In Santa Caterina – Una visita al convento di clausura di Palermo
The opening of the monastery of Santa Caterina del Cassaro to the public in the spring of 2017, after seven hundred years of papal enclosure, constituted the unveiling of a world that has always aroused both awe, curiosity and interest. Lay people often ask: how did the nuns live behind the grates? What did they do all day? Why was it not possible to enter?
If today, as in the past, life spent in the cloister remains incomprehensible to many, a visit to the monastery of St Catherine’s, through this small and agile volume, accompanies the reader to read in the watermark the reason for such a radical choice.
Paolo Araldi
PhotographersPaolo Araldi, genovese di nascita, milanese di adozione. Araldi ha una vera passione per il racconto fotografico. La sua fotografia si potrebbe definire di ricerca sociale: richiede tempo ed empatia, studia i luoghi e chi vi abita i luoghi. Paolo arriva a Palermo nel 2016 e dopo il volume “Trasiti”, nel libro “In Santa Caterina” racconta con maestria il monastero domenicano, attraverso gli scatti della sua macchina fotografica.
Maria Oliveri
AuthorsMaria Oliveri holds a master’s degree in ‘Philosophy’ and a level II master’s degree in ‘Religious Sciences and Cultural Professions for the Territory’ from the University of Palermo. Passionate about history, art and anthropology, she is involved in the dissemination of Sicilian cultural heritage and archive research. She has written short stories for the web, collaborated with the quarterly magazine ‘Sapori di Sicilia’ and the free press ‘Buongiorno Palermo’ and ‘Genio Magazine’. Since 2022 he has collaborated as an author with the online magazine Balarm.
His plays Il racconto di suor Caterina Venero (2015) and Laura Lanza, infelice storia della Baronessa di Carini (2016) were performed in the Lanza di Trabia Crypt. With the publishing house Il Genio Editore he published: in 2017 the first edition of I segreti del chiostro. Storie e ricette dei monasteri di Palermo, which qualified as one of the three first finalists in the 2018 Castiglione di Sicilia literary competition, ‘Cento Sicilia, cento scrittori’; in 2019 the second updated edition of I Segreti del chiostro; in 2023 Le Impudiche paste delle Vergini; in 2025 Il trionfo della Gola. La pasticceria dei monasteri di Palermo.
He participated in the collective essays: In Santa Caterina edited by P. Araldi; Tra amiche (2023) edited by I. Margarese (Les Fleneurs); Palermo (2022) edited by A. Russolillo and S. Favarò, Lipari (2023) edited by M. C. Martinelli, P. Lo Cascio et alii; Isola d’Ischia (2023) edited by A. Russolillo, G. Ambrosino, S. Gervasio; Caltanissetta (2024) edited by S. D’Angelo, C. Caminiti, A. Russolillo, L. Sutera (all published by Villaggio letterario).
He participated in the collective volume Racconti storici (2023) published by Historica Edizioni.
He edited with Nicole Oliveri the catalogue of the homonymous exhibition Sacra et Pretiosa Cerae (2023) published by Il Genio Editore.
