Saint Anthony the Abbot is the blessed of fire, protector of livestock and fields. Egyptian by birth and died in the Thebaid desert on 17 January 357, the Saint is depicted with a staff, fire at his feet, a Tau and a pig next to him.
Fire is precisely the element that is used most of all today to remember Saint Anthony. In many areas of Italy bonfires are lit which symbolize the desire to abandon everything that belongs to the past months and to renew oneself starting from the first month of the new year. Furthermore, on this day in various churches pets receive blessings.
The purifying fires can be accompanied by processions and celebrations that often recall nineteenth-century customs. Symbolically, the bonfire has the magical purpose of warming the earth and encouraging the return of spring, a clearly legendary vision that is handed down in many cities where on January 17th the animals are blessed and piles of wood are prepared which are then lit at sunset.
Sant’Antonio Abate and the legend of fire
But why do we light bonfires? The tradition is linked to the legend reported in Italian Fairy Tales by Italo Calvino. Here it is:
Antonio got up at dawn, intending to help the men who had come to meet him at the cave that weekend.
There was no fire in the world and the men, numb from the cold, had turned to him and begged him to provide at least a spark for each of them or even a single flame (if he really couldn’t do better!), because they would have thought about dividing it up anyway.
First Antonio woke up the inseparable pig with whom he shared a life of solitude:
«Piglet, my friend… get up quickly, don’t stay here and laze around!
It’s already time, the sun rises. Let’s get ready to leave! »
The animal, which was sleeping like a dormouse in the best sheltered corner of the cave, turned away with a snore, so that Antonio was forced to shake it. «Pig, can’t you hear me? It’s already twenty past five!’ he shouted louder. «With the help of the good Lord, we must run to Hell: there we will find fire to give to my brothers.
But do you think about the poor people? They are cold, they are in the dark… they eat raw: they don’t turn on the stove!”
The word stove had an immediate effect. Piglet – who along with a formidable appetite also had a desire, that of becoming a famous chef (he could already be seen wearing a starched hat and apron!) – opened his little light blue eyes, stood up on all fours and grunted:
«Oink, oink, if Hell is the only place where they use fire,
for you who are a saint and for me who is next to you, taking some will be a game!
Well, why don’t we hurry, dear Antonio?
With the help of the good Lord, we reach the house of the devil!
No sooner said than done, Piglet combed his forelock, as he always did when he went for a walk, Antonio took his stick and, together, the two set off in the direction of Hell.
Walk, walk, walk (and with the help of the good Lord!) Antonio and the pig soon arrived at the gate of Hell, behind which a mustachioed she-devil who smelled…of sulfur was guarding (and what else should devils smell like?).
The door was closed, so Antonio knocked.
“Hey, home!” he called. «It’s freezing outside, will you let us in?
There are two of us, we want to warm up!»
Peering through the peephole, the she-devil had recognized the saint. So he opened the door ajar and replied:
«There is no room in Hell for Saint Anthony, the hermit!
How dare you come forward? Do you think I’m stupid?”
Then, eyeing the pig and thinking that he could hide it and then cook it perfectly to munch on it in peace, he added:
«But yes, the pig, I can let that one in…
give him a good pass.
Come inside, little pig,
go and crawl under my bed!
Piglet did not have the invitation repeated. He winked at Saint Anthony and slipped into Hell through the ajar door. Once inside, not only did he not take refuge under the bed of the devil concierge, but he began to run around every large room, up and down the stairs, even in the elevator that led to the lower floors. And everywhere he created havoc, he destroyed everything. Especially in the kitchen, where among uncovered pans, broken plates, overturned mugs, ladles and tridents thrown into the air, he demonstrated that no devil would easily be able to catch him, much less put him in the pot.
When there wasn’t even a corner of Hell that the little pig hadn’t turned upside down, Barbarossa, the leader of the devils, ordered the devil doorkeeper to call the saint back and let him in (in defiance of all the rules of Hell!)… to come and take his pig back in person, because he couldn’t stand that mess anymore!
Thus Antonio also crossed the threshold of Hell and, after having quieted the little pig with a simple touch of the stick, he pretended to want to take advantage, at least for a moment, of that beautiful infernal heat.
«Before we go home, Piglet and I stop to warm our bones.
You allow it, don’t you, devil Barbarossa?” he in fact asked the chief devil.
With a shrug, Barbarossa complied with the request and went back to his chores.
Then Antonio sat down on a sack of ashes placed at the entrance to a long passage corridor and, as a devil passed by, pom!…a blow on the back of one, a blow on the empty pumpkin of the other. Not to mention the trips, which they did particularly well with the stick!
This went on for a while, until an enraged devil (he had received all three treatments: beating on the back, beating on the empty pumpkin and tripping) snatched the stick from the saint’s hands and threw it with the tip into the flames of a bonfire.
This was enough for the little pig, which until a moment before had remained crouched at the saint’s feet, to start running here and there again, messing up the stacked wood, suffocating the lit torches, blunting the pitchforks.
“Oh, he’s still getting agitated, I have to calm him down!” Antonio exclaimed, with the most seraphic air on earth. «But without a stick how can I stop him?».
Now beside himself with anger, Barbarossa recovered the stick from the flames and returned it to its rightful owner.
After that, not before Antonio had touched his pig with the stick again, he growled furiously:
«Grrr, you finally calmed him down
this impertinent pig!
Ah, by Beelzebub’s horns,
I don’t intend to host you a minute longer!
«Pustula, Crooked Paw…» he then thundered in the direction of two little devils, whose appearance perfectly corresponded to their name, «accompany them out of my house
and make sure they never find their way again!
To the great relief of all the devils (with the exception perhaps of the she-devil doorkeeper, who was left empty-handed), Antonio and the little pig thus interrupted their stay in Hell… not without having obtained what the saint wanted, however. In fact, without the knowledge of Barbarossa and his subordinates, Antonio managed to take him away with a little fire. Where? Inside the tip of his stick! In short, the stolen fire was the spark put on the stick when one of the devils had tried to set it on fire, which now burned brightly although invisible.
Thanks to that single spark, Saint Anthony fueled and spread fire on earth, a precious and indispensable gift for men.
This beautiful legend lives on today in the bonfires that are organized in many Italian cities. Search for the event closest to you on the website of your municipality.
