Here and there

Places all over the world called after the Saint:

All around the world even in remote mountainous areas or small islands scattered all over one can find the name of San Gaetano in one language or another, given to a small village, hamlet or Barrio. Our Saint even has a major city named after him, and this is Sao Caetano do Sul in the province of Sao Paulo Brazil.

Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Portugal, Spain, Venezuela.

From Italy:

Frosinone - Roccasecca:

On the feast day of San Gaetano near the church of St.Peter, a very old tradition all be it a bizarre one is celebrated: A pig with a bell tied to one of its legs is hunted down with brooms by villagers in weird costumes who are blindfolded and who also have bells tied to their legs!

This pagan entertainment must have been in place before the coming of Christianity and no one knows how it was amalgamated with the festivities for the Saint on the 7th August! We may be sure that Gaetano would not have approved of this masquerade especially on his feast day.

Sicily - Agrigento - Girgenti:

'Banca Cattolica Co-operativa San Gaetano in Girgenti'

Official bank voucher for Fifty Italian Lira, dated 22nd June 1903.

Modena - San Cesario sul Panaro:

A very small church dedicated to San Gaetano. At least one Mass is celebrated every year on the Saint's feast day together with prayers for a good harvest. The front is decorated with bombs dropped by the allies in WWII.

Napoli - How the people celebrate San Gaetano's feast:

Because of the 'Ferragosto' tradition of taking holidays en masse during August in Italy, the feast of San Gaetano is not celebrated during this month in Napoli. Instead the festivities which are spread over three days, are held around the third Sunday of September when the population is back.

Outside festivities are inaugurated on Saturday around the San Lorenzo quarter in Piazza San Gaetano and along Via dei Tribunali. Here a local band heads a procession of all the local civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities together with representatives of the different branches of San Gaetano nuns carrying colourful banners with images of the Saint. On the arrival of the procession at the corner of Via dei Tribunali, all the fancy electrical decorations and festoons are switched on, and this gives a real festive atmosphere to the celebrations together with the Italian flags draped out of many windows. From here the participants proceed to Piazza L.Miraglia where a wreath is placed at the foot of the monument for victims of the two world wars. After this everyone returns to the Theatine parish hall where there is a reception.

All Italians especially those from Napoli like to celebrate with song, so as soon as the procession disbands, a vocal and instrumental concert starts at the piazza with the cream of RAI TV singers and its orchestra taking part. For this occasion huge crowds gather and fill the piazza and adjoining streets and stay around enjoying the music into the early hours of the morning.

The Sunday liturgy is held in the Basilica of St.Paul and in the crypt church where the remains of San Gaetano lie. A solemn Mass is celebrated around 11.00am and is very well attended by the parishioners, something very unusual as regards church attendance in Italy nowadays. There are usually also groups of pilgrims who come every year from the neighbouring towns for this special Mass in the crypt where the Saint lies because of the fervent devotion they have towards him. One of the Theatine fathers usually leads the choir and orchestra taking part in this liturgy. At the end of the Mass, many from the congregation stay in the crypt to pray at San Gaetano’s tomb. At around this time, members of the organizing committee of the festivities, come down to the crypt and offer a special oil lamp which is hung over the tomb and which will be kept burning until the next year’s feast.

Meanwhile, outside the church something particular is happening. A number of poor families gather at the doors of the church and are given food hampers so that they too would be able to celebrate in a proper way. This is done to show how San Gaetano must be held as the Saint who trusted in Divine Providence. A second session of the song festival is held at the piazza in the evening attended by the usual crowds with yet another session on Monday where special awards and prizes are given.

Throughout these festivities one can savour the distinctive Neapolitan gourmet anywhere along the main streets and Piazzas. Along the sidewalks, tables are put up and are filled with mouth watering dishes especially seafood, mussel soup, fried octopus, tripe, and red peppers. Ice cream stalls abound and this is their specialty. There is also nougat of all sorts to be bought as are toys for the kids.

With all this happening for San Gaetano’s feast, one must keep in mind that the South especially Napoli is the poorest region of Italy and even if everyone is dressed in best clothes and wearing a smiling face, as in the time of the Saint, people are still suffering in the area and most can barely eke out a living let alone splurge. But for these few days San Gaetano who lived a poor life like them, is among them, happy for what God can Provide.

Also in Napoli, the Church of Santa Maria di Montesanto contains a bust of San Gaetano, invoked by the people as a protector from the great plague of 1656 and at the origin of a typically Neapolitan story. Farmers coming down to this church from the San Martino hill had to walk quite a way along the outside of the city wall and come in through the major Royal Gate past the church of the Holy Spirit. Rather than do all that walking, they simply knocked a hole in the wall nearer to their church and came straight in. The Spanish viceroy at the time, Ramiro Guzman, finally made the hole official, calling upon an architect to make it into a worthy gate which was afterwards called Porta Medina. All the walls and gates in that area were eliminated in the 1870s, and the guardian bust of San Gaetano, mounted over "The Hole" was moved into the church.

