Sant'Efisio Festival

In 1652 Sardinia was afflicted by a plague. Half the population of Cagliari died. Everywhere there was death and desperation. Then the people turned to Efisio di Elia, a martyred saint, who had been beheaded in the year 303 in Nora which is on the coast of Cagliari for refusing to deny the Christian Faith. Efisio was the commanding officer of a garrison of the Roman Emperor Diocleziano's army and was in Sardinia to suppress the Christian communities on the island. However, during a trip he had a vision similar to the one Paul had on the way to Damascus. After seeing the vision Efisio changed from persecutor into the most ardent follower of Christ. When he was asked to deny the Christian Faith he refused and was sentenced to death. He was imprisoned in Cagliari (where today there is a church dedicated to him) and was then moved secretly to the coast of Cagliari in order to prevent the people from protesting against his sentence. Efisio was beheaded by a Roman soldier on the beach of Nora.

The worship of Sant' Efisio spread throughout Cagliari and Sardinia. The crypt in Stampace, which was the prison where Efisio was kept, became a centre of spirituality and afterwards, in Nora, the place of Efisio's martyrdom, a charming little aisleless church, nowadays submerged below the sea, was built. The name of Sant' Efisio became inextricably linked with Cagliari and Sardinia after the plague of 1650 which was the same plague Manzoni described in his famous book "I Promessi Sposi".

And the plague did indeed finish. So every year since 1656 on the first of May the Sardinian people, wearing their traditional costumes, take the statue of their Saint in procession to thank him for ridding Cagliari of the plague. This is the "Festival of Sant' Efisio" which is the biggest and most colourful religious procession in the world. It is the only religious procession that lasts for 4 days. It is also the only procession which is able to unite the whole population of an island that has been defined as almost a "continent" because of the deep cultural, social and economic differences among the Island's various regions. The first of May is the main day of this festival. Before 1656 the first of May was the Sardinian 'Thanksgiving' when the population thanked God for the spring harvest. Efisio passes among his people who have not forgotten his interventions for Cagliari and Sardinia as when, in 1793, he freed the city from the French siege. In 1943 (during the second world war) the statue was carried through the city, that had been bombed, giving the people hope during that time of pain, tears and desperation. Even on that occasion the population managed to rebuild the city in only a few years.

As the statue of the saint arrives in front of the city hall, passing through Via Roma whose paving stones are covered in flowers (the so called "sa ramadura" rite), the saint's coach is greeted by the sirens of the ships in the port and by the cheers of the people who make the sign of the cross as the statue of the saint passes. At that point the Festival becomes a countryside festival with the statue of the saint passing through the villages of La Maddalena, Su Loi, Sarroch, Villa San Pietro, Pula and Nora and small festivals are held along the route, with religious ceremonies and banquets, where everyone is invited as a sign of welcome and ospitality.On the 4th of May the statue of the saint begins its return journey to Cagliari. Late in the evening, the statue of Sant'Efisio is accompanied by thousands of worshippers carrying torches, back to the church in Stampace. The worshippers crowd to enter the little temple in order to be near "their" Saint again. The greeting that people exchange is "Atrus annus" which means "other years", because on the 5th of May in Stampace people are already thinking about the next festival.
It has been so for 341 years.