Good afternoon everyone,

How are you? I went to Naples recently, it was quite amazing. Have you been? Definitely bump it up your list if not, it's an incredible place.

Of course two of the things they are big into in Naples are San Gennaro and Diego Maradona - both men - however there are women in the Naples mythology so here is a Fem Fri about them.

Let's start with Santa Lucia, patron saint of sight who gives her name to the church of Santa Luciella ("little Lucy"). The church was build with really hard stone so the masons who built it were risking their eyes. Here's more about it:

Its underground crypt was used as a burial site. Adherents to the Neapolitan Cult of the Dead often came here to pray. They often offered prayers especially to the “skull with ears,” hoping this anatomical curiosity would act as a messenger between the worlds of the living and dead. The skull lives up to its name—it has two pieces of mummified cartilage, one on either side, which resemble ears.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/church-of-santa-luciella-ai-librai

I saw the skull with ears. It really does look like it has ears.

You might have noticed the interesting phrase "Neapolitan Cult of the Dead" in the above pullquote. Let's get into that a bit because it's about women adopting the skulls of the unknown dead and keeping them clean and named in exchange for intercessions in heaven:

a spontaneous cult of skull adoption developed after parish priest Don Gaetano Barbati encouraged the local community to assist in bringing some order to the bones in 1872. Since then, local women have taken it upon themselves to assist the souls in reaching heaven, cleaning the skulls and assigning them names which appear to the women in dreams.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/jan/12/naples-cemetery-delle-fontanelle-italy-skulls

St Clare (also patron saint of television btw) is one of the fifty (fifty!!!) patron saints of Naples and the cloister attached to her convent is entirely lovely:

The Santa Chiara nuns lived in seclusion which meant that few people ever saw the beautiful cloister. In 1924 the nuns swapped convents with the nearby Franciscan friars who led less restricted lives. The Friars gradually invited philosophers and intellectuals into their garden and finally, in the 1970s, the public was allowed access.

https://bagnidilucca.blog/2018/05/10/the-most-beautiful-cloister-in-italy/

Love,

Alex.