Theresa Maggio

in Ambassador Magazine

Ambassador Magazine published my story on the Feast of St Agatha in its Winter issue.

Here is a link to a video:

https://video.repubblica.it/edizione/palermo/la-festa-di-sant-agata-prima-e-durante-la-pandemia-com-e-triste-la-citta/407481/408191

The video from La Repubblica daily newspaper today shows how it was once and how it is today in Catania, Sicily today, 5 Feb, the feast of St Agatha, native daughter. My friend Palmina says the only sign of the feast is the smell of torrone cooking on the street in Via Etnea. She said they held Dawn Mass in the cathedral today and that it was televised, but due to Coronavirus, devotees were locked out of the church. The fercolo workers did remove the reliquary bust from its dark, dank chamber in the cathedral's lava wall but the relics have not left the church, not even to be carried around on shoulders in Piazza Duomo, as they normally do on the Octave of the feast. She sent me a picture of mostly women in front of the cathedral gates which were festooned with beautiful white bouquets of flowers that normally they would hand up to the fercolo workers to be placed in front of the saint's remains.

<iframe class="rep-video-embed" src="https://video.repubblica.it/embed/edizione/palermo/la-festa-di-sant-agata-prima-e-durante-la-pandemia-com-e-triste-la-citta/407481/408191&width=640&height=360" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

It begins on page 36 of this sweet little flipbook:

https://www.niaf.org/niaf_magazine/ambassador-magazine-vol-33-no-2-current-issue/#dflip-flipbookContainer/1/

Mick Jagger toured Palermo's Palazzo Reale yesterday, the seat of the regional Sicilian government, including the Capella Palatina (Palatine Chapel), according to La Repubblica online.

 According to sources who escorted him and his interpreter on the tourist route through the complex  he showed himself to be knowledgeable about artistic themes that came up and that he very much appreciated the treasures of the palace where Ruggero, the Norman conqueror of Sicily a thousand years ago, once lived with his harem.

The paper said that according to leaked info he has been staying at Noto, a baroque city in the province of Siracusa, as a guest on the estate of Prince Lucio Bonaccorsi and his wife, the stylist Luisa Beccaria. he has been seen traveling as a tourist around Sicily this winter and fall. Smart fellow. I wish I could have been there.