Calcata, Italy
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Calcata (locally ) is a ''
comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...
'' and
town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
in the
Province of Viterbo The province of Viterbo () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Viterbo. Geography Viterbo is the most northerly of the provinces of Lazio. It is bordered to the south by the Metropolitan Cit ...
in the
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
region
Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...
, located north of
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
by car, overlooking the valley of river. Calcata borders the following municipalities: Faleria, Magliano Romano,
Mazzano Romano Mazzano Romano is a (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region of Latium, located about north of Rome. Mazzano Romano borders the following municipalities: Calcata, Campagnano di Roma, Castel Sant'Elia, Faleria, Magl ...
,
Rignano Flaminio Rignano Flaminio is a (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region of Latium, about north of Rome. It is across the Via Flaminia. Rignano Flaminio borders the municipalities of Calcata, Capena, Civitella San Paolo, ...
. In the 1930s, the hill town's fortified historic centre was condemned by the government for fear that the volcanic cliffs the ancient community was built upon would collapse. Local residents moved to nearby Calcata Nuova. In the 1960s, the emptied historical centre began to be repopulated by artists and hippies who
squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...
in its medieval stone and masonry structures. Many of the squatters eventually purchased their homes, the government reversed its condemnation order, and the residents of what had become an artistic community began restoring the ancient town. This trend has continued. The town has a thriving artistic community which was described in ''The New York Times'' in 2007 as what "may be the grooviest village in Italy, home to a wacky community of about 100 artists, bohemians, aging hippies and New Age types." The love of artists for this place, together with the interest of the inhabitants of nearby Rome, who come here to relax on weekends, has made this village one of the most enchanting and culturally vibrant in central Italy. The historical centre now includes restaurants, cafes, and art galleries.


Main sights

*Old Town *Church of ''Santissimo Nome di Gesù'', dating from the 14th century but restored from 1793. *Sub-urban Park of Treja Valley. *Remains of the Faliscan temple of ''Monte Li Santi'' (outside the village). *Opera Bosco - Museum of Art in Nature. The museum was opened to the public in 1996 by a collective of artists led by Anne Demijttenaere and Costantino Morosin. It features about 50 artworks made only with natural material from the wood. The museum is a path through a lush forest in which artworks arise.


Holy Prepuce of Calcata

According to legends of the village of Calcata, in 1527 a soldier in the German army sacking Rome looted the ''
Sanctum sanctorum The Latin phrase ''sanctum sanctorum'' is a translation of the Hebrew term ''קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים'' (Qṓḏeš HaQŏḏāšîm), literally meaning Holy of Holies, in Latin texts, this generally refers to the holiest place of t ...
''. When he was eventually captured in the village, he hid the jeweled
reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...
containing the
Holy Prepuce The Holy Prepuce, or Holy Foreskin (Latin or ), is one of several relics attributed to Jesus, consisting of the foreskin removed during the circumcision of Jesus. At various points in history, a number of churches in Europe have claimed to poss ...
in his cell, where it was discovered in 1557. It was officially venerated by the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in Calcata since that time, with the Vatican's offering a ten-year
indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...
to
pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...
s. Calcata became a popular site for pilgrimage. Again in 1856, however, the
Charroux Abbey Charroux Abbey () is a ruined monastery in Charroux, in the Vienne department of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, western France. History Charroux was a Benedictine abbey, founded in 785 by Roger, Count of Limoges. It had up to 213 affiliated abbeys and ...
rediscovered what it considered to be the true Holy Prepuce, which it claimed to have received from
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
. It had been lost for centuries. The rediscovery led to a clash with people over the established Holy Prepuce of Calcata, which had been officially venerated by the Church for hundreds of years. In 1900, the Catholic Church solved the dilemma by ruling that anyone writing or speaking of the Holy Prepuce would be
excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...
with the status of a '' toleratus''. In 1954, after much debate, the punishment was changed to the harsher degree of excommunication with the status of a ''
vitandus ''Vitandus'' and ''toleratus'' are former categories of excommunicates from the Catholic Church, introduced by Pope Martin V in 1418 in his apostolic constitution ''Ad evitanda scandala''. ''Vitandus'' A ''vitandus'' (Latin for "(one) to be ...
'' (shunned). Later the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...
removed the Day of the Holy Circumcision from the church calendar in its review of holy days and obligations."Fore Shame"
David Farley, ''Slate.com'', Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006
In reality, it was more than two years before 11 October 1962, the date when the Second Vatican Council began, that a 25 July 1960 decree of
Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...
enacted a wide-ranging revision of the
General Roman Calendar The General Roman Calendar (GRC) is the liturgy, liturgical calendar that indicates the dates of celebrations of saints and Sacred mysteries, mysteries of the Lord (Jesus Christ) in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, wherever this liturgic ...
, which included changing the name of the 1 January feast from "Circumcision of the Lord and
Octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
of the Nativity" to "Octave of the Nativity", with no change of the Gospel reading about the circumcision of the child Jesus.
Roger Peyrefitte Pierre Roger Peyrefitte (; 17 August 1907 – 5 November 2000) was a French diplomat, writer of bestseller novels and non-fiction, and a defender of gay rights and pederasty. Life and work Born in Castres, Tarn, to a middle-class bourgeo ...
, in his novel ''Les Clés de Sainte Pierre'' (1955),English translation ''The Keys of St. Peter'' (1957) written using information attributed to Mgr Léon Gromier (1879–1965), Canon of St. Peter's, gives details of the 1954 discussion of such relics and of a pilgrimage to Calcata, including what appears to be an authentic description of the relic as: "two greyish membranes with an undertone of pink, curled into balls" lying on a crystal disk. Calcata continued to stage an annual
procession A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner. History Processions have in all peoples and at all times been a natural form of public celebration, as forming an orderly and impressive ceremony. Religious ...
on the Day of the Holy Circumcision to honor the
relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
. In 1983, however,
parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
Dario Magnoni announced, "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faithful. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from my home." He had reportedly kept it in a shoebox in the back of a
wardrobe A wardrobe, also called armoire or almirah, is a standing closet used for storing clothes. The earliest wardrobe was a chest, and it was not until some degree of luxury was attained in regal palaces and the castles of powerful nobles that sep ...
. Citing the
Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
's decree of excommunication, Magnoni refuses to further discuss the event, as does the Vatican. As a result, villagers' theories of the crime vary from theft for lucrative resale to an effort by the Vatican to quietly put an end to the practice it had attempted to end by excommunication years ago. Some residents speculate that Magnoni may have been the culprit.


References


External links


A guide to Visiting Calcata Vecchia
*
Official website

www.calcata.info/ "Calcata: General Info"
also in English

''New York Times''
The village that lost the foreskin of Jesus Christ
{{Authority control Hilltowns in Lazio Cities and towns in Lazio Archaeological sites in Lazio Falisci Squats in Italy Legalized squats