From Malta:

The Inquisitor of Malta in the Collegiate of the Shipwreck of St Paul

Angelo Durini to the Cardinal Prefect of the Holy Office, 13 Feb. 1762: "In the city of Valletta of this island of Malta, there is the old parish church dedicated to the Shipwreck of St Paul, which since the year 1737 was raised to a Collegiate by his Holiness Clement XII. The Inquisitors 'pro tempore' were of the custom of visiting this church, both when it was still a simple parish church and also when it was made a Collegiate. But it was always a particular custom to invite the Inquisitor on the day of the Conversion of St Paul and on the feast of St Cajetan. The 'mazzetto' was given to them and they were treated in the same way as Bishops, that is with the Bishop's chair, canopy and red damask cushions were edged in gold"

Two Wills From Malta

Francesco Zahra: Maltese painter died on 19 August 1773. His will was drawn up and signed exactly a year before on 19 August 1772. His wife Teresa had died in May 1751 when he was 41 years old leaving behind the painter's surviving sons Aurelio and Luigi, and daughter Prassede as her natural heirs. On 15 November 1773, Prassede acknowledged the receipt of 21 scudi 9 tari from Baron Don Pasquale Sciberras Testaferrata as a balance from 50 scudi for a painting which her father was commissioned to execute. It depicted the Sacred Heart of Jesus with San Camillo and San Gaetano at his sides.

Juan Antonio Grech: Maltese or of Maltese descent. On his death in 1802, an inventory of his possessions in his house in Barcelona showed amongst other contents, a brass Christ on a silver cross, wooden crosses as well as a painting of San Cayetano.

From Spain:

Salamanca - Salamantino:

An old convent of San Cayetano used to exist where the French built fortifications and where many battles took place in the war of 1812. With two other convents San Cayetano was destroyed when the powder reserves exploded.

Pontevedra - Galicia:

Chapel of San Cayetano has a bell from the English vessel 'Collingwood' which in 1735 avoided shipwreck by sighting the chapel. The crew donated the ship’s bell in thanksgiving.

Almeria - Roquetas de Mar:

Feast of the Canailla (sea urchin) in honour of San Cayetano.

Madrid:

There is a custom that during the procession outside, whoever hits the statue of the Saint with a flower thrown at it, will not lack work for that year.

Murcia - Montegaudo:

Ancient custom of eating watermelons on San Cayetano's feast day. Other celebrations include the popular procession with the Saint’s statue and the dawn fireworks.

Two Orders of Nuns under San Gaetano's patronage.

Poor Daughters of San Gaetano

Sisters in action founded by Giovanni Maria Boccardo (1848 -1913), parish priest of Pancalieri, in Northern Italy. The Order's headquarters are in Torino. The sisters have commend themselves to San Gaetano's protection and seek the Realm of God by complying with His will and committing themselves to live "humbly, simply, poorly, and in charity" and to announce the glad tidings to the poor and serve Jesus through them. Their charisma is "taking the Bible to the poor"... Nowadays their activities cover the care of a Kindergarten school catering for ages 3 to 6 at Porto San Giorgio, and an old age home (since 1975) now with the capacity of 51 persons. Apart from Italy, the order is also working in Brazil, Argentina and Togo.

The Sisters of Providence.

By 1840, Fr.Luigi Scrosoppi (1804 -1884) began to lay the foundations for houses for poor girls, children and deaf-mutes. He recruited several female school teachers to help him in his work - these soon decided on becoming nuns. On Christmas Day, 1845, fifteen of them received the habit and were constituted as a religious congregation, known as The Sisters of Providence, under the patronage of San Gaetano. Fr.Luigi traced for the Sisters a style of life that was to be simple and modest: to live in a constant attitude of abandonment and trust in Divine Providence. It was to be absolute like that of a child in the arms of its mother, without any other thoughts except that of pleasing God alone, to the extent of sacrificing one's own life. In fact, Fr.Luigi and the Sisters, like San Gaetano during his life, experienced the hand of Providence, day after day. From the beginning of the work for abandoned children, they prayed to San Gaetano, the saint of Divine Providence.

Lately Fr.Scrosoppi himself has been Canonized.

Document from San Gaetano's hand:

The family Marzaro of Zugliano is in possession of a document written by San Gaetano's own hand. It is a list of debts that the Saint is recommending be paid. This document was written in Venice in 1522 and is an explicit call to Nicolo' Porto, Gaetano's niece's father in law, to provide payment to the fourteen debtors listed therein.

Sao Caetano Melon:

Latin name: Momordica, Commonly: Sao Caetano Melon

State: Wild, grows around abandoned fields Country: Brazil. Edible: Seeds are an edible delicacy for children and farmers. Provenance: Brought from Africa by slaves to Brazil. Momordica charantia, a member of the Cucurbitaceae family is a tropical plant currently distributed across the globe. The immature fruits are a good source of vitamin C and provide some vitamin A, phosphorus, and iron. Momordica charantia is a fast-growing, trailing or climbing vine with thin stems and tendrils. It is a very popular plant, because Momordica charantia has been used by natives against cancer, diabetes and many infectious diseases. It is a powerful weapon against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)!

Tattoos!

Again in Argentina actually in Avellaneda in the province of Santa Fe, one can get tattooed with any design. The one on the Right shows that type of 'Art' with the image of our Saint on the shoulder of an individual. This extreme use of San Cayetano's semblance is surely not devotion! Picture Right.....

Patron Saint of GAMBLERS!

It is awful to find out how certain groups distort religious views. In South America some treat San Cayetano as the patron saint of gamblers and try to make money off him accordingly by selling items such as the money clip on the right bearing his image and name!