The Cult of the Dead and the Shrines of Purgatory in the Streets of Naples. The Rise and Fall of a Popular Devotion

Abstract

The votive shrines are a non-liturgical variant of worship that avoids ecclesiastical mediation in the relationship with the Sacred. The main subjects of the following discussion are the street-shrines of Naples dedicated to the dead as well as the worship that underlies them, the cult of souls in Purgatory. This devotion was initially limited to offering of prayers, almsgiving and suffrage masses in favour of dead relatives. However, the cult underwent considerable modulation over time. Indeed, already at the beginning of the 17th century the pietas of the Neapolitans extended the devotion to all suffering souls in Purgatory, especially neglected souls, believed to be particularly in need of help. Since then, these souls became the major protagonists of the cult in Naples. They comprised those who died without receiving the proper rituals of passage - considered of fundamental importance to reach the afterlife, and accomplished through the practice of double burial - as well as the forgotten and abandoned dead. Without the memory and help of the living, these souls were stuck in an eternal transition which prevented their ascent to Heaven. An ultimate modification of the cult took place in the second half of the 19th century, when an autonomous form of devotion was born based on the adoration of unknown skulls. This worship variously intertwined and merged with the previous cult, thus constituting a real specificity of Naples. The skulls were regarded as representatives of anonymous souls, whose abandonment and marginality would continue forever without the intervention of devotees who take care of them. The cult of Purgatory and the intermediate nature of their protagonists is effectively represented by miniatures of the souls that still today populate the numerous street-shrines. The great diffusion of these shrines is the direct testimony of the liveliness and strength that the cult of the dead had in Naples. They are certainly worthy of attention, care and protection as they are part of the cultural heritage of the city.