HOLIDAYezine: COMISO in South East Sicily

Comiso in South East Sicily

In his second Sicilian report

Pat Keenan flew into a new airport,

visited a charming town,

admired some great artistic riches

and had another encounter with dead monks
Photos: Pat Keenan

Comiso First Communion: boys celebrate.

Church of of Santa Maria delle Grazie: precious altar and tabernacle

Comiso in South East Sicily is the site of the recently opened Vincenzo Magliocco Airport, better known as Comiso Airport. It changed from military to civil use in 2008. You can fly there with Ryanair in just three and a half hours, direct from Dublin. From there, in all likelihood, you will be whisked off to some sunny coastal beach, a golf course or to one of many beautiful resorts. But just a mere 5km/3 miles from the airport is the charming historic town of Comiso itself and it contains an extraordinary, and somewhat macabre, place of worship.
On a warm sunny day walking around this charming town, we had our morning shots of coffee, a mid morning cooling of icy granita siciliana and encountered a beautiful bride arrive at the steep steps to the Church of Santa Maria delle Stelle.
There are quite a few churches in Comiso with great artistic riches, so we traipsed around a few ending in the south of the town at the Church of of Santa Maria delle Grazie and known as the Church the Capuchins.
The church contains a precious altar and tabernacle painstakingly made with intricate craftsmanship from inlaid wood. Then there is also the attached mortuary chapel, called appropriately, the 'Chapel of the Dead' containing 50 mummified monks lying in built-in slanting alcoves.

The only one wearing 18th century civilian clothes

They were all Capuchin friars or members of the Third Order of the Capchins and positioned so that their faces are always looking outwards. Twenty are tagged with their name and dates of death from 1742 to 1838. Those without tags are the older ones date as far back as the 17th century. They are all wearing Capuchin habits, except one, wearing 18th century civilian clothes and he is also displayed in an upright posture.

First encounter with dead monks
I recalled that my first encounter with a display of dead monks was beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto in Rome. I remember seeing a distraught young tourist flee the crypt in tears of fear.
James Joyce, when he worked in Rome in 1906, took a very negative view of the Eternal City and had wrote to his brother Stanislaus: "Rome reminds me of a man who lives by exhibiting to travellers his grandmother’s corpse." and he wrote of his nightmares: "death, corpses, assassinations, in which I take an unpleasantly prominent part." Interestingly it was in Rome that he wrote his short story 'The Dead', which tells of the very contrasting view of the treatment of the dead in his native Dublin.
The Capuchins, have a different point of view and contend that the display of deceased monks is not meant to be macabre, but rather a reminder of our short time alive and of our own mortality.
There are other better known collections of mummies in Sicily, the biggest, with approximately 3,000 mummies, is in Palermo in the basement of the church of Santa Maria della Pace, This one, at the Church of Santa Maria della Grazia, is almost entirely unknown outside of Comiso.
More Pictures:

Outside the Church of Santa Maria delle Stelle:
father prepares to give away the bride

Travel File

I flew with Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) direct from Dublin to Comiso, in South East Sicily (Thursdays and Sundays) They also fly London Stansted direct to Comiso

Ryanair also fly Dublin direct to Palermo on Mondays and Thusdays

For Information on travels in Italy:

www.italia.it/en/home.html

www.italiantouristboard.co.uk/

www.flavourofitaly.net/en/content/60-travel

For Information on travels to Sicily:

www.aeroportodicomiso.eu/en/

www.ragusa-sicilia.it/english/comiso.htm

www.comune.ragusa.gov.it/turismo

www.siracusaturismo.net

www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/sicily.html

www.regione.sicilia.it/turismo/web_turismo