Feast of Saint Crescenzo the Martyr and Cecatiello with Pulieio Festival

A patronal feast in the heart of Irpinia

On the first weekend of August, the small town of Bonito, in the province of Avellino, gathers around Saint Crescenzo the Martyr. It is the most cherished event of the year for this community of just over two thousand inhabitants, nestled at an altitude of about 490 meters in the middle of Irpinia, in that inland part of Campania made of cultivated hills and small villages. For two days, religious services, a procession, food stalls, and live music fill the historic center and the town squares.

Saint Crescenzo, the child martyr from Rome

The devotion in Bonito has a precise and documented history. The relics of Crescenzo, a Christian boy who died at age eleven—most likely during the persecutions of Diocletian between 303 and 305—were discovered in May 1800 in the Catacomb of Saint Ciriaca in Rome by the Dominican father Luigi Vincenzo Cassitto, a native of Bonito. The tomb inscription simply remembered the child and the mother who had laid him to rest with trepidation.

The skeleton, found intact, was reassembled by the papal surgeon Antonio Magnani and dressed in precious garments, with a palm in his right hand and a laurel wreath on his head, both signs of the martyr's triumph. The solemn translation to Bonito took place on July 27, 1800, with a pontifical mass and a panegyric by Cassitto himself. Since then, the body has rested in a Rococo-style urn, about two meters by two, set into the right side wall of the Mother Church of the Assumption, where it is exposed for the veneration of the faithful. The local feast day of the saint falls on the first Sunday of August.

Religious rites

The heart of the festivities remains devotional: the solemn mass in the Mother Church and the procession that accompanies the statue of the saint along the streets of the town, amidst prayers and hymns. It is the moment when spirituality intertwines with the joy of the feast, and it is also the occasion when many families originally from the area who live elsewhere return to Bonito.

The Cecatiello with Pulieio Festival

Traditionally held on the first Sunday of August, the Cecatiello with Pulieio Festival, promoted by the Municipality of Bonito, takes place during the festivities. The signature dish is a handmade fresh pasta: cecatielli, a short, slightly curved shape typical of Irpinian peasant cuisine.

What makes the recipe unique is the pulieio (pennyroyal, a variety of wild mint), an aromatic herb that goes into the sauce and provides a fresh, intense scent that is impossible to confuse. It is a humble, ancient flavor linked to the fields around the town, which the festival has had the merit of saving from oblivion.

• Tasting of handmade cecatielli with pulieio
• Typical Irpinian dishes and products at the stalls
• Festival area set up in the town center, in Largo Mario Gemma
• Spaces accessible to people with disabilities

Music and evenings in the square

The festival evenings are always accompanied by live music and dancing. In the 2024 edition, for example, Saturday was enlivened by the Fabio's Band and Daniela's group with ballroom dancing, group dances, and Latin-American rhythms, while on Sunday, the Rino Gaetano tribute band "I sei Ottavi" took the stage. The program changes every year and is usually released a few days before by the Municipality's channels.

Bonito and its surroundings

Bonito borders Apice, Grottaminarda, Melito Irpino, and Mirabella Eclano, in a stretch of Irpinia where the agricultural landscape remains the protagonist. Throughout the year, the town offers other popular events, from the Acciaccata and Pork Festival at the end of July to "Christmas and Art" in December; however, the feast of Saint Crescenzo remains the one that best tells the community's identity.