Evidence of the existence of early Ruvestine confraternities can be obtained from the polyptych, a Byzantine work initialed Z. T., depicting the Madonna and Child and brethren, in which appears the inscription "Hoc opus fieri fec(e)runt, confratres san(c)ti Cleti, anno salut(i)s 1537"[4] and preserved in the Purgatory church, in the left aisle, the one dedicated to St. Cletus.

According to legend, in the same church of St. Roch, the thirteen Frenchmen led by Guy la Motte, stationed in Ruvo, allegedly stayed overnight and attended holy mass before leaving for Barletta for the challenge.

[9] The confraternity was founded on October 28, 1576,[7] as evidenced by the two wall inscriptions, one on the architrave of the entrance and one inside the church: it was Pope Gregory XIII who granted indulgences to the "confreres of Saint Roch of Ruvo."

The "relationes ad limina" (i.e., a report regarding the state of the diocese) of Bishops Saluzio, Memmoli, Caro, Alitto and Morgione infer the dissolution of the confraternity between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, caused by a lack of funds that led to the silent and gradual demise of the sodality.

On March 16, 1919, the confraternity of St. Roch decided to provide itself with a simulacrum to be paraded during Holy Week:[10] the task was assigned to the Lecce papier-mâché master Raffaele Caretta, who was inspired by Antonio Ciseri's 1883 painting The Transport of Christ to the Sepulcher.

[11] The statuary group made its debut on April 17, 1920, and first crossed the threshold of the church of San Rocco in the late afternoon; the same scene is still repeated today with Pancaldi's Eternal Sorrow funeral march that begins the procession, moved since 1921 to the usual night time of 2:30 a.m.[12] In 2020, the processional rite was not held, due to the Covid-19 emergency, despite the 100th anniversary of the simulacrum.

In 1690 the notary Carlo Barese designated the archconfraternity of Carmine as the universal heir of his wealth upon the death of his two sons, priests Alessandro and Nicolò, replenishing the coffers of the sodality.

[24][25] As in the rites of neighboring towns, similarly to Ruvo, characterized in the past two centuries by the assiduous activity of the various musical schools (for instance, Molfetta or Bitonto), a good part of the funeral marches performed was composed by local composers such as the brothers Antonio and Alessandro Amenduni and the maestro Basilio Giandonato; nowadays this practice is continued by the current band directors, Rocco Di Rella and Gennaro Sibilano, both maestros from Ruvo.

[31] The statue is carried on the shoulders through the streets of the city by forty bearers: the simulacrum itself, on the occasion of the procession, is placed on a wooden crate bearing the symbols of the Passion, of mid-twentieth-century workmanship.

Lecce 1920," the simulacrum arrived in Ruvo in its final version: however, the confraternity, in order to make the statuary group more spectacular, added characters and radically altered the statue by using papier-mâché mannequins dressed in robes and wearing wigs.

The impact on the population was immediate and extraordinary but above all consoling:[39] the mothers and families who had lost their sons in the war identified well with the grief of the distraught and pale Mary of Sorrows, and the transport to the tomb of Christ stood as a substitute for the many missed funerals for the young men, husbands and fathers who had fallen at the front.

Each congregation, in fact, would have been obliged to carry two simulacra on their shoulders, excluding the dead Christ, Our Lady of Sorrows and the holy wood; in addition, the four confraternities would have had to share the expenses and provide bearers and officiants.

Probably with the advent of World War II and the departure of men for the front, the pact fell apart, leaving the care of the Good Friday procession exclusively entrusted to the archconfraternity of Carmine.

[52] The procession of the mysteries in 2012 underwent a change as the crucifix statue belonging to the archconfraternity was replaced with the wooden sculpture of Christ Crucified venerated in the cathedral, due to the poor condition of the simulacrum.

In 2013, the congregation decided to permanently replace the papier-mâché Christ Crucified with a perfect copy made of pine wood of the aforementioned simulacrum in the cathedral, handmade by Stefan Perathoner of Urtijëi.

