, things or actions set apart or blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Churches, and Old Catholic Churches to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these...

 being used in Benedicaria is in the so-called "Exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

 of Saint Anthony
Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...

," wherein the practitioner holds a crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....

 over the object which he or she wishes to exorcise, and says: "Behold the Cross of the Lord! Begone, ye hostile powers! The Lion of the tribe of Judah
Tribe of Judah
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....

 hath triumphed, he who is the rod of David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

!" This rite is found, in its entirety, within the pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Rite of Solemn Exorcism, known as Ritus Exorcizandi Obssessos a Daemonio.

In fact, nearly all of the Sacramentals used by Benedetti come from the Church in times before the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...

, and a number of practitioners care little or nothing for the changes that took place after that Council (which many Benedicaria-practitioners and even ordinary Catholics may have been a somewhat forced imposition of Northern European or Protestant ideologies on the rest of the world).

Another common practice is the use of eggs as a form of cleansing or to remove the Evil Eye. In this exercise, the egg is washed, dried, and then covered in Holy Water
Holy Water
Holy Water is the ninth studio album by hard rock band Bad Company, and their third with Brian Howe in place of Paul Rodgers as lead vocalist, released in June 1990. The singles on the album all received moderate radio airplay. These included "Holy Water", "Boys Cry Tough", "Walk Through Fire", and...

 while the practitioner prays over it, saying an Apostles' Creed
Apostles' Creed
The Apostles' Creed , sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol"...

, an Our Father, and three Hail Mary
Hail Mary
The Angelic Salutation, Hail Mary, or Ave Maria is a traditional biblical Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Hail Mary is used within the Catholic Church, and it forms the basis of the Rosary...

's. The egg is then rolled over the alleged victim's body in a loosely prescribed pattern, paying especial attention to any area which may feel the most pain; the egg is believed to absorb any negative energy. After doing this with the egg for fifteen minutes, the egg is broken by throwing it in the toilet and flushing the remains.

This is very similar to a practice found in Mexican Curanderismo and Filipino Pagtatawas
Pagtatawas
"Pagtatawas" is a ritual in psycho-medicine in Filipino Psychology where an affliction or psychological disorder is diagnosed by interpreting the form produced in a basin of water as heated alum or molten wax drop from a lighted candle.Earlier and in some rural areas in the Philippines, alum...

 which has the same objective, and it is also an example of a Catholic Sacramental being combined with a possible pre-Christian practice, with the latter being subordinated to the belief-system of Catholicism.

Relationship with Stregheria and Stregoneria

There is much discussion on the subject of what exactly is entailed by the terms Benedicaria, Stregoneria, and Stregheria
Stregheria
Stregheria is a form of ethnic Italian form of Wicca originating in the United States, popularized by Raven Grimassi since the 1980s. Stregheria is sometimes referred to as La Vecchia Religione The word stregheria is an archaic Italian word for "witchcraft", the modern Italian word being...

. However, the one thing upon which all parties agree is that these three things are all different from one another. In 2005, a poster on Mystic Wicks asked Raven Grimassi
Raven Grimassi
Raven Grimassi is the pen name of an Italian-American author, publishing on the topics of Neo-paganism and witchcraft. He is perhaps best known for his popularization of Stregheria, a neopagan revival of "Italian witchcraft"....

 his opinion concerning Benedicaria, and Grimassi responded that he had read Quattrocchi's book, that it seemed authentic in the material it covered, and that it neither has nor claims any relationship with Italian Witchcraft. In response to this, Quattrocchi expressed his thanks that all sides of the debate acknowledge Stregheria and Benedicaria as two entirely separate and unrelated practices.

The relationship between Stregoneria and Benedicaria is more confounded entirely since in their purest forms the two are completely distinct. However, most practitioners make use of elements from both traditions, and many practitioners were raised with or taught elements of both traditions, so much so that over the course of centuries, it has become impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. In many cases, even the practitioner herself is not certain as to the distinctions.

This confusion between the two practices became an object of contention between Rue Roselli and Vito Quattrocchi in May 2007, when Quattrocchi posted two videos on YouTube featuring an interview between himself and a sympathetic priest regarding the subject. In these videos, the priest (a mutual friend of both Roselli and Quattrocchi) stressed the fact that Benedicaria is not witchcraft, that it is entirely separate from witchcraft, and that the practitioner of Benedicaria is generally a devout Catholic who makes no pretensions of being a witch. Roselli cited the tendency of Benedetti to blend the two practices, which was not mentioned in the videos. The videos have since been removed from YouTube, but this debate comes to show that the relationship between Benedicaria and Stregoneria is one of synthesis and convulution.

See also

  • Folk Christianity
  • Folk Medicine
    Traditional medicine
    Traditional medicine comprises unscientific knowledge systems that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine...

  • Malocchio
  • Italian Cunning Folk

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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