Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

The Feast of the Addolorata in Ciminna

In the heart of inland Sicily, perched among the mountains that separate the Conca d'Oro from the Palermo hinterland, the village of Ciminna celebrates the feast of Maria Santissima Addolorata every year on the third Sunday of October. It is one of the town's most deeply rooted devotional events, experienced with great intensity by the entire community and capable of drawing many emigrated Ciminnesi back home.

The Venerable Congregation of 1774

The festivities are organized by the Venerable Congregation of Maria Santissima Addolorata, a confraternity founded in 1774, also known as the Confraternity of Solitude (or "Solità"). Originally established to provide a dignified burial for the poor, the congregation is based in the ancient Chiesa del Purgatorio, overlooking Piazza Umberto I, where the venerated statue of the Addolorata is kept. Today, the same confraternity also leads the Holy Week rites, particularly the moving Good Friday procession accompanied by the band's funeral marches.

The evening procession and the octave

The highlight of the festival is the solemn evening procession. The statue of the Addolorata is carried through the streets and alleys of Ciminna's historic center, with the participation of the faithful, until it reaches the Mother Church. Here, the statue remains exposed for veneration for the entire octave—the eight days of prayer following the solemn Sunday—after which it is returned in procession to its chapel in Piazza Umberto I. The festivities thus span several days, generally in the second half of October.

Between faith and popular tradition

In Ciminna, devotion to the Addolorata is intertwined with the town's history and its extraordinary religious heritage. The village, already famous for its Mother Church dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene and its numerous places of worship, preserves one of its most authentic expressions of identity in the October festival, filled with hymns, brass band music, decorations, and ancient customs passed down through generations.

Ciminna, a village in the Sicani Mountains

Located at an altitude of about 700 meters in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Ciminna is a small inland town known for its landscapes, its history as a film set, and its religious traditions. Alongside the feast of the patron saint, Saint Vitus, the Addolorata festival represents one of the main moments of the year for the local community and an opportunity to discover the authenticity of a Sicilian village far from mass tourism circuits.