Feast of Saint Greca in Decimomannu

According to tradition, Saint Greca was a young Christian who lived in Sardinia and was martyred under the emperor Diocletian by beheading, after being cruelly tortured with three nails in her head, in a futile attempt to force her to deny her faith.

In 1560 a tombstone (4th-5th century AD) was found in Decimomannu near the ancient church of Santa Greca, whose inscription documents that a young woman named Greca, who lived twenty years, two months and nineteen days, was buried in that place on 21 January. Based on these data and considering, according to tradition, 304 as the year of his death, his hypothetical birth would be placed on October 12, 284.

The cult of the Martyr dates back to the 14th century, thanks to written sources.

In 1633, excavations began, which led to the discovery of a human skeleton inside the only tomb under the church floor. Considering the remains of the Saint, the bones were divided into two parts: one reserved for the Cathedral of Cagliari, the other destined to remain in Decimomannu.

On September 30, 1928, the Martyr was officially sanctified.

At the local level, Santa Greca is the subject of strong popular devotion. There are three festivities dedicated to her: January 12 (the day of her birth in heaven), that of May 1 (obscured by the feast of Saint Efisio, with the beginning of his pilgrimage to Nora) and, finally, the greatest festival, the last Sunday of September, Sant'Arega Manna, with a large influx of devotees and pilgrims for all three days affected by the festivities.

Moments of great suggestion are: the dress of the simulacrum of the Saint, which is adorned with an abundance of gold jewelry (de oru); the rite of 'Incontru between the simulacrum of the Martyr and the relics attributed to her carried in procession by the Obrieri and the Brotherhood of Saint Greca.

On the last Sunday of September, the faithful descend into an underground room with a barrel vault, located in the church of Santa Greca and identified with the place where the Martyr was held captive and tortured, before being killed by takeoff.

The September festival of Santa Greca is actually a festival, with the presence of numerous stalls in the exhibition center that bears the name of the Saint.

A community festival, that of September, that maintains a strong attraction, with hundreds of people stopping at the sanctuary, not disdaining the recreational and recreational aspects, now coinciding with the performance of folk groups, shows, tasting of food products.

The September festival of Decimomannu dedicated to Sant'Arega, even in the past, was characterized by a certain secular-religious bipolarity. The people of Cagliari flocked there in large numbers, with a light-hearted spirit. The folklorist Raffa Garzia bears witness to this, among others, with one of the mutettus detected in the capital at the beginning of the twentieth century:

A Sant'Arega andeus/cun totu sa cambarada;//e impari ndi torreus/cun sa conca segada.

('Let's go to the Feast of Saint Greca/with the whole brigade;//and we'll get back together/with a broken head').

Update

8/9/2024 - 01:57