St. Placidus Festival

St. Placidus Festival

July 11Sankt Placidusfest is a religious procession held on July 11 at Disentis, Switzerland, in honor of St. Placidus, who was murdered near the Benedictine abbey that he and St. Sigisbert helped establish there in 614. A wealthy landowner, Placidus donated the land for the abbey, joined the religious order as a monk, and was later beheaded for defending the abbey's ecclesiastical rights.
Every year the relics of St. Placidus and St. Sigisbert are carried in a solemn procession from the abbey to the parish church and back through the village to the abbey. Traditionally, during the ceremonies, parishioners in colorful folk costumes chant the old, and very long, "Song of St. Placidus."
CONTACTS:
Switzerland Tourism
Swiss Ctr., 608 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10020
877-794-8037 or 212-757-5944; fax: 212-262-6116
www.myswitzerland.com
SOURCES:
BkFest-1937, p. 320
FestWestEur-1958, p. 236