For centuries, the town of Korčula has celebrated the feast day of St. Theodore, the co-patron saint of the town (the other patron saint is St. Mark, and the Korčula cathedral is dedicated to him) on July 29th. It’s the biggest celebration of the town in the year, and yesterday Korčula had the chance to welcome the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in the morning, and in the evening the traditional procession for Sv. Todor (which is what St. Theodore’s is called in Korčula) was held.
At midday, the celebratory ringing of the bells on top of the cathedral took place, and hopefully in the video below you can see that it’s done by manually hitting the bell:
Not unlike other similar processions, Korčula’s procession of St. Todor includes a walk around the town, starting and finishing at the cathedral, with members of the confraternities carrying religious objects, including the highly revered relics of the saint, St. Theodore of Amasea. As we’ve already written during our coverage of Korčula, it has three religious confraternities, founded and maintained by laymen but closely related to the church.
All Saints confraternity was founded in 1301, St. Rocco in 1575 and the youngest brotherhood, St. Virgin Mary of Consolation (St. Michael) was founded in 1603. Each of the confraternities has their own church, rules, goals and projects in the community they support, but the processions through the town are one thing that brings them together each year. There is one big procession in the spring, for the Easter celebrations, and another major one is the procession through the town as a part of the celebration of St. Theodore’s day.
The tapestry, thanking St. Todor:
The video below shows yesterday procession, as seen from close to Hotel Korčula on the western side of the Korčula Old Town. You can see the different confraternities, the relics and hear the choir and citizens of Korčula who have joined the procession singing a religious song:
After the procession, the two celebratory performances of moreška, performed by the two groups performing the dance: one at the monument, and the other one at the open-air theatre.
All photos and videos by IT.