[58] This venerated statue, too, on par with the Jesus at Calvary of the Archconfraternity of Mount Carmel, was the recipient of numerous donations from the population, which until recently were hung at the base of the simulacrum, until the bishop of the diocese banned its use to urge penitential processions to limit their pomp.

[62] At 5:30 p.m. the door of St. Dominic's Church opens and the simulacrum of the Desolate appears carried on the shoulders of the forty bearers who are escorted by the brethren wearing black hoods amid clouds of incense.

The simulacrum, after the continuous rocking on the churchyard waiting for the end of the first funeral march, is placed on the “forcelli” for a few minutes and at the same time the sisters and confreres arrange themselves in the two wings in a row preceding the statue.

[65] To the sound of the bass drum that opens the procession, white cloths that symbolize the shroud emerge from the balconies and represent a feature still present only in Ruvestine Holy Week rites.

The blasts of cymbals and trombones open the funeral march Eterno dolore (Eternal Sorrow) by maestro Evaristo Pancaldi when the forty bearers are already bringing the imposing simulacrum out of the small door of the church of San Rocco, holding it with their hands down by the bars.

The population in the square maintains silence, fascinated by the special atmosphere that is the result of the intertwining of the skill of the bearers, who with effort and care extract the sculptural group, and the funeral march that cadences its rhythm.

At dawn, the brethren and bearers, visibly tired,[74] after almost reaching the outskirts of the city, aim to walk through the main streets of Ruvo, the last long stretches in view of the retreat.

[76] The sepulchre, called in dialect "sebbùolch," indicates the place (repository) where the consecrated host was placed, but also the characteristic scenery set up around the tabernacle, now very distant from those of the past,[77] as well as the organization and ritual of visits to the sepulchres as the artist Domenico Cantatore, a native of Ruvo di Puglia, recalls in his story Aria di Aprile: At vespers that day, my mother dressed me in a velvet gown with a starched collar, put on a black cap as a sign of mourning, and took me with her to visit the graves.

On Good Friday, the day of the commemoration of Jesus' death, the rites begin in the early afternoon hours, specifically at 12:00 p.m.[80] when the statue of the dead Christ is carried on the shoulders, announced only by incessant drumbeats, from the Carmine Church to the cathedral.

After the procession of the sisters and brethren, the first simulacrum to leave the church is that of Jesus in the Garden, always accompanied by Pancaldi's Eternal Sorrow march: the statue is surrounded by flowers and an olive branch, affixed to recall the Garden of Gethsemane; it is followed by the wooden statue of Christ at the Column, Ecce Homo, dressed in a red purple cloak, and Jesus at Calvary,[48] accompanied on its exit by Vincenzo Jurilli's funeral march Il Calvario.

The procession branches off through the alleys of the town in a very slow manner cadenced by the notes of the funeral marches, until it arrives, just as it does for the Eight Saints, in front of the Purgatory Church where the Jesus at Calvary is turned toward the statue of the Pieta.

The most evocative moment of the procession is marked by the passage through Corso Giovanni Jatta: the completely darkened avenue is illuminated only by the lamps that surround the statues; the various simulacra, representing the sufferings and pains endured by Christ, parade in chronological order.

[57] The re-entry, followed by the faithful, takes place around 10 p.m. amid two wings of an orderly and participating crowd: in the glow of the light in Largo San Cleto, the statue is gradually carried inside the brightly lit Purgatorio Church.

[89] The typical Easter dessert is the scarcella,[90] strictly homemade[91] and made of short pastry and covered with “giuleppe” (which in Ruvestine dialect means icing), decorated either with chocolates and sugared almonds or hard-boiled eggs.

[93] In addition, Ruvo hosts an annual national camper rally aimed at promoting the rites of Holy Week,[94] an event that has earned the Apulian town the title of Municipality Friend of Itinerant Tourism.