Let's go back to Signora Angelina Sergi, "the therapist" of Plati, or better yet, her ability to heal, because there is no better way to describe it, massaging those sprains, strains, knots and ligaments, putting back in place fractures and dislocations, with different remedies, taught to her by her mother and ancestors before her, with no real accredited education, other than the testimonials of the many people she healed.
I myself was one of them. At about 15 years old, my neck locked itself in a position that I could only turn my head one way. It was then that I put my trust in the hands of our local, older lady's hands to massage me. She relaxed the muscles in my neck and shoulders that had caused my grief for many days and Angelina rid me of my pain. My offering to her was two freshly baked loaves of bread, that had just come out of the wood fire oven, as in those days, money was not accepted for acts of good will.
Maybe I have gone a bit off track here, but it's all relevant to the story!
"Gnura Santa" was the Great Grandmother of Angelina Sergi, and it is she that recounts this story and I would like to narrate it for you.
Gnura Santa, named Santa Caterina Raffaela Blefari, was born in Casignana to parents Paolo, massaro of Buoi (land cultivator and animal breeder) and Elisabetta Mavrici. She was born on All Saints Day 1825. The year that Francesco 1 of Barbone, sat on the throne of Napoli. Farmers, lived and worked on the land in the mountains, in a diligent manner. Cultivating their land and breeding animals and selling the fruits of their labour. The mountain always had people working on it, but now for trade, now for comparison and now for marriages between corresponding families from various nearby towns. The mountains had become a meeting place, a district of ancestral cults, and a passage of rites. it had become their stomping ground, a headquarters for disputes and pardons. And there stood a cathedral of majestic columns of chestnut trees, beech and oaks trees, laconic witnesses of nuptials and pacts. Being a Sheppard was the first skilled job in Plati. God, the Sheppard called them near dawn, loading them with thoughts. Registers overflowed with labourers, boys and cattlemen wanting to work for the Farmers. The hierarchies were respected. Their women, spinners, home makers, housewives, domestic caryatid respected the canon. To the boy, the cat slept in the pen. The farmer was entrusted with a plot of land, based on the stipulation of his contract, either a 3 year or a 9 year lease to be renewed on expiration. He shared the tasks to be carried out on the land, at home among his children other relatives and cohabitating servants. The farmer appears in my mind, with an axe hanging from his shoulder and a great wine drinker. He usually had tools and animals of his own, but what mattered most was that he had a large supportive network of employees built on the ties of blood that united his household.
Among the many families, one of the oldest in the history of Plati, is that of the Catanzariti family, surname present since its origin, from what I have been able to reconstruct, thanks also to the research of Pasquale Catanzariti (Class of 1978), our story starts with Antonio Catanzariti, born in 1696, who fathered Brunone, (among other things my ancestor.) who fathered Pasquale, Ox farmer, who fathered Domenico. It was in one of these farms that he had met the young Santa Blefari, he was 27 and she 20. Domenico was already married,
his first wife shared the same name, not surprising given the history of the town. They had a son, Saverio, who was orphaned by his mother at the tender age of 3, when she died. It was Santa who raised him as her own, after she wed Domenico in 1845. Domenico and Santa had 11 children of their own, ( including 3 of who died prematurely, as often happened in those days.) Among these the twins, Andrea and Pasquale, born in the winter of 1854 on the 1st of December. That year had already begun with fatal events, in the month of March, as fate would have it, another Domenica Catanzariti, wife of Francesco Agresta, on her return from Oppido, was caught in a place called "Sava", by an exuberant snowfall, finding her death. In May that same year, a 35 year old man by the name of Domenico Barbaro, also known as Prochylus, fell from a tree landing along "Rafael's' gable", as it was known. Perhaps a warning from the mountain, that from time to time asks man for an immolation, indeed the mountain does not ask. He takes!
