WTI Magazine #29    2014 May, 8
Author : folclore.it      Translation by:

One of the most beautiful celebrations of Ortona, in the Abruzzo coast, is the Feast of the Pardon of St. Thomas the Apostle, which takes place on the first Sunday in May.

The festival is very old: it dates back to 1479, when Pope Sixtus IV granted a plenary indulgence to all the faithful who have made a gesture of repentance and were going to visit the town church of St. Thomas in certain fixed days.

The Religious festival offers some very significant moments for the people to keep on honoring this opportunity afforded by the pope so many centuries ago: the novena and the procession carrying the statue of St. Thomas through the streets respectively begin and end the religious celebrations of the feast.

To accompany the Pardon, on the afternoon of Saturday marches through the streets of Ortona the Parade of the Lady of the keys: the municipal authorities, ladies, knights, nobles, soldiers, musicians and flag bearers in medieval and renaissance costumes reach the cathedral to deliver, in fact by the hand of a lady, the silver keys, which, together with those of the ecclesiastical authorities, are needed to open the urn with the silver bust of the saint.

Another city parade is the Parade of the Gift, in which some representatives of the people bring to the saint the best land and sea products plus other handicrafts, as gifts.

Even from the sea stretch in front of Ortona there is a procession of boats, in memory of the landing in this area of the saint's relics that were stolen in Macedonia by an expedition of King Manfred, in the year 1258.

The whole town gathers around its ancient and holy feast of the Pardon.