Wednesday before Easter
Madonna della Pietà del Popolo, Trapani, Trapani, Sicily, Italy
The
teamsters of Trapani have as patron saint Our Lady of Pity, the grieving
Madonna, whose image, a painting known as the Pietà dei Massari, resides in the
Church of the Holy Souls of Purgatory. In this Pietà image, Mary doesn't hold
her dead son on her lap; she's alone in darkness, gazing down at a crown of
thorns and other relics of her son's death which are barely visible beneath an
array of silver ex votos given by
grateful devotees. One of these offerings, a sword, appears to pierce her heart,
recalling the prophecy of St. Simeon when the baby Jesus' parents presented him
in the temple: "a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also."
The sacred picture – attributed to local artist Narciso Guidone, active in the early 1600s – is mounted in an elaborate frame, on the back of which is another painting depicting the Veil of Veronica – a cloth bearing the face of Christ crowned with thorns, recalling the legend that when St. Veronica wiped Jesus' face on his way to Calvary, his true image (vera icona) became imprinted on the fabric.
Trapani's Holy Week ceremonies begin with the procession of the Pietà dei Massari on Tuesday evening. The teamsters carry the towering work through the streets, arriving finally at a temporary chapel they've built in Piazza Lucatelli, where the image of the Sorrowful Mother waits under guard through the night.[1]
On Wednesday the fruit sellers of Trapani carry the image of their patron, the People's Pietà (right), surrounded by flowers and candles, from the Church of the Holy Souls of Purgatory through the streets of Trapani. The route varies but always includes a stop at Piazza Lucatelli, where the two Madonnas meet and the groups exchange a candle, symbolic of the resolution of a quarrel in 1885.
The Pietà del Popolo is similar to the Pietà dei Massari, showing the Virgin alone in darkness, gazing at a nail and spear that had pierced her son. Dated to the late 1600s and attributed to local artist Giovanni Battista de Vita, it too is mounted in a baroque frame with a painting of Veronica's Veil on the reverse. [2]
[1] "Madre Pietà dei Massari," Chiesa Anime Sante del Purgatorio di Trapani, www.chiesamisteri.it/settimana-santa/madonne/madre-pieta-dei-massari/
[2] "Madre Pietà del Popolo," Chiesa Anime Sante del Purgatorio di Trapani, www.chiesamisteri.it/settimana-santa/madonne/madre-pieta-del-popolo/
Also commemorated this date:
 | María Santísima de la Caridad en su Soledad del Baratillo, Seville, Andalucia, Spain. Procession. |
| Nuestra Señora de las Lágrimas en su Desamparo, Córdoba, Andalucia, Spain (Our Lady of Tears in her Abandonment). Procession. |