Book about the cult of San Rocco surfaces

religious events 08/16/2008 keane

The traditional festival of San Rocco is generally held to be the end of the summer in Barga. Of course this is not absolutely true as the sun shines right through August and generally well into September but from San Rocco onwards the nights are perceptibly drawing in and the air is cooler.

The San Rocco market is the time when people buy their onions and garlic for the winter, get their knives sharpened by Umberto the last travelling knife sharpener (article here) and go down to dance in the streets at Giardino, now devoid of traffic, with the traditional Liscio band keeping the beat going until midnight. For some though it is also a time to think about their religion and the main reason that the city is in Festa – the cult of San Rocco in Barga.

This afternoon as people filed into the church of San Rocco there was something new to occupy their minds – a small table setup in the Piazza manned by Cristian Tognerelli and Pier Guiliano Cecchi. Both local historians and both with a passion for information about the way life was conducted in Barga centuries ago.
On the table was a small handmade book with the title ” Capitoli della veneribile confraternita di San Rocco del Giardino di Barga”

This volume, dated 26th April 1711 was found recently in Lucca and tells the story in fine detail of the Cult of San Rocco here in Barga. It is almost a handbook for the rules that the men who have joined the Confraternita of San Rocco have had to adhere to over the ages. The number of festa and religious feasts that had to be attended, the rules on correct behavior and even the colour of their cloaks and mantles which the men had to wear to show that they belonged to the Confraternita di San Rocco.

Interestingly enough it is signed by the Bishop of Lucca in 1711 just some 80 years before Barga crossed over to be under the Bishop of Pisa – where it remains to this day.