Della Medicina: The Tradition of Italian-American Folk Healing

A guide to folk herbal healing and reconnecting with ancestral traditions

• Details the healing techniques and folk wisdom the author learned from her Italian grandparents and from healers in Southern Italy, including plant preparation methods, medicines, rituals, recipes, kitchen magic, and protective magic

• Provides a materia medica of plants important in this tradition, sharing each plant’s history, mythology, and both practical and magical uses

• Reveals how working with traditional plant medicines can help us connect to and revitalize our own ancestral traditions for deep inner healing

Building upon the in-depth folk wisdom she learned from her immigrant grandparents as well as from local healers in Southern Italy, second-generation Italian-American and experienced herbalist Lisa Fazio shares herbal traditions and practices from the Italian diaspora and reveals how working with traditional plant medicines can help us connect to ancestral traditions for deep inner healing.

She explains how the herbal healing practices of her Italian ancestors were simply a part of everyday life, what they called Benedicaria, which literally means “the Blessing Way” but is more often translated as “the things we do.” Examining how plants are not only food and medicine but a vital yet invisible part of traditional communities, she details the techniques of Benedicaria, folk Catholicism, and the animistic traditions of her ancestors, including plant dialects, preparation methods, rituals, and recipes, as well as provides a materia medica. Discussing the relationship between Italian folk medicine and Italian witchcraft, she explores kitchen magic and protective magic, including practices for warding off the adverse effects of the evil eye.

Sharing valuable and nearly forgotten teachings from the Southern Italian herbal tradition, the author also shows how her journey to reconnect with her family’s healing practices offers guidance for anyone seeking to reconnect with their ancestors.