It’s September 10th and there are saints processions happening on both sides of the Charles River!
While the procession of Santa Rosalia of Palermo Sicily is going on in the North End, Saints Cosmas and Damian are being processed through the streets of Cambridge and Somerville near our studio. Cosmas and Damian are the patrons of the city of Gaeta in central Italy. While Rosalia saved Palermo from a plaque in the 17th century, Cosmas and Damian interceded to spare Gaeta from a plaque in the 18th century.
Is it a coincidence that these saints are annually feasted during the same weekend of the year?
The figures of S.S. Cosmas and Damian were brought to Cambridge-Somerville from Gaeta in the 1920’s and a chapel was built for them in the 1940’s by a group of women led by Marietta Colarutolo. Like in the North End, current and former residents of the neighborhood, which was once predominantly Italian, return to participate in the Feast Day!