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She carried an olive cane (su mazzolu) or mallet to deal deathblows as needed.
A gaunt figure with a faceless black hood and a shiny scythe. The Grim Reaper fills hearts with terror, a highly recognizable symbol of death. Thanks to pop culture, the Grim Reaper has also become international and universal. But death is a woman for residents of Sardinia, the second largest island owned by Italy.
Her name? The accabadora. Here’s everything you need to know about this menacing figure and the mystery of how real she may have been.
The Sardinian Specter of Death
The folktales surrounding the accabadora first appeared in the historical record in the seventeenth century. True crime today has nothing on these early accounts of the murderess. She roved the village at night, dealing out deathblows and seizing belongings.
The accabadora, sometimes spelled as S’accabadora, turned up repeatedly in local legends. What does the term “accabadora” mean? It has a couple of potential sources. They include the Sardinian word sacabbu, which means “the end.” There’s also the Spanish term acabar, which means “to terminate.”
As the legend goes, family members left their door open when someone was sick beyond saving. This act invited the angel of death inside to do her dark work. Sometimes, the patients themselves even requested her services.
As such, she was portrayed as an older woman veiled in black lace. She carried an olive cane (su mazzolu) or mallet to deal deathblows as needed. Roving the town at night at the behest of caregivers and family members, she existed to bring mercy to the suffering. Besides hitting victims, some accounts describe her suffocating or strangling her charges.
A Multi-Tasking “Angel of Death”
But the accabadora didn’t stick to death alone. Besides putting people out of their misery, she also dabbled in many other things. These included delivering babies as a midwife.
Some accounts also discuss her providing herbal remedies to help the sick. In other words, she cared for her community from cradle to grave. She’s also described as clearing the deceased’s belongings from a room. And some talk about her positioning a yoke under the heads of the infirm.
A Terrifying Legend with Real Implications
Here's where the mystery comes in. Some accounts describe her as actually existing. (Yes, you read that right!) And some living Sardinians agree with this assessment. They assert multiple older women filled this role over the generations. They even claim that accabadoras were bringing death into the 1970s!
But the questions don’t stop there. As author of Accabadora, Michela Murgia argues, “The mystery around her, I think, is partially because it was done in secrecy, because it had to be done in secrecy.”
Unfortunately, this secrecy means the trail of the accabadora goes cold quickly. Some researchers think she served merely as a helper at the bedsides of those dying. These people argue she passively assisted rather than actively killing patients. According to Weird Italy, accabadoras “helped in the agony and gave support, so they were respected by the whole community, but they did not kill as it seems to have happened elsewhere (in Greece).”
Symbology Behind the Role
We can only imagine the terror Sardinians felt upon seeing a black-lace-veiled woman striding purposefully towards their house, olive cane in hand. And yet so many questions remain. These include inquiries about the accabadora’s gender and religious stance. After all, Sardinia was traditionally a very conservative, patriarchal Catholic society. Euthanizing people would have been seen as a mortal sin.
Moreover, a woman fulfilling this role seems surprising at first glance. But there are many potential reasons for this. The accabadora may echo the notion of women as givers (and finishers) of life. Or she may reflect remembrances of an ancient goddess, one that existed before the Indo-European migration. In this case, she may stem from the Great Mother. Either way, she’s earned her spot in the Halloween costume scene right next to the Grim Reaper. Don’t you think?
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