The years passed, marked by the land and the cattle. Of the twins, Andrea seemed the livelier one. Just over 25 he fell in love with Rosa Romeo, who was 11 years younger than him. She was the daughter of another famer, Michele Romeo and Caterina Catanzariti (Catuzza). Gnura Santa was thrilled to get the wedding preparations underway. The wedding was to take place in the early months of 1883. The two farmers had agreed that it was time for these 2 to get married, sealing their intentions with a bottle of Ciro` and some goat cheese. In the village there was everything you would need, but in the "arretu marina", a seamstress was becoming well known in the villages of Aspramonte, for her skill in tailor made clothing at a moderate price. Rosa was to wear her mothers' dress, well kept and preserved in a large trunk among lavender and laurel flowers, that were changed periodically. But for Andrea it was necessary to visit the seamstress who resided in Oppido, and this is how a the two in-laws with their respective husbands and a young man had decided to visit her. Despite the cold, it was decided that they would leave at dawn, for an almost 5 hour walk on a mule track. At mid morning they decided to stop for a break, they had soup that was left over from the night before, fried sardines with chilli, prepared by the skilled hands of Santa and Caterina and placed in a "vertula" of black sheep wool. After having made another stop in the town of Pominoro among friends, they arrived in Oppido. The women succeeded in their intentions, the mothers liked the suit, and Andrea hadn't uttered a word, as it was not necessary before the verdict of the fathers and they were all well pleased. With just enough time to refresh themselves to be on track for their journey home because in the mountain, night falls early. In Pominoro, this time the men are greeted by some friends in a bottle shop. They had friends in many towns, because, they were farmers of large farms, some of the largest farms in the area, and well known, says Angelina. With the constant offerings of alcohol, for them to toast. Although the patience of matriarchal women, began to wear out, the two mother in laws decided they could no longer procrastinate; they wished to reach their homes before night fall. They set off with the consent of their husbands. It wasn't the first time they had travelled those mountain trails. Those trails belonged to them as well as their fathers, but the beauty of mountains carries risk and upheavals intrinsic to its very nature.
Caterina was 50 years old, and Santa was 8 years older than her, but despite being younger, Caterina was the first to give up. She collapsed, insisting to Santa that she keep going. Alone in the cold, she removed her cape and lay it on the ground like a blanket, and she took what was in her pocket and lay then on the cape, a pocket knife, a key and a pair of Rosary beads. This was to ward off evil temptation, Angelina tells us. Perhaps these were gestures of ancient rituals and old superstitions scattered over time. Meanwhile, Santa had moved
forward, she tried, but she was still an hour away from the village. She too now, had fallen to her knees and resigned, abandoning herself to the embrace of the cold.
The 3 men meanwhile, had set out with a plan to meet up with their women, but as they walked, there was no trace of them along the path, But it wasn't until they reached the town, did they realise that Santa and Caterina had never arrived home. It was in that moment that the young Andrea launched into a race against time, against the sharp cold, and against bad luck, to find his mother and future mother in law. In a last minute rush, he sacrificed himself, as he walked back along the path that he thought his mother and mother in law might have walked. His heart with all the panic and stress, exploded in his chest. The people of the village, the employees and apprentices of the farmers, went out in full force to help locate the feared, frozen women. But instead what they found first was Andrea, stretched out on the ground with a drop of frozen blood on his lips. Another group of rescuers also found Caterina, barely alive. They attempted to revive her by taking her to a nearby shelter and lighting a fire. Her desire to talk, had been so strong, that in those last moments, with every ounce of her strength she ripped open her corset, and her last words were her pleading that the marriage take place as planned, regardless of the outcome. She had no way of knowing that her future son in law had perished before her. Just as she could not know, that Gnura Santa, with her Rosary beads in hand, in a praying position, had fallen to eternal sleep, there where she had left her. Still today to this day, the place where she was found in the mountain, bares her name, On her death Certificate, the priest wrote, translated from latin, "suffocated by snow, it closed its last day". A holy Gnura, who had made herself so loved, despite coming from another village, who even before arriving was known for her skill as a healer. She put her hands where nerves had crossed, putting them back in place, and even fixing fractures. She too came to a holt. A natural gift. Santa had been the wife of a farmer and a mother to Sheppard's, lay in the white of the snow in the black of day, January 25th 1883.
A year later, Rosa married Pasquale, Andrea's twin brother. Out of respect for the dying wish of Rosa's late mother Catuzza., and to respect death, and give meaning to life, and to carry on with life, without forgetting the fatal sacrifices, made for them. Their descendants, have guaranteed this, by keeping their story alive after 5 generations of children and grandchildren. to all new twins, every time I referred to that story, in all the new girls who would bear the name Santa, but above all, in the ability, and indeed in the gift that characterized Gnura Santa, the art of healing hands, the gift, transmitted from mother to son, up to the healing hands of Angelina.
We thank Mrs Angelina Sergi, who told, and continues to tell, this beautiful ancient story, The seamstress Caterina Trimboli, who had the idea to interview and record Angelina, Rosa Barbaro Santaguida, who from Australia helped reconstruct the story. Pasquale Catanzariti, son of Antonio "u mastro", who first introduced me to this story of his ancestors.
Francesco Raymond Violi
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