Easter Sunday in Bevagna: A Dashing Christ

Every Easter Sunday morning, members of the Confraternita della Misericordia (the Confraternity of Mercy or Compassion), a lay brotherhood initiated in Bevagna in the 18th century, in tunics and purple capes, carry the Cristo risorto (“Risen Christ”), Bevagna’s treasured 16th-century statue, from the small 18th-century church of the confraternity, Santa Maria della Consolazione, down the main street of Bevagna to the central piazza.

On Piazza Filippo Silvestri, Easter Mass is taking place inside the 12th-century Romanesque church, San Michele Arcangelo. The faithful inside are awaiting in anxious anticipation as they pray.

At the start of mass, the local scouts had roped off the main aisle which must always stay clear of people for the culminating event of the mass at the Gloria.  

A heavy purple curtain is put over the door and a man stands high on a ladder next to it, rope in his hand. In the doorway, the Cristo risorto stands – hand upraised in victory (over death) – but not yet visible to the faithful.

During the Kyrie Eleison prayers, all eyes shift from the altar to the purple curtain hanging at the back of the church. As the priest intones with elation in a booming voice, Gloria in excelsis Deo, the guardian of the curtain leaps off the ladder, pulling the rope…almost like a bell-ringer. But his pull does not cause bells to toll: it splays open the curtain to the beloved Cristo risorto dashed in at a run to an enthusiastic burst of applause from all the faithful. La Resurrezione for the bevanati.

My Bevagna friend, Claudia, told me that a perfect run is auspicious for the carriers of the statue and the confraternity brothers carrying the Christ know this and seek to hold Him erect. Claudia told me that the run of the Cristo risorto is “something we have loved since we were children, an annual rite, passed on generation-to-generation. This repetitive cycle is our security, for a town is represented by its history, its rites, which link us as a community. And these rites give force each of us.”

The Cristo risorto will remain near the altar in the Church of San Michele Arcangelo until the Ascension, 40 days after Easter before returning home to the Church of Santa Maria Consolazione.