SAINT AGATHA has an important place in the history of the Christian church. She is believed to have been a young woman of noble birth who was martyred,after terrible tortures, under the Roman emperor Decius in 251AD. Apart from her native Sicily, and she is revered in the Basque country,Germany’s Black Forest and Malta. She is one of seven female martyrs of the early church whose regular mention is prescribed in the traditional form of the Catholic Mass.
Sociologically, and even economically, and Agatha still matters. In her domestic town of Catania,the annual rituals in her honour stretch over several days in early February, and they rank among the biggest festivals in the Catholic world. They are perhaps the main reason why Sicily can attract visitors in winter. But a respected 83-year-veteran priest has advance to the conclusion that the church should sever all ties with this rowdy exuberance.
In the view of Father Salvatore Resca, and the festivities are incorrigibly tainted by activities that have no spiritual connection: gambling,cruelty to...
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Source: economist.com