St. Proculus and the other saints of the Pozzuoli procession

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Emanuela Esposito

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There are numerous saints who protect the city of Pozzuoli; according to tradition, as many as 54 co-patrons are recognized in the city. The patron saint of Pozzuoli, however, is. St. Proculus In 1780, thanks to Monsignor Antonio Gulter, confessor to Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, the body of St. Proculus was recovered and brought back to Pozzuoli on May 13, 1781.

It is precisely from this event that the custom of the famous procession that the Phlegrean people hold on the second Sunday in May was born. On this day, in the streets of the festive city, relics and the bust of St. Proculus, along with the marble statue of San Gennaro and to the wooden one of San Celso. The procession goes all the way to the historic center, passing by the Earth District.

St. Proculus, Patron Saint of Pozzuoli

St. Proculus is one of the seven saints of Pozzuoli, as well as patron of the Phlegrean city. He was born in 273 in Pozzuoli and died as a martyr along with his companions on September 19, 305 near the Forum Vulcani, Pozzuoli's Solfatara.

The story is recounted in several sacred texts. First of all in the "Atti Puteolani" also called "Acta sancti proculi," texts found in the Curia of Pozzuoli and published in Antwerp in 1757. However, it also appears in the "Atti Bolognesi," composed between the 6th and 7th centuries owned by the monastery of Santo Stefano in Bologna of the Celestine fathers.

After their martyrdom, the seven saints of Pozzuoli were venerated by Campanian Christians. Depictions of the saints appear in the Catacombs of San Gennaro, San Severo and of San Gaudioso Naples. St. Proculus became the patron saint of Pozzuoli remembered by the Church on October 18, while he is celebrated by the Phlegrean people on November 16 at the Cathedral of Pozzuoli which stands in the Rione Terra neighborhood.

The Phlegrean cathedral, called the Cathedral of St. Proculus Martyr, still holds the body of the patron saint. Immediately after the saint's death, it is said that Proculus' body was first buried near the necropolis of Via Celle then, according to a document dating back to the 9th century, in 871 the body was taken by a Swabian knight, to an island on Lake Constance in Switzerland.

St. Celsus among the first bishops of the city of Pozzuoli

Dear to the people of the Phlegrean city is the figure of San Celso. There are many discordant sources on this saint, so beloved by Puteolians who continue to honor him during the May procession even after the Liturgical Reform abolished the cult of St. Celsus.

San Celso is part of the tradition Catholic of Pozzuoli and is recognized locally as the city's first bishop, ordained directly by St. Peter around 60. La Church of St. Celsius stood in the Rione Terra and was a very ancient building, records of which can be found in documents dating as far back as the medieval age.

The Christian's sacred temple held the bishop's relics, which were moved to the nearby Cathedral in 1548 due to severe damage from frequent and disastrous earthquakes.

The move was only temporary, however, because in 1619, a new church was built anew in the Rione Terra for the worship of St. Celsus.The polychrome wooden statue of the saint, which is still carried in processions today, also dates back to the 17th century. Other relics of significant importance, however, are kept in the Diocesan Museum of the Earth District.

In the building erected to preserve and promote knowledge of the historical and artistic wealth of the diocesan territory, the gold and precious stone reliquary cross in which a bone fragment of the saint is preserved and a silver crosier of his simulacrum belong to St. Celsus.

The silver reliquary medallion is preserved, containing small bones and teeth of the saint, the mitre and the two silver cherubs that adorned the now defunct reliquary. A silver saucer and small bell depicting the image of St. Celsus that once adorned the church dedicated to the saint date to 1830.