"SANTI SOTTO CAMPANA"
in the name of BEATRICE ANDRIANO CESTARI and Mario Cestari
LA BOTTIGLIA DELLA "MANNA"
The bottle of manna
Collection “Beatrice Andriano Cestari”
“The wooden base, black painted, circular shake, has a 17 cm diameter. The cylindrical shaped glass bell is 27 cm high. Inside of that, a rounded corners (7 x 5)and quadrangular shaped colourless glass bottle (15 cm high) which is full up to the middle of “Saint Nichola’s manna”.
On the front, the saint portrait resembling the icon which was gifted “Saint Nicholas from Bari” basilica from the king of Serbia, Urosio, in 1329 and now visible behind Saint’s tomb.
The painting technique is the cheapest one as it is made by pasted paper. A plate, on the rear, shows the owner’s name and a date: G. Iannuzzi. Bishop of Lucera, 1871.
One of the most interesting aspects of St. Nichola’s cult, so full of literary-historical besides religious and folkoristic, relates to the so called “manna”, the liquid emanated from his bones which is considered by the parishioners as wealthy remedy to soul and body pains.
Nowadays, on the May 9 , Saint Nicholas festivity day, a small quantity of the liquid gets taken out of the sepulchre in the crypt and put into big tanks full of water in order to allow the distribution to the parishioners.”
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From: L. De Venuto e B. Andriano Cestari, Santi sotto campana e devozione, Schena editore,
Fasano di Brindisi, 1995, pp.180-181 ISBN 88-7514-760-4.
