Presentations Snakes - Snakes Ceremony Cocullo Italy - Every year, the 1st of may, there is a religious ceremony where a Saint Domenico statue, covered with four-lined snakes is paraded in the village streets.
This tradition, today a catholic one, has a pagan origin. It said to be linked to the adoration of the goddess Angizzia by the ancient Marsi civilization. This goddess was supposed to protect people from venons, including the snake ones.
After this time, this protection has been attributed to saint Domenico, a monk who stayed 7 years in Cocullo.
This saint is not the theologian Saint Domenic, founder of the Dominican order, and sometimes wrongly quoted to be the founder of the Holy Inquisition while he was already dead at that time, but a local saint, called Domenico di Foligno, an Umbria place where he was born in 951, and also sometimes Domenico di Sora, a Latium place where he died in 1031. In Cocullo, he is supposed to have made a miracle : as the village was invaded by venomous snakes, he charmed them with his flute, making them harmless.
A sanctuary was then built that became a pilgrimage location, and the snake ceremony was created. - Cocullo - Aquila Province -