Saint Barbara Festival Returns to Paternò

By Dr. Alberto Lunetta, NAS Sigonella Public Affairs

This year, the annual Santa Barbara Festival will be held in Paternò from Dec. 3-5 featuring only religious celebrations held in the Church of Saint Barbara. Due to the pandemic restrictions, the festival’s processions and parades, which draw annually thousands of devotees, have indeed been canceled for the second year in a row.

Fr. Salvatore Magrì, the Church of Saint Barbara’s parish priest, said that despite people’s desire to celebrate together and honor the city’s patron saint, the current pandemic situation still reduces the opportunities for social interaction. However, he encouraged believers to celebrate Saint Barbara with unchanged fervor.

“The patron saint feast is the occasion to look at ourselves with the eyes of the heart. With these eyes, we can also see God at work in the happy or sad events of our earthly journey. The feast is a beautiful and providential occasion to think about the good things that make life tasty and thus rediscover the flavor of true things,” said Fr. Magrì.

The town’s devotion to Santa Barbara began in 1576 when she saved the town from a terrible plague epidemic. Legend has it that Saint Barbara had appeared in a dream to a nun promising to save the town if the townspeople would proclaim her as the patron saint. The nun disclosed the dream to the community, who hailed her as the Santa Patrona (patroness saint) right away. A few days later, the plague ended, so Santa Barbara became the official protector of the Paternò community. Townspeople erected a cathedral to honor her.

Santa Barbara’s protection of the town continued, according to legend. In 1780, she also intervened to stop a terrible Etna eruption. The “miracle” occurred after Paternò townspeople carried her relics in procession near the town of Ragalna on the slopes of the volcano.

Today, Saint Barbara is still invoked to grant safety from lightning, thunderstorms, and fires. Since the Middle Ages, she has been regarded as the patron saint of those who are in danger of fire or explosions. She is also associated with artillerymen, fire fighters and ordnance disposal personnel. Historically, her image was placed on arsenals and powder magazines. In Italian, the ammunition magazine on a war ship is even called “santabarbara.”

As reported by Catholic.org, the Spanish word santabárbara, the corresponding Italian word Santa Barbara, and the obsolete French Sainte-Barbe signify the powder magazine of a ship or fortress. It was customary to have a statue of Saint Barbara at the magazine to protect the ship or fortress from suddenly exploding. Unsurprisingly, she is the patron of the Italian Navy.

Saint Barbara’s Day, Dec. 4, is also celebrated by other military forces across the world including the British, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand armed forces. Additionally, it is celebrated by Irish Defense Forces Artillery Regiments, Norwegian Armed Forces Artillery Battalion, United States Army and Marine Corps field and air defense artillery, many Marine Corps explosive ordnance disposal technicians, and other artillery formations. The units and sub-units celebrate the day with church parades, sports days, guest nights, cocktail parties, dinners and other activities.

Several mining institutions also celebrate, such as some branches of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. The West Australian Mining Club celebrates St. Barbara’s Day and uses it to remember those people who have died working in the mining industry during the year. Although they do not celebrate her saint’s day, she is also the patron saint of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviation ordnance men.

Festival Schedule Highlights

On Dec. 3, blank cannon shots announce the beginning of the festival at 8 a.m. At 10 a.m., a wreath-laying ceremony, to be attended by the local military and civilian authorities and by a Sigonella Navy delegation, will be held at the War Memorial located in Piazza Santa Barbara. Around 10:45 a.m. the Sigonella Italian Air Force chaplain, Fr. Paolo Solidoro, will celebrate a solemn Holy Mass at the Church of Santa Barbara. At the end of the Holy Mass, Italian firefighters will pay homage to the saint by reaching her statue on a fire ladder and placing a wreath of flowers.

The highlight of the festival is on Dec. 4. Celebrations will begin early in the morning with cannon shots and bell ringing at dawn. Later, the statue depicting the saint and her holy relics will be unveiled at 7:30 a.m. (Svelata del Simulacro di S. Barbara) with a holy mass at 10 a.m.

Then a children’s choir will sing traditional religious chants (cantate delle corporazioni cittadine) by the “Mulinari” and “Muratori” religious clubs in piazza Indipendenza at 12:30 p.m. A spectacular fireworks and music show will be performed in Piazza Santa Barbara at 9, 9:30 and 10 p.m. On the last day of the festival (Dec. 5), at 11 a.m., the Catania Archbishop Salvatore Gristina celebrates a solemn holy mass at the church of Saint Barbara.

The city band will perform during the three-festival day throughout the city center at 6 p.m.

For more information and a detailed schedule, visit www.parrocchiasantabarbara.org.

The Saint Barbara feast returns to Paternò after the pandemic pause, continuing a centuries-old tradition. However, due to current Italy’s covid restrictions, large crowded parades and relics’ processions have been canceled. Photo by Alfio Spampinato