Cocullo, that can be said with some certainty, is a quiet little town in the heart of Italy. Less than 250 residents live in the village, which is located 150 kilometers east of Rome in a valley in the Abruzzo region. However, one day a year the number of people walking through the town’s alleys multiplies. While Labor Day is celebrated in the rest of the country, in Cocullo people pay homage to a mystical cult: a statue of Saint Dominic is carried in a procession through the streets and surrounding fields. Not so unusual if it weren’t for the hundreds of live snakes that the villagers wrap around the statue’s head. Thousands of visitors, some from abroad, come to the small village to watch the procession – and even hold or kiss the snakes themselves.
It is unclear where exactly the custom in Cocullo comes from. The connection to reptiles has existed for thousands of years. Over 4,000 years ago, the Marsians lived in the region, an Etruscan tribe who had a close relationship with snakes and were notorious as snake tamers. They paid homage to the goddess Angizia, who was said to be able to heal snake bites and kill reptiles just by touching them. Only much later was there a connection to the Catholics and Saint Dominic. He lived as a hermit in the 10th century near Cocullos as a Capuchin monk on a lake. Domenicus is said to have freed the region from a plague of snakes by turning poisonous reptiles into fish. The monk is still revered in the region today as the patron saint against snake bites and toothache – and has been celebrated with the ceremony since 1392, with the snakes then being released back into the wild.