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Roots
Celebrating today’s feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Addolorata, brought me back to the church of my Italian great–grandmother, Donna Emma Onoratelli, in Sepicciano (Campania). I have had the...
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Michaelmas Day
SEPTEMBER 29 SAINTS MICHAEL, GABRIEL, AND RAPHAEL, ARCHANGELS Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14 Apocalypse 12: 7-12ab Psalm 137:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 4-5 John 1:45-51 Angels Everywhere One of the most striking things...
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Auguri, Sissi!
Another joy today! My cousin Carlo de Lellis and Nora, his wife, called from Sepicciano (Piedimonte Matese, Provincia di Caserta) to inform me that their beautiful daughter Sissi will be graduating...
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Pranzo at Sepicciano: Pasquetta
My cousin Carlo de Lellis and his wife Nora invited me to the Onoratelli ancestral home in Sepicciano for the second day of Pasquetta, the Tuesday In Albis. Nora prepared a seven course pranzo that was...
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More Photos of Pasquetta 2007 in Sepiccciano
The 17th century Palazzo Onoratelli was the home of my great–grandmother Emma Onoratelli Barbato. The stucco ornamentation in the baroque style — with smiling angels over the arches — was done by the...
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Che Settimana!
This is the constitutional flag of the Kingdom of Naples and of the Two Sicilies. King Ferdinando II delle Due Sicilie was a visitor to the Onoratelli ancestral palace in Sepicciano, Campania. The bed...
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Quick Visit to Sepicciano
Cousin Carlo de Lellis met me at the station in Caianello on Saturday evening. I celebrated Mass at 8:00 a.m. in our church of San Michele for the repose of the soul of my brother Michael; November 25...
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Evviva San Gennaro!
The miracle of Saint Januarius recurred at 9:45 this morning in the cathedral of Naples, filled with expectant devotees of the bishop of Benevento beheaded under Diocletian in 305. Crescenzio Cardinal...
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Saint Giovan Giuseppe della Croce
I almost forgot that today is the feast of Saint Giovan Giuseppe della Croce. A Family Connection My mother’s grandmother was born and raised in a baroque palazzo nestled in a lazy southern Italian...
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Tornato a Sepicciano
How can I express the joy that I feel here? I arrived yesterday afternoon in the ancestral home of my great-grandmother in Sepicciano, Piedimonted’Alife. The photo of the portone or great door shows...
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Benedict XVI at Saint Mary Major
My Musings Returning to Sepicciano, where the church bells ring out the quarter hour and the parish church is truly the heart of the village; where the presence of the Mother of God, of the angels and...
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Festa di San Marcellino, Sacerdote e Martire
June 2nd is the feast of Saint Marcellino, priest and martyr, the very one named in the Roman Canon. San Marcellino fills Piedimonte d’Alife with the most glorious sights and sounds, and this for nine...
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Maria Santissima del Bagno
Last night’s festivities in honour of la Madonna del Bagno began with Holy Mass at 7:00 p.m. The Father Guardian of the Franciscan Solitude of San Pasquale was present together with the assistant...
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Saint Michael the Archangel
The devotion to Saint Michael the Archangel is very strong in Campania. It would seem that the Basilian Monks, who fled Greece to settle in Campania in the 7th century brought with them the cultus of...
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O Augusta Regina delle Vittorie
Prayer at Noon For Catholics in Italy and throughout the world, Sunday, 4 October 2015, marks the return of an appointment with the Supplica, the passionate supplication to the Madonna of the Rosary,...
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Fifteen years ago today
My beloved grandmother, Adelina Martino Barbato, departed