RELIGIOUS RITUALS OF THE LATIN COMMUNITY OF GENOESE CAFFA ACCORDING TO ACCOUNTING BOOKS OF THE COMMUNE

In the account books of Caffa’s Massaria throughout 1374–1426 there were recorded certain expenses on the organization of celebrations and rituals binding together city communities, secular and spiritual authorities. The oblation of candles to Latin churches on saints’ commemoration days was a duty of the city’s Genoese rulers, i.e. a consul, a vicar and two massarii. The custom meets its analogies in the statutes of cities and corporations of Northern Italy where it originated from the saint patron’s cult and devote gift to the church. Everyday masses in the consul’s palace, traditions of celebrating Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, Saint George’s day and Saint John the Baptist’s day didn’t change throughout at least 70 years, remaining not recorded in regulatory documents till 1449. The purposes of payouts from the treasury stayed constant, and in the case of the Commission of Charity even nominal sums stayed unaltered. Religious rituals reproduced common lifestyle of immigrants, scheduled days and years, determined positions of laic power, church and city communities through symbolic duties.

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