Neapolitan Folk Figure. On December 30, 1930, a train arriving from Reggio Calabria crashed at the station of Torre Annunziata, comune of Naples. The passengers included a young couple on their honeymoon. While the woman remained a victim of the collision along with twenty eight others, it was not after the bellic period of the Second World War that the first interest and devotion towards her started to spread. When a group of women, supposedly in response to a vision in a dream, went to reassemble the bones of those buried at the Torre Annunziata cemetery, they dressed the bones of the assumed train victim on her bridal vacation in a wedding dress, leading to the initiation of a cult towards the remains. Offerings, prayers, flowers and candles soon started surrounding the urn, with lovers going to ask for her blessing before their wedding, invoking her like a saint or a blessed. While the cult of the bride was, for obvious reasons, never recognized by religious authorities and even discouraged by the clergy, her remains lie to this day in a glass urn with visitors pursuing still her invocation with the necessary discretion. While the story can be classified as an urban legend, the popular devotion towards Maria "La Sposa" is still very much alive. For alleged graces and miracles received, her urn was once filled with gold offerings, triggering burglars to keep themselves too somewhat interested in Maria. In May 1965 for instance, five kilograms of precious votings worth then about 10 million lire were stolen, causing indignation among the population and that of neighboring municipalities.
Neapolitan Folk Figure. On December 30, 1930, a train arriving from Reggio Calabria crashed at the station of Torre Annunziata, comune of Naples. The passengers included a young couple on their honeymoon. While the woman remained a victim of the collision along with twenty eight others, it was not after the bellic period of the Second World War that the first interest and devotion towards her started to spread. When a group of women, supposedly in response to a vision in a dream, went to reassemble the bones of those buried at the Torre Annunziata cemetery, they dressed the bones of the assumed train victim on her bridal vacation in a wedding dress, leading to the initiation of a cult towards the remains. Offerings, prayers, flowers and candles soon started surrounding the urn, with lovers going to ask for her blessing before their wedding, invoking her like a saint or a blessed. While the cult of the bride was, for obvious reasons, never recognized by religious authorities and even discouraged by the clergy, her remains lie to this day in a glass urn with visitors pursuing still her invocation with the necessary discretion. While the story can be classified as an urban legend, the popular devotion towards Maria "La Sposa" is still very much alive. For alleged graces and miracles received, her urn was once filled with gold offerings, triggering burglars to keep themselves too somewhat interested in Maria. In May 1965 for instance, five kilograms of precious votings worth then about 10 million lire were stolen, causing indignation among the population and that of neighboring municipalities.
Bio by: Eman Bonnici
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