Paper short abstract:

Connecting with their dead is a crucial function the faithful ascribe to the religion, more especially to the prayer. A peculiar form of Catholic prayer is devoted to the souls in Purgatory. This paper deals with a local, recently established form of this practice, observed since its inception.

Paper long abstract:

The worship of dead is a deep-rooted Catholic tradition. A significant display of it is a ritual prayer known as the “Rosary of 100 Requiem”, according to which you must recite a hundred 'Requiem aeternam', a short prayer devoted to the faithful departed. One can perform this ritual individually, but people can also gather in a sacred space to perform a collective ritual. The topic of my research is exactly a collective, public, monthly form of the Rosary of 100 Requiem organized by a secular confraternity in Castellaneta (Southern Italy). Established five years ago, in order to revive a vanished practice performed until the 1960s, this ritual has taken a new and original form: the participants walk through the cemetery reciting ten Requiem aeternam for each of the ten stations forming the ritual itinerary. The pandemic, however, has dramatically changed the situation, forcing the organizers to find an alternative form in order to make the ritual survive. Thus, between 2020 and 2021, the Rosary of 100 Requiem has been performed at a (safe) distance, by means of a Whatsapp group. In May 2021, the participants have been allowed to gather again in the cemetery, but since then the ritual has lost its processional form to be reshaped as a fixed, static prayer performed in the church of cemetery. Through its innovations, adaptations and losses, this local practice can be seen as an interesting case study to observe the resilience, vitality and evolution of religious faith and rituals during uncertain times.