*Ø* Blogmanac March 30, 1282 | The Sicilian Vespers
The tragedy of what has come to be called ‘the Sicilian Vespers’ massacre had its origin in the struggle between the Holy Roman Empire, represented by the Hohenstaufen emperors, and the Papacy for control over Italy.
Charles of Anjou (Charles I of Sicily), brother of King Louis IX of France, having defeated the Hohenstaufen King Manfred of Sicily in 1266 at Benevento to enforce his own claim to the throne of Sicily, became a tyrant over his new subjects in Sicily and the southern portion of the Italian peninsula. Charles dreamed of establishing an Angevin empire in the East.
The people of Sicily rose up against the French occupiers, massacring about 8,000 of them, after a French soldier searched for weapons under the dress of a Palermo nobleman's daughter, at an Easter procession at the start of the evening prayer service of vespers on Easter Monday.
Another version has it that a group of French officials joined the native Sicilians at vespers that day, despite the antipathy of the locals. Some of the Frenchmen began approaching the Sicilian women; a French sergeant took a married woman away from the crowd, and her husband then stabbed him to death. The French, rushing to avenge their comrade, were attacked and killed by the crowd. As the church bells throughout the city tolled for vespers, messengers ran throughout Palermo calling for an uprising. Over the next six weeks, angry Sicilians slaughtered virtually all the French inhabitants of the island. Slaughtered were not only the French military and settlers, but also women who had married Frenchmen.
“Ma fia! Ma fia!”
The legend has it that the rebellion started after a Sicilian woman went to a Palermo church to look for her young daughter, who had spent the whole day there praying. The mother found her daughter being raped in the church by a French soldier, whereupon the mother then ran into the streets, shouting “Ma fia! Ma fia!” (“My daughter! My daughter!” in medieval Sicilian dialect). Some have claimed that this tale provides a plausible explanation as to where the word Mafia might have originated.
The French on the island were identified by a shibboleth, that is, a password. (The term shibboleth comes from the Bible, Judges 12: 5-6, in which the Gileadites identified their enemies, the Ephraimites, by their inability to pronounce the Hebrew word shibboleth – a stream, or ear of corn, or else a torrent of water, depending on source.) The French on the day of the so-called Sicilian Vespers massacre were required to pronounce the word cecceri, Italian dialect for chick peas, which they had difficulty saying ...
In 1854, Giuseppe Verdi, Italy’s leading composer, wrote the score for the opera Ivespri Siciliani, to a libretto based on the legend of the Sicilian Vespers. The Italian national anthem, Fratelli d'Italia, composed in 1847 by Michele Novaro to words by the poet Goffredo Mameli, contains the lyrics:
Every trumpet blast
Sounds the Sicilian Vespers.
Let us gather in legions,
Ready to die!
Italy has called!
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
The tragedy of what has come to be called ‘the Sicilian Vespers’ massacre had its origin in the struggle between the Holy Roman Empire, represented by the Hohenstaufen emperors, and the Papacy for control over Italy.
Charles of Anjou (Charles I of Sicily), brother of King Louis IX of France, having defeated the Hohenstaufen King Manfred of Sicily in 1266 at Benevento to enforce his own claim to the throne of Sicily, became a tyrant over his new subjects in Sicily and the southern portion of the Italian peninsula. Charles dreamed of establishing an Angevin empire in the East.
The people of Sicily rose up against the French occupiers, massacring about 8,000 of them, after a French soldier searched for weapons under the dress of a Palermo nobleman's daughter, at an Easter procession at the start of the evening prayer service of vespers on Easter Monday.
Another version has it that a group of French officials joined the native Sicilians at vespers that day, despite the antipathy of the locals. Some of the Frenchmen began approaching the Sicilian women; a French sergeant took a married woman away from the crowd, and her husband then stabbed him to death. The French, rushing to avenge their comrade, were attacked and killed by the crowd. As the church bells throughout the city tolled for vespers, messengers ran throughout Palermo calling for an uprising. Over the next six weeks, angry Sicilians slaughtered virtually all the French inhabitants of the island. Slaughtered were not only the French military and settlers, but also women who had married Frenchmen.
“Ma fia! Ma fia!”
The legend has it that the rebellion started after a Sicilian woman went to a Palermo church to look for her young daughter, who had spent the whole day there praying. The mother found her daughter being raped in the church by a French soldier, whereupon the mother then ran into the streets, shouting “Ma fia! Ma fia!” (“My daughter! My daughter!” in medieval Sicilian dialect). Some have claimed that this tale provides a plausible explanation as to where the word Mafia might have originated.
The French on the island were identified by a shibboleth, that is, a password. (The term shibboleth comes from the Bible, Judges 12: 5-6, in which the Gileadites identified their enemies, the Ephraimites, by their inability to pronounce the Hebrew word shibboleth – a stream, or ear of corn, or else a torrent of water, depending on source.) The French on the day of the so-called Sicilian Vespers massacre were required to pronounce the word cecceri, Italian dialect for chick peas, which they had difficulty saying ...
In 1854, Giuseppe Verdi, Italy’s leading composer, wrote the score for the opera Ivespri Siciliani, to a libretto based on the legend of the Sicilian Vespers. The Italian national anthem, Fratelli d'Italia, composed in 1847 by Michele Novaro to words by the poet Goffredo Mameli, contains the lyrics:
Every trumpet blast
Sounds the Sicilian Vespers.
Let us gather in legions,
Ready to die!
Italy has called!
This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date when you're there.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 2:22 PM | Permalink
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