On Tuesday, April 09, 2024, at 4 p.m. in the Paolo Radicciotti Lecture Hall of the Department of Humanistic Studies at the University of Roma Tre, the book "Miracula et benefitia" the story of disease and thaumaturgy and Licata, Sicily  and devotion to Carmelite Saint Angelo was presented by its author Marco Papasidero. The book is published by Edizioni Carmelitane.

Speaking at the presentation were Professor Maria Chiara Giorda and Professor Paolo Broggio from the University of Roma Tre, Giovanna Brizi, Postulator General of the Carmelite Order, and the author.

The book traces, in a cultural-historical perspective, the miracles, healing practices, diseases, beliefs and society described within the book " Miracula et benefitia," the title of the inquiry into miracles conducted between 1625 and 1627 in Licata, Sicily, which aimed to collect the miraculous testimonies of 113 witnesses following the wave of plague that had struck the island since 1624.

Professor Maria Chiara Giorda praised the author's work and mentioned how he managed to bring out "the great Sicilian cultural and religious heritage, both tangible and intangible" of that historical period.

For Papasidero, a researcher in the History of Christianity at the University of Palermo, "today the cult of St. Angelo is alive and so it is demonstrated by the return of the Carmelites as it happens especially on the feast of the saint."

In the words of Prof. Paolo Broggio, the volume contains "an account of the mentality, beliefs, medical practices and procedures of the protagonists of the time."

In the discussion around the book, it emerged how the text can also be an important source for medical historians. According to Papasidero many times they only "draw on medical treatises and forget to report the religious aspects of the healing practices of the time."

For Maria Chiara Giorda, "a clear link is evinced between the history of religions, disease and medicine, between how it was considered at the time to the epistemological change that is considered by modern anthropologists as a perfect example of healing with a combination of medical systems and magical practices defined today as ontological systems that have proven effective over time."

The author thanked Giovanna Brizi, Postulator, and Fr. Mario Alfarano, Archivist and General Librarian of the Carmelite Order, as well as the publishing house Edizioni Carmelitane for the trust they have placed in him.

For more information about the book Miracula et benefitia ...