Snakes evoke an almost universal awe—a mix of mesmerizing enchantment, visceral repulsion, and morbid fascination. Throughout the millennia cultures have attributed supernatural properties to serpents and devised complex ophidian cults to honor them. There was a time when snake rituals were common across Europe, but now they have mostly disappeared—except once a year in a small town in central Italy.

Every May 1st, crowds gather in Cocullo to celebrate the town’s patron saint, San Domenico Abate, a wandering Benedictine monk who traveled across Italy during the 10th century establishing monasteries. As in many other Catholic festivities, a statue of the saint is carried around the town in procession; in Cocullo, though, the statue is fully covered with living snakes.