Feast of Saint Agatha

An ancient festival in the heart of inland Abruzzo

Every year on February 5th, the village of Civitaluparella, in the province of Chieti, celebrates the Feast of Saint Agatha. Perched on a limestone spur of the Monti Lupari, with views over the Val di Sangro and the Maiella, this small Abruzzese town preserves a centuries-old devotion to the martyr from Catania, who is venerated here primarily as the protector of pregnant women, nursing mothers, and breast milk.

Although Saint Roch is the town's official patron saint—celebrated in mid-August with the blessing of bread—Civitaluparella dedicates a deeply felt observance to Saint Agatha, which is repeated punctually every early February and involves the entire community.

The procession and solemn Mass

The religious heart of the day is the solemn Mass celebrated in the parish church, followed by the procession with the statue of Saint Agatha, which winds through the alleys, stairways, and narrow streets of the historic center, most of which are pedestrian-only. The devotional parade, accompanied by the faithful, weaves through the stone houses of the village until it reaches the main square, Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, the hub of the civil celebrations.

The pagnottelle of Saint Agatha

The most distinctive tradition of the festival is that of the Saint Agatha breads, also known as pagnottelle. These are small ritual breads prepared in pairs to symbolically evoke the breasts of the martyr, the central element of her martyrdom. The dough follows an ancient recipe from inland Abruzzo:

• flour from Solina soft wheat, a typical local variety, stone-ground;
• boiled potatoes, natural sourdough starter, oil, eggs;
• anise seeds, in the sweet version with sugar or the savory version with salt.

The breads are brought to the church for blessing and then distributed and consumed by the community: a gesture that unites popular faith, gastronomy, and the memory of ancient practices related to the cult of milk, once widespread throughout inland Abruzzo.

The cult of milk in Abruzzo

Civitaluparella is part of a broader devotional itinerary that, on February 5th, lights up various villages in inland Abruzzo around the figure of Saint Agatha. In the past, women would go to springs for propitiatory rites linked to fertility and breastfeeding, invoking the Saint to ensure abundant milk for mothers. This tradition, which survives in Civitaluparella through the preparation and blessing of the breads, is part of the region's intangible heritage.

The village of Civitaluparella

Those who attend the festival also discover a village of great charm, inhabited since prehistoric times as evidenced by the nearby Grotta Cese. In the upper part of the village, one can find the ruins of Castello Caldora, the Annunziata church, and the ancient church of San Pietro Apostolo, carved out of a Benedictine abbey. An evocative setting that makes the Saint Agatha observance an ideal opportunity to discover the authentic soul of the province of Chieti and Abruzzo.