By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
In about a dozen subterranean tunnels, far beneath the congested urban streets of Sicily’s largest city, reside some 2,000 citizens from all walks of Palermo life. Rather, I should say, from all walks of Palermo death. The tunnel dwellers are part of a famous, fascinating, and somewhat unsettling necropolis.
We visited there during a Judge Memorial Catholic High School trip to Italy in April 2009 and ever since, the Capuchin Catacombs remind me of the spirit and theme of the Christian All Souls Day, celebrated each year on November 2. On All Souls Day, Christians remember and pray for the dearly departed, and ask that they may have eternal rest and perpetual union with God in Heaven.
The Capuchin Catacombs date back almost 500 years. One article reports that the first person buried there was the Franciscan monk Silvestro de Gubbio, back in 1599. The last burials are from the 1920s. Although initially reserved for members of the Franciscan order, the friars eventually invited their Palermo neighbors to take up eternal rest in the catacombs too. A great variety of them accepted the offer.
Perhaps like the society at the time, the catacombs are divided by sex, rank, and profession, with specific discrete areas dedicated to priests, professionals, children, and the elderly. When we toured there, my family teased me rather relentlessly as we strolled through the section populated with lawyers, which seemed rather upscale. It was a macabre gathering of the historic local bar association.
Yet, the family teasing stopped, and everyone grew somber, as we passed the glass-enclosed casket of little Rosalia Lombardo (1918-1920), a perfectly-preserved two year old girl from a century ago. Folks swear she sometimes opens her eyes (see: https://allthatsinteresting.com/rosalia-lombardo). She did not when we were there, and one fellow visitor loudly asked, “Is she dead or just taking a nap?” Another young sightseer wondered, “Is that a doll?” The other bodies are all embalmed too but some, like Rosalia, look a lot better than others.
The mummified remains are positioned in prone or standing positions (i.e. hanging) along the walls of the narrow corridors. Metal bars barely separated us still-breathing tourists from those souls who had taken their last breath. Other tourists from all over the world have visited the place too (according to its official website), including Alexandre Dumas, Mario Praz, Guy de Maupassant, Fanny Lewald, and Carlo Levi (see: http://www.palermocatacombs.com/).
Woody Allen wrote, “I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” More realistically, actor Anthony Hopkins has said of our present state, “None of us are getting out of here alive.” Our visit to the Capuchin Catacombs, rather emphatically and quite visually, confirmed that point.
I do not recommend hanging out with the dead every day, but when we do it is a vivid reminder that many souls have preceded us, but none have escaped the grim reaper. Yet, as Christians we believe that for those souls, and for all of us eventually, life is changed not ended. As Mitch Albom wrote in Tuesdays with Morrie, “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” All Souls Day presents us with a unique moment to cherish those important relationships with those who have gone before us.
