Siena

I have to hand it to the people of Siena. In the past, and in the present, they draw few distinctions between the sacred and the secular. Look at the sculptures that adorn the entrance to the main cathedral in town and you will not only see St. Paul and St. Peter, but also Plato and Aristotle. Walk into the stunning interior and observe not only a picture of Catherine of Siena, but an elaborate floor mosaic that recounts the Roman myth of the wolf that nursed Remus and Romulus. It might be fair to describe this as unabashed syncretism, but at least it’s transparent! Most people of faith pretend as though they are walking on a much narrower path. Here in Siena, however, the so-called sacred and the secular intermingle freely. One of the clearest expressions of this comes every year during the days that surround the historic horse race known as the “Palio.” The whole colorful event, filled with drumming, dancing, singing, drinking, eating, flag waving, parading, competing, and countless other medieval traditions is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Roman Catholic church not only blesses the jockeys that ride, but each one of the horses as well. In fact, each horse is led into a neighborhood church before the event and blessed in the name of a patron saint that is revered by the people who live there. I stood in the main square of Siena on the morning of Palio and heard the Catholic Archbishop talk about the “liturgy of the Palio” before he presided at a special communion service that is held in conjunction with all the other activities of the day. In the days after the race, I watched people from the winning neighborhood march through every part of Siena with not just drums and flags, but with pacifiers in their mouths. When I asked about this, I learned that they were celebrating the joy of being “born again”, just as one is born again in baptism. You may judge all of this however you wish, but I found it to be an honest representation of something that is found within all of us who seek to live out our faith from one day to the next. Personally, I think the transforming power of the Gospel is lost when it becomes too closely linked with our own cultural and ethnic traditions, but whenever we throw out the pacifier-sucking baby with the bath water in our efforts to separate the sacred from the secular, we devolve into a self-righteous community of believers who miss much, or even most, of what God is doing in the world. Being in Siena made me more aware of that, and I take it as a gift.