The following message appeared on the front page this afternoon from Al in Chicago who left Barga many years ago wondering if the tradition of the Quarantore still took place in Barga.
"Last Message 5 hours ago – sono partito da barga tanti anni fa vorrei sapere se la tradizione delle 40 ore esiste ancora e se esistono ancora perche non fare vedere delle fotografie grazie al from chicago usa"
We sent the award winning photographer O'Connor up to Tiglio this afternooon to investigate.
Who better to ask about the tradition behind the Quarantore than Graziella Cosimini in Barga Vecchia?
You can hear her interview below as she explains how it was not just a religious ceremony but also a much looked forward to social event where people could get together and meet after the long winters.
Background information about the Quarantore:
The quarantore is an elaborately staged ceremony to glorify the Eucharist which reached a height of complexity in the seventeenth century. Although the precise origin of the Forty Hours' Devotion is wrapped in a good deal of obscurity, the Milanese chronicler Burigozzo describes the custom of exposing the Blessed Sacrament in one church after another as a novelty which began at Milan, in May, 1537
Forty Hours' Devotion, also called Quarant' Ore or written in one word Quarantore, is a Roman Catholic exercise of devotion in which continuous prayer is made for forty hours before the Blessed Sacrament exposed.
It is commonly regarded as of the essence of the devotion that it should be kept up in a succession of churches, terminating in one at about the same hour at which it commences in the next. A solemn high Mass, "Mass of Exposition", is sung at the beginning, and another "Mass of Deposition" at the end of the period of forty hours; and both these Masses are accompanied by a procession of the Blessed Sacrament and by the chanting of the litanies of the saints. The exact period of forty hours' exposition is not in practice very strictly adhered to; for the Mass of Deposition is generally sung at about the same hour of the morning, two days after the Mass of Exposition. On the intervening day a solemn Mass pro pace is offered — if possible, at a different altar from the high altar upon which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. It is assumed that the exposition and prayer should be kept up by night as well as by day, but permission is given to dispense with this requirement when an adequate number of watchers cannot be obtained. In such a case the interruption of the devotion by night does not forfeit the indulgences conceded by the Holy See to those who take part in it.
More information about Tiglio can be found on the tiglioweb.it site
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