Nowadays, more and more tourists from every part of the world choose slow tourism for their travels. They prefer quality over quantity, slow and typical food over fast food, deep immersions in local culture and traditions, sustainability, emotions.

In every country, in every town there are places which even their inhabitants do not know very well. However, these particular corners can be really beautiful and arouse strong emotions and feelings, such as the one we will deal with today: the so-called “Funtanella” of Saint Agatha, the patroness of Catania (Sicily), on the slopes of Mount Etna, the highest volcano in Europe (c. 3.350 m).

Agatha is the patron saint of Catania and she is so loved by her “devoti” (devotees) who every year, from the 3rd to the 5th of February and on the 17th of August respectively, dedicate magnificent, intense and heartfelt celebrations to her. This feast is one of the most important all over the world, after Corpus Domini at Cuzco in Perù and the Easter procession at Seville in Spain and every year a lot of Sicilian emigrants and foreigners come to Sicily to be present and not to miss the event. We have decide to lead you virtually to this fountain which usually does not attract many visitors who sometimes are unaware of its existence (maybe because of insufficient or inadequate promotion and advertisement). And yet, this place represents one of the several stages of the religious procession of the feast, for this reason it is so noteworthy!

The small fountain, with a shell-shaped basin and an effigy facing East, is located exactly in the point where, in 1040, people from Catania watched helplessly the relics of the saint moving to Costantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire (in today’s Turkey). They will come back home only 86 years later. The event was caused by a diplomatic incident which will become clearer after having mentioned briefly Saint Agatha’s biography.

Saint Agatha or “’A Santuzza” was a Christian martyr and virgin: she was arrested and was victim of appalling tortures, e.g. the removal of her breasts. Apart from her faith, the saint was “guilty” of the rejection of Quintianus’ courtship (the Roman proconsul, an official). Agatha died after undergoing, among others, the terrible torment of the glowing embers. During celebrations, The saint’s bust and relics are brought in procession throughout Catania, it almost seems to see the saint herself having a walk. The feast was declared a UNESCO World Heritage.

The diplomatic incident was caused because Giorgio Maniace, a general of the Byzantine Empire, punished Stefano, at the head of the Byzantine fleet, for letting an Arab prisoner of war escape, (the Arabs had been defeated by the Byzantines, after almost 2 centuries of domination in Sicily, in 1040). Stefano was part of the Byzantine imperial family, so Maniace gave Saint Agatha’s relics to Costantinople as a gift, in order to redress a wrong. Maybe the saint did not want to leave her homeland, seen that, according to the myth, the ship with the relics was held up by a sudden tempest for 3 days.

A magic, solemn and mysterious aura sorrounds the fountain at issue, despite its simplicity and together with silence and a kaleidoscope of emotions giving goose pimples even to unbelievers. During the feats every single person coming here is fascinated and caught by a whirl of different perceptions. You can hear the devotees’ respectful silence while they are praying round the fountain, clashing with the children’s screams who are playing; the perfume of the wax of the votive candles, of the sawdust scattered on the streets in order to soak up the wax heated and felt to the ground; of the sweets and street food. At the same moment and in the same place, you can face East, so the sea, and North with its imperturbable volcano Etna.

This is really an incredible and enchanted corner in Catania, isn’t it?!

Electronic reference

https://www.comune.catania.it [last accessed 13/04/2021]