The Old Ways and the Holy Ways: Part 1

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

Author’s Note

This essay is a personal reflection on my journey of reconnecting with my Sicilian heritage, family history, and spirituality through Folk Catholicism. As a descendant of Sicilian immigrants from Cefalù, my connection to Sicily exists through the stories, traditions, and memories preserved within my family. These traditions are not the same in every family, village, or region of Sicily. They have always been shaped by the people who practiced them, the places where they lived, and the generations who preserved and adapted them. The traditions I discuss here are not meant to represent every Sicilian Catholic experience, but rather the customs, stories, symbols, and practices that have shaped my own understanding of faith, ancestry, and belonging.

Folk Catholicism lives in the prayers passed down through families, the saints honored in homes, the rituals of protection and blessing, and the sacred objects that connect generations. This essay explores the traditions that remain connected to my Sicilian ancestry and the ways I continue to find meaning 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 has been practiced, experienced, and carried through everyday life beyond the formal structures of the Church. It combines the teachings and sacraments of Catholicism with local customs, family traditions, devotional practices, and rituals that develop within communities over generations (Orsi, 1985).

While the Church provides the foundation through Scripture, sacraments, and liturgy, Folk Catholicism reflects how ordinary people encounter the sacred in their homes, families, and communities. Faith exists not only inside churches, but also around kitchen tables, in gardens, through family prayers, and in the objects people keep close during moments of joy, grief, and uncertainty. Scholars of lived religion have explored how communities create relationships with saints, sacred objects, rituals, and traditions through the experiences of daily life (Orsi, 1985).

When I speak of the “old ways,” I am not referring to a rejection of Catholicism or an attempt to return to a pre-Christian past. I am referring to the traditions carried by ordinary people: the prayers remembered by grandparents, the saints honored in family homes, the candles lit during difficult times, the blessings spoken over children, and the small acts of devotion that made faith part of everyday existence.

Many of these traditions survived without being formally recorded. They endured because people practiced them, shared them, and taught them to the next generation. Across Italian and Mediterranean communities, faith was often carried not only through churches and clergy, but through families and households. Feast days, stories, blessings, sacred objects, and devotional practices created a connection between people, places, ancestors, and the divine (Orsi, 1985; Carroll, 1992).

This is what makes Folk Catholicism meaningful to me. It is not simply a historical tradition to research; it is a way of understanding the people who came before me. When I explore the traditions of my Sicilian ancestors, I am searching for the pieces of faith, memory, and identity that have continued to travel across generations.

_________

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.