
To celebrate three years since the reopening of the Chapel of Sant'Agata and the intense activity organised inside it by the Cultural Association Il Mosaico, on Wednesday 5 February at 3.30 p.m., after a brief cultural moment on the history of Sant'Agata and its chapel, Holy Mass will be celebrated by Archibishop Giovanni Paolo Benotto inside the Chapel, owned by the Municipality of Pisa.
On this occasion, the Chapel will be open from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
It was exactly 5 February 2022 when Archbishop Monsignor Giovanni Paolo Benotto and Mayor Michele Conti reopened the chapel of Saint Agatha after a lengthy restoration, which then remained open this year thanks to the voluntary work of the Cultural Association Il Mosaico led by Riccardo Buscemi.
The cult of St Agatha probably arrived in Pisa with the liberation of Catania from the Saracens: the first certain attestation is in the privilege with which Pope Honorius II on 21 July 1126 extended to the archbishop of Pisa the use of the pallium on the feast of St Agatha, 5 February. On that feast day and for the following two days, the saint's alleged skull was exposed, which is still preserved in the church of San Paolo a Ripa d'Arno: the event still aroused a great deal of enthusiasm among nursing mothers at the end of the 19th century. The importance of the cult is also testified by the octagonal oratory dedicated to her, erected within the monastic complex around the middle of the 12th century.
In addition, the Chapel is open every last Saturday of the month. Next opening on Saturday 22 February from 2 to 6 p.m..