SANT'EFISIO
Patron Saint Festival
01.05.2019
This photojournalistic project looks at the celebration of Sardinian Patron Saint Efisio. Every year on 1st May, the streets of Cagliari come alive with the largest and most colourful religious procession in the world.
Efisio was a Roman officer sent to Sardinia by the Emperor Diocleziano to suppress christianity on the Island. However, during his time there, Efisio had an epiphany and rather than carrying out his orders, became a follower himself. When asked to renounce his new religion, he refused and was sentenced to death.
Everything began in 1652 when Sardinia was afflicted by a plague that killed half of the population. It was only then that the inhabitants of Cagliari turned to their saint, Efisio di Elia, to save them.
The legend tells that only if the plague was halted by Saint Efisio, then the people would carry his statue in a procession from the church in Cagliari to the one in Nora, every year, forever. The plague disappeared and Sardinians have kept their promise of devotion every year, ever since.
