Autumn Ladies


A group of celebrations dedicated to either “Our Lady of Miracles”, to “Our Lady of Remedies” or similar takes place on the second week of September (combined with the weekend) in Terceira Island, Azores. They all follow the same “spirit” of the Autumn Equinox, which inspires many of the European practices, since the Eleusian Mysteries, some 3000s bC Greece.



Demeter / Persephone plus Cibele, a matriarchic conjunct which informs the cult of the Autumn Ladies

Associating the end of the harvests, on the agrarian archaic communities, to the contact with the underworld, ctonic or volcanic, announcing dead, responds to a profound archetype of the humanity, reinforcing the feminine figure.

The cult of Demeter, Earth and agriculture goddess, and to Persephone, goddess of the renovation of the vegetation, happening in Eleusis, Greece, on the second week of September, have permeated the entire European region, embracing and contaminating local, regional female divinities until and after Christianization.

In continental Portugal (part of the old Iberia) this same “mixture” of cults is well documented by archaeological remains, as well as contemporary practices, for example, the one from Idanha-a-Velha, taking place now-a-days, on the same date.


Images from Idanha-a-Velha, old Egitânia, pre-roman city

Leite de Vasconcelos, a famous Portuguese researcher, mentions several archaeological remains of these cults, referred also by St. Agostinho, like the one of Cibele, with a head from the statue found in Algarve and now in the National Museum of Archaeology. Various local deities, like “Ategina” and “Nabia”, which cults were absorbed by the influence of the Greek and Mesopotamia others, left behind a kind of religiosity marked by a matriarchal, Mediterranean nature, opposed to the Northern, more patriarchal.


Head from the statue of Cibele, found in Algarve and now in the National Museum of Archaeology, Portugal

The cult to Ategina, one of the most well known Lusitanian goddess, had many similarities with the Greek conjunct “Demeter/Persephone”, namely the quality of medicine, as it is specified in the epigraphic stones, where she is referred as “Ategina Proserpina” (a name used by the Romans to designate Persephone). She was also called “servatrix”, or a preserver of the human’s health. But, like Persephone, a re-borne from the Hades, she also is infernal, the reason for being called for revenges and curses (devotio).
Sister of Dionisius, both cults are sometimes tied by libations (milk and/or wine), sacrifices and/or offers, bullfights in relation with sacrifices.
Mounts, caves, grottos are locals preferred for the cult, for being also funerary monuments.
Integrated in this spirit, several events taking place in Terceira Island (as well as in other Azorean islands) during the second week of September, display some of the mentioned characteristics pertaining to the Ategina/Proserpina cult.
They are: Nossa Senhora Da Lapinha, on Vinha Brava; N. Sa. dos Milagres, in Serreta; N. Sa. da Penha de França, in Pico da Urze; N. Sa. de Lurdes, nos Altares; N. Sa. Da Esperança, na Serretinha; and N. Sa. Dos Milagres, in Santa Luzia da Praia.

Any of them show one or more of the elements characteristic of the Eleusian Mysteries. Counting now 5000 years, it may be considered the most antique cult expressing already the preoccupation with the immortality of the soul, with pilgrims going from America and other parts of the world. Observing the Christianized cults in Terceira, it is still possible to remark, besides the same date:

- The Mountain (considered sacred local and Demeter symbol)
- The Cave (funerary monument)
- The Bodo-de-Leite: Milk and Wine libations
- The staying overnight (incubatio)
- The offers of beeswax (Demeter=Bee)

 
a) Nossa Senhora Da Lapinha, in Vinha Brava/Nasce Água, is celebrated on the top of a mount, on a small shrine isolated only visited on this second weekend of September. The Feast is composed by a Bodo-de-Leite and Bullfight.



Shrine of N. Sra. Da Lapinha, Nasce Água

b) Nossa Senhora dos Milagres, in Serreta, on the same date, there is a pilgrimage, which lasts for a few days, with people going by foot during the all week. There was the habit of sleeping on the church. There is also Bodo-de-Leite and Bullfight



Serreta Pilgrimage

c) Nossa Senhora da Penha de França, in Pico da Urze, is also celebrated in a small church, on the top of a mount, on the same date. There is also Bodo-de-Leite and Bullfight



N.Sra. da Penha de França, Pico da Urze

d) Nossa Senhora de Lurdes, in Altares (originaly cultuated in France, in a Grotto), it includes a pilgrimage through the fields in direction of an altar, in the top of a mount. Several bullfights are part of the Feast.

e) Nossa Senhora da Esperança, in Serretinha, takes place in a small church, isolated from the rest of the village, with a procession on the same day of the others, in the end of which there is a bullfight.



N.Sra. Da Esperança, Serretinha

f) Nossa Senhora Dos Milagres, in Santa Luzia da Praia, which date of celebration was, during a long time in December, was moved to the second weekend of September.



N.Sra. dos Remédios, house and entrance to a grotto underneath the church. Santa Luzia da Praia

To this Feast is associated a very old devotion to Our Lady of Remedies, in a shrine build over a grotto, where people use to stay overnight. “Incubatio” was a strategy used to receive information from the dead for problem solution, or from the medicine gods (Ategina). In the grotto under the church are buried the first owners.