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The Sanctuary of Polsi was used for 'ndrangheta summits. Pilgrims can fuel civic rebirth in Calabria

The caravans of the pilgrims to the sanctuary of the Madonna di Polsi, in Calabria, have often been associated with the summits of 'ndrangheta bosses. State and Church have reacted, but the places are abandoned. Pilgrimages can fuel an awareness

Anna SergiProfessoressa in Criminologia, University of Essex (Uk)

3 settembre 2024

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A burgundy T-shirt with the image of Maria della Montagna, the Madonna of Polsi, printed on the front and the words 'Carovana di Santa Cristina d'Aspromonte' on the back: we all wear them, although some have different shades because they were made in past years. A hundred or so people, with T-shirts on, ready 'o chianu da funtana', i.e. at the fountain square, at seven o'clock on a mid-August morning. The backpacks are placed in the jeeps or on the truck that will follow the pilgrims to the Sanctuary, so that they can walk lighter.

To walk from Santa Cristina to Polsi, in the heart of the Aspromonte, takes about ten hours; the difference in altitude is considerable, from 600 to 1400 metres, then descending to 800 at the Sanctuary. All this amidst the mountain's thousands of shades of green, the cows that wander undisturbed through the valleys (they call them 'sacred cows', not to be touched, we don't know who they belong to, but it is better to avoid bothering their owners...), and the many stops to drink water, tea or even cold beer and eat something, to the sound of tarantella, with tambourines and accordions, invoking 'Hurray Mary'! On the easier stretches, the rosary is prayed and popular songs dedicated to Mary of Polsi are sung. Someone has printed photocopies for those who do not remember the texts or are rusty with the use of dialect. The Madonna of Polsi, in fact, speaks the language of her people. In ten hours, between climbing and descending down the ridge of the mountain, faith sublimates fatigue.

The Eureka investigation reveals the borderless business of the 'ndrangheta

"That world there", the 'ndrangheta at Polsi

In these places, the pilgrims say, one knows everyone. If you meet a man or a woman in the mountains, you say hello, even if you know that he is part of 'that world there'... you speed up and no longer think about it. It is part 'of the territory', one lives with it. Outside of the Aspromonte and its villages, 'that world there' - the world of the 'ndrangheta that was born, grew up and still lives here - is all that one often sees, all that one seeks, at Polsi, above all.

It is difficult to resist the seduction of the images and videos of 'ndrangheta meetings at the Sanctuary published after major anti-mafia operations; even more difficult to recount the complexity of the social relations between Polsi, the pilgrims, the faithful, and the 'ndranghetists who have also been or are pilgrims and faithful. Our Lady welcomes everyone, faith here is an intimate and private practice, like it or not. Those who live Polsi and their faith have a very different perception both of the 'ndrangheta, which co-inhabits those places but is certainly not its only component, and of the problems of the territory, often much more 'banal', certainly less spectacular, than drug trafficking, feuds, and mafia intimidation. Problems that range from the roads to the Sanctuary now half-destroyed, to the absence of services for pilgrims, from the neglect of the State to a sense of alienation with respect to the ecclesiastical institutions themselves.

The Caravan, however, is a ferment of solidarity and cooperation, activated by pilgrimage and shared faith. The village organises itself, u procuraturi – that is, the leader of the Caravan, who in Santa Cristina is a 35-year-old boy – takes care year after year of all the tasks, including collecting contributions, booking rooms at the Sanctuary, even making new T-shirts. What has been prepared is cooked and shared; cars and vans are made available to take everything to the pilgrims. Music and singing is thought of, some will chant the rosary and others will do u mastru (the master) of the tarantella, managing 'the circle' of the most anarchic and rhythmic dance in existence. This solidarity from below, governed by a millenary faith, by a legend as fascinating as the one that sees the Cumaean Sibyl give way in her Polsi cave to the Madonna, endures in an institutional and ecclesiastical context perceived as increasingly hostile, increasingly discouraging. Even the bar in the square in front of the Sanctuary has been closed (and who knows if it will be reopened) because it is not up to standard; but the pilgrims react by interfacing directly with Mary, dancing, praying and playing, even without the intercession of church ministers.

'Ndrangheta, local roots and global opportunities

The church reacts, but Polsi is abandoned

"There can no longer be any doubt that the Polsi cult must be separated from the Mafia men who manipulated it"

The current rector of Polsi, don Tonino Saraco, has been very clear about denouncing and condemning the 'ndrangheta, as has the bishop of Locri and Gerace, monsignor Francesco Oliva, in line with Pope Francis' excommunication and the No to the Mafia messages disseminated by the Calabrian Episcopal Conference. This is good news, especially considering that the previous rector, Don Pino Strangio, has a first-degree sentence of over nine years' imprisonment for external complicity in mafia association. There can no longer be any doubt that the Polsi cult must be separated from the Mafia men who manipulated it.

So why then, one wonders, does everything seem to want to induce pilgrims to abandon the place, everything seems to want to extinguish the sociability of these popular networks that even turn on the desire to dance, that do not dampen but rather exalt the people's desire to shout "Hurray Mary!"? Why does this continue to happen even now that mafia and mafiosi are being publicly condemned in the territory? Is it possible that the desire to remove the 'ndrangheta from Polsi is also having a positive impact on the rest of the territory and its people, which some 'authorities' have an interest in disempowering? In other words, one can hypothesise that, in the 'absence of 'ndrangheta' and mafia order in the territory, the fear grows in some that the people of the Mountain will 'make themselves heard', that they will claim an active role in the management of the territory.

From manifestation of faith to hope for civic rebirth

"The pilgrimage, no longer functional to the legitimisation of mafia power"

The pilgrimage, no longer functional to the legitimisation of mafia power, nor merely a manifestation of anachronistic and primordial faith in an 'irredeemable' place, could then nourish today a hope of civic rebirth. If this transition has taken place or is taking place - by eliminating or making the presence of the 'ndrangheta at Polsi irrelevant - those 'authorities' perhaps need to identify other strategies to preserve the status quo.

When mafia control over the territory is finally weakened, a popular mobilisation, demanding attention to shared faith and care for the territory, is not easily controlled, especially if it bypasses the Church's intermediation and makes up for the state's neglect. Without that coercive order, one could arrive from below at an awareness, supported as much by solidarity as by faith, of the role of communities as custodians of the mountains and the territory, in the just expectation that they will finally be given a voice. And the Caravan of Christians is already a protagonist of this awareness.

This article was translated by our partner Kompreno, the European startup that wants to make quality journalism accessible by removing language barriers

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