To Do Today: North End Celebrates Annual St. Agrippina’s Feast
Patron saint of thunderstorms, leprosy, and evil spirits honored this weekend
To Do Today: North End Celebrates Annual St. Agrippina’s Feast
Patron saint of thunderstorms, leprosy, and evil spirits honored this weekend
What?
The 108th annual St. Agrippina’s Feast
When?
August 4 to 7
Where?
Hanover Street, Boston
How much?
Admission is free and open to the public, but donations are appreciated.
Why should I go?
Each summer, Boston’s North End is transformed by a combination of street festival and religious veneration as the city’s old Italian neighborhood pays tribute to the saints that immigrants prayed to in their hometowns.
Over the next three days, Hanover Street will be filled with music, decorations, and the savory smell of Italian food as the neighborhood celebrates the 108th annual celebration of the feast of Saint Agrippina of Mineo. She was reported to be a beautiful blond princess, born to a noble family and tortured to death in 256 AD by Valerian, the emperor of Rome, because of her Christian faith. While not the largest of the religious festivals (that distinction belongs to Saint Anthony, whose feast is celebrated at the end of August), the festival honoring Agrippina is rich in both Italian and Catholic tradition.
Agrippina is known today as the patron saint of Mineo, Sicily, as well as of thunderstorms, leprosy, and evil spirits. Legend has it that her body was transported from Rome to Mineo by three holy women, their travels aided by angels and a miraculous cloud that protected them and offered cover during dangerous parts of their journey.
The festival will start today, when a member of the Saint Agrippina Benefit Society ceremoniously removes a red veil from a life-size statue of the saint. This statue on its ornate canopy weighs 2,000 pounds; it is carried in procession down the streets of the North End by 20 men. Only men of Italian origin are granted the honor of carrying the statue, and places in the procession are generally passed down from father to son. Patrons affix dollar bills to the statue as it makes its way through the North End, and the proceeds are used to support the church on Hanover Street that bears Agrippina’s name.
Afternoons and evenings of the festival are filled with singing, dancing, food (Italian, of course), and festivities. Catch live performances of several bands, including Front & Center tonight and Love Sexy (a Prince tribute band) on Friday night. Processions with the statue take place tonight at 7 pm and on Sunday starting at noon. Sunday’s closing ceremonies begin with a grand procession, and are capped off with a traditional tug-of-war at 8:35 pm and fireworks. The festival is sponsored by the Saint Agrippina Benefit Society.
St. Agrippina’s Feast begins today and continues through Sunday, August 7. The ceremonies take place at the intersection of Hanover Street and Prince Street in the North End, with live music from noon to 11 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free and open to the public, but donations are appreciated. To get there by public transportation, take any Green Line trolley to Haymarket, head southeast on Congress Street toward Hanover Street, and walk 0.3 miles to Prince Street. For a full schedule and updates click here, or visit the festival’s Facebook page.
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