Associazione Cittadini Bovisasca

Of the various ancient devotional chapels erected in Affori, only this one and the one dedicated to Santa Giustina have survived, the latter however absorbed into a church built in 1400 and in turn replaced with the old church (now in piazzetta Cialdini) in the 16th century. It is not known how the devotion to the young martyr of Cesarea di Cappadocia (Asia Minor) was born. This little church has experienced centuries of growing notoriety whose echoes have faded in the past 1960s, in an inexplicable decline. In a document we read that in 1807 one could admire: "...the choir, a precious and original remnant of the tenth century. One of the few remains is a fresco painting, discreetly preserved and which can still be admired on the side of the gospel, beyond the marble balustrade from 1700. It represents the young San Mamete, humble in his bearing, but proud of his faith for which he gave his life; angelic face, slightly inclined, blond hair framed by a full-length halo; in terms of technical workmanship the painting appears to have been executed in the first half of the 1400s". In another document from 1745 we read: "...The apse was painted in shades that were sometimes bright, sometimes pale, sometimes muted in the shadows, sometimes enlivened by a beam of light that, breaking into the lunette of the choir at sunrise, made the halos of the frescoes stand out, highlighting them, the wooden ceiling covered, according to the taste of the second half of the 15th century, with paper colored with sun rays, gold stars, and fluttering ribbons with written biblical mottos". The ancient documents in the San Mamete dossier also tell of the small oratory and the annual festival that was celebrated there, which attracted many people from the surrounding villages. A religious solemnity, friendly meeting and exchange of news and trade in local products, it lasted a week and culminated on August 16, in symbiosis with the traditional festival of San Rocco (very dear to the peasant population). To protect the little church, the parish priests of Affori had settled a "hermit" there since 1500, who lived in the special rooms incorporated into the building and carried out the duties of sacristan and custodian.

The little church was so famous that in 1671 the doctor of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Giuseppe Valvassori, published a booklet in which he narrated the life of the Saint and the "famous oratory of San Mamete", in compliance with the wishes of Rev. Don Francesco Maria Ferrario, curate of Affori. In fact, in those years, the parish priest Ferrario was restoring the now crumbling chapel and had the baroque-style altar erected there, which still exists today, transporting one of the mural paintings there as an altarpiece, a painting that has unfortunately been lost. In 1706, the parish priest Gian Battista Motta carried out another restoration (balustrade, flooring, ceiling trusses). In the first half of the 19th century, the Parish Priest Astesani, an illustrious and competent scholar of art and archaeology, had his parents buried there. Imitating their example, the noble Litta Gherardini family, owners of the Villa and a large part of Affori, had Donna Teresa Litta Arese buried there. The Parish Priest Tognola also carried out restoration work, remaking the structures and revitalizing the "festival", which became important again at least until his death in 1964. He rearranged the small square in front of the church and fenced it, as well as the adjoining "vignolo", and renovated the niche of the Saint. Thanks to his expertise in the artistic field, he was able to discover, under eighteenth-century frescoes, precious paintings from the 12th and 16th centuries, which attest to its antiquity. Only the restoration work of 1985, desired and undertaken by the Parish Priest Enrico Alberti, brought back some dignity to the building. Today, following administrative interventions by the Milanese Curia, the church has been taken care of by the Parish of S. Filippo Neri (Bovisasca district).

from EDIFICI E OPERE STORICHE - Asco Affori (weebly.com)

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Entering the church The painting dedicated to the saint is located at the end of the left wall, just before the triumphal arch, and depicts a young man who most people identify with San Mamete. The peculiarity of the painting lies in the fact that the saint is holding a long sword to indicate that he is a knight, perhaps a crusader, which Mamete never was.

The church is dedicated to the patron saint of pregnant women and wet nurses. Mamete is the protector of those who breastfeed, such as wet nurses or new mothers, because it is said that when he fled to the mountains of Turkey to escape Roman persecution, wild animals would spontaneously reach him and let themselves be milked so that he could feed himself with their milk.

In particular in Brianza and the Milan area, Mamete is the saint prayed to by women who struggle to breastfeed their children, hoping that their milk supply will increase. At least until the early twentieth century, before the birth of artificial milk, women who gave birth and had no milk turned to a wet nurse to take care of breastfeeding. Curiously, the wet nurses preferred by the Milanese all came from Affori because they were thought to be the healthiest and most robust.