“Sicilys Honey & Milans Honey for December Seventh” by Benny Anthony Honey, have some of it as a part of one of your meals or snacks, because its the Feast of SantAmbrogio and honey is one of the symbols for Saint Ambrose. He is, after all, carrying a beehive atop his book! At the end of this article are words in both languages of Sicilian & Italian that reference honey, as well as bees. By the way, “ambrosia” is a name for a mythological food, sometimes a drink, that aside from its legendary properties was said to be from hives, as in what bees & other insects use for their colonies! Not only do proverbs from the language of Sicilian refer to December Seventh as “Festa di SantAmbroggiu”, his leadership in the city of Milano resulted in a separate “rite” for Mass to celebrated in the city, which in the 2000s there are thousands of Sicilians that now attend these parishes in Milan due their relocation northward in order to obtain employment. The Sicilian city of Cerami (aka Cirami) honors La Festa di santAmbrogio on the Seventh of December each year, because Saint Ambrose is their patron-saint! Cerami (Cirami) is located within the Province of Enna. The neighboring cities to Cerami are not all in the Province of Enna, which are Capizzi, Cesarò (Risarò), and Mistretta (Mistritta) that are within Provincia di Messina, along with Nicosia (Nẹcọscia), Troina (Traina), Gagliano Castelferrato (known as Agghianu among the locals) that all three are within Provincia di Enna. Back to Saint Ambrose or his legacy, that is, whereas the vast majority of Catholic Christians in North America & South America celebrate their Mass according to The Roman Rite (thus, Roman Catholics), the Mass in Milan that Saint Ambrose instituted is known as “The Ambrosian Rite”, sometimes called “The Milanese Rite” with the phrasing in Italian as “Rito Ambrosiano”. Take for example “The Hill” thats the focus for Italian-Americans in the city of Saint Louis, Missouri there isnt a Mass that supports “The Ambrosian Rite”, although there is a parish named {Saint Ambrose Roman Catholic Church} that served the first wave of immigrants from Italy that arrived from the city of Milano! Yogi Berra, the New York Yankee and inspiration for the cartoon-character of “Yogi Bear”, he was born & raised on “The Hill” and his parents were from the Italian city of Milano! After the milanese immigrants, Sicilians arrived on “The Hill” that continued to attend the Saint Ambrose parish, although see the quote at the end of this article after the section for words in Sicilian & Italian. In Sicily, while the actual Feast of Saint Ambrose may not be celebrated widely, and limited to Mass, it is the day that Sicilians have their decorations for Christmas prepared, especially because the next day is The Feast of Immaculate Conception. Also in Sicily, the names in the distinctly Sicilian spellings of Ambroggiu, Ambrogiu & Ambrugiu still exist, as well as in cities outside of Sicily that once were part of The Kingdom of Sicily and The Kingdom of Two Sicilies, all of which probably refer back centuries to some reverence to Saint Ambrose. As to the life of SantAmbrogio (340–397 A.D.) was the mentor to the mother & son saints of Saint Monica & Saint Augustine of Hippo (North Africa), of which students of “liberal arts”, philosophy & theology must still read today! Saint Ambrose himself wrote extensively that, for example, the Amazon website offers a listing for “St. Ambrose: On the Mysteries by St. Ambrose” that they sell for 99-cents on their Kindle, although there are free-of-charge editions elsewhere on the Internet. In any case, its from Ambrose, we inherited the cliché of When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Actually, the quotation was: “si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sicut ibi”, or “If you were in Rome, live in the Roman way; if you are elsewhere, live as they do there.” As to Catholics, and Orthodox Christians, for that matter, Saint Ambrose supersedes another saint that shares the Seventh of December as his feast-day, one of the Bishops of Rome (popes), that of Santa Papa Eutichiano that lived from 228 A.D. to 293 A.D. before the lifetime of Ambrose. QUOTE: “Ambrose ranks with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin Doctors of the Church.” The mummified body of Saint Ambrose is on display in the crypt of SantAmbrogio Basilica, which leads to a plot-device in the Hitchcock film of “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956) with the characters played by Jimmy Stewart & Doris Day mistaking “Ambrose Chapel” as a person, when its a church. Conversely, in “The X-Files”, there was a character that assumed the name of “Ambrose Chapel”, pretending to be a C.I.A. Agent in the episode of Colony (2X16) from 1995. In any case, there is a real “Ambrose Chapel”, which is a historic Methodist chapel located at Stotlers Crossroads, Morgan County, West Virginia (not in England as set in “The Man Who Knew Too Much”) that was built 1851, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. By the way, it was in the film that Doris Day first sang what would become her signature song, that of “Que Sera, Sera”, which Italian-Americans often mistake as being of Italian origin, although there are italianized versions, now, of the song. And, to return to the date of December Seventh, its “the day that will live in infamy”, prayers to all those innocent Americans that lost their lives in the sneak-attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. Aside from this sadness, in conclusion, I wish to all: Buona Festa di SantAmbrogio! ATTACHED PICTURES: (1) This is quasi-statue, thats called “a relief”, is of Saint Ambrose with his iconic beehive atop a book probably meant to represent the actual writings of the saint that still exists; moreover, the artist that made this “relief” (or bassorilievo in Italian) was Michael Plakolb that crafted it by the year of 1904 that also produced many other extraordinarily beautiful “reliefs” in his lifetime. (2) This is the Sicilian city where Saint Ambrose is the patron-saint, that of Cerami thats within the Province of Enna. PAROLI (WORDS): HONEY: meli (sicilianu), miele (italiano) BEE (SINGULAR): lapa (sicilianu), ape (italiano) BEES (PLURAL): lapi (sicilianu), api (italiano) BEESWAX: cira dlapi (sicilianu), cera dapi (italiano) BEEHIVE (GENERIC): laparìa (sicilianu) BEEHIVE (BEE-MADE): alveare (italiano) BEEHIVE (MAN-MADE): arnia (italiano) HONEYCOMB (BEE-MADE): favu (sicilianu), favo (italiano) HONEYCOMB (MAN-MADE): a nido dape (italiano) HONEYCOMB (SYNONYM): miele in favo (italiano) HONEY-DIPPER: “miele mestolo” (italiano) WOODEN HONEY-DIPPER: “miele mestolo di legno” (italiano) QUOTATION: {{{{{ The Parish of Our Lady Help of Christians, was founded in the downtown area of [Saint Louis] in 1900 to serve primarily Sicilian immigrants and the Parish of St.Ambrose was founded to serve the northern Italian immigrants..... When Our Lady Help of Christians Parish closed in 1975, St.Ambrose became the center of Catholic life among many Italian-Americans in the [Saint Louis Area]. }}}}} Written & Researched by Benny Anthony Kansas City, Missouri (USA)
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 23:13:05 +0000
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