Initiation ritually burned a blood-stained holy image to seal the oath

Evidence

The person to be initiated enters the room and stands by a table upon which there is the image of a saint; it does not matter who the saint is so long as it is a saint. He gives his right hand to the two compari (his sponsors), and they prick the tip of his right thumb with a needle, drawing enough blood to smear the picture of the saint. The initiate takes his oath on this bloody image and (after this is taken, while the older members mutter secret words] the initiate burns the bloody sacred image in the candle flame. This is how he is baptized and hailed compare. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 700

Categorization

• DEFINE: The compari and compare roles, and the symbolic logic of burning the sacred image as an irrevocable bond, are established here.
• XREF: The burning/image-destruction as irrevocable commitment evokes Schelling’s credible commitment and the irrevocability clauses in Milgrom on Oaths; also parallels the Ash/Burn imagery in the Fratellanza oath.