The Old Ways and the Holy Ways: Part 1

Finding My Roots Through Sicilian-American Folk Catholicism A SEVEN-PART SERIES

Author’s Note

This essay is a personal reflection on reconnecting with my Sicilian heritage, family history, and spirituality through Folk Catholicism. My ancestors came from Cefalù, Sicily, and my connection to Sicily exists through the stories, traditions, and memories preserved within my family.

These traditions are not the same in every Sicilian family, village, or region. They have been shaped by the people who practiced them and the generations who preserved and adapted them. The traditions I discuss here are the ones connected to my own family and my understanding of faith, ancestry, and belonging.

Folk Catholicism lives in family prayers, devotion to saints, rituals of protection and blessing, and sacred objects passed between generations. This essay explores the traditions connected to my Sicilian ancestry and the meaning I find in them today.

PART 1 The Faith of the People

For me, Folk Catholicism exists in the space between history and memory.

Folk Catholicism is often described as “Catholicism of the people.” It refers to the ways Catholic faith is practiced and experienced through everyday life, alongside the formal structures of the Church. It combines Catholic teachings and sacraments with local customs, family traditions, devotional practices, and rituals passed down through generations (Orsi, 1985).

While the Church provides the foundation through Scripture, sacraments, and liturgy, Folk Catholicism is also practiced in homes and communities. Saints, sacred objects, rituals, and traditions become part of everyday life (Orsi, 1985).

When I speak of the “old ways,” I am not referring to a rejection of Catholicism or a return to a pre-Christian past. I mean the traditions carried by ordinary people: prayers remembered by grandparents, saints honored in family homes, candles lit during difficult times, blessings spoken over children, and small acts of devotion woven into daily life.

Many of these traditions survived because people practiced them, shared them, and taught them to the next generation. Across Italian and Mediterranean communities, faith was carried not only through churches and clergy, but through families and households. Feast days, stories, blessings, sacred objects, and devotional practices connected people to their communities and traditions (Orsi, 1985; Carroll, 1992).

This is what makes Folk Catholicism meaningful to me. When I explore the traditions of my Sicilian ancestors, I am looking for the pieces of faith, memory, and identity that have continued across generations.

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A Note on Sources Because this essay is presented as a seven-part series, the complete reference list for sources cited throughout all seven parts will be included at the end of Part VII: Between the Old Ways and the Holy Ways.