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Scanno (AQ): Le sagne di Sant’Antonio Barone

17 January @ 00:00 CET

Crowd of local residents watching a priest bless a large pot of food outdoors.

Every year on 17th January, the mountain village of Scanno celebrates Saint Anthony the Abbot, locally known as Sant’Antonio Barone, with one of Abruzzo’s most heartfelt food rituals: the blessing and sharing of sagne, fresh handmade pasta prepared in abundance and offered to all.

This is not a festival of stages or stalls, but a gesture of devotion, rooted in charity, memory, and faith.

The Sagne Ritual

In the square outside the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate, Scanno, large cauldrons of freshly made sagne are prepared early in the day. Traditionally:

The pasta is dressed with fresh ricotta and lardons at the end of the cooking process.

If 17th January falls on a Friday, it is served di magro with beans and olive oil

After Mass, the parish priest blesses the cauldrons, and villagers gather in procession. Each person brings a small pot or container, filling it with blessed sagne to take home as a sign of devotion and a request for the saint’s grace.

A Tradition Born of Charity

The ritual dates back to the 14th-15th centuries, when the Antonine monks (Chierici Ospedalieri di Sant’Antonio) maintained a monastery in Scanno. Their mission was simple and radical: to feed the poor and care for the sick. This act of charity was revived in the mid-19th century and continues today, almost unchanged.

Meaning & Symbolism

Sant’Antonio Abate, born into nobility, renounced all wealth to live as a hermit. The blessed sagne reflects this message:

Simple food

Shared freely

Consumed with devotion

For many locals, eating the sagne is believed to bring God’s blessing and help focus the heart on spiritual, rather than material, riches.

 Why experience it?

To stand in the winter air of Scanno, pot in hand, waiting your turn for blessed pasta is to witness Abruzzo at its most authentic, where faith becomes food, and food becomes a bond between past and present.

Details

Venue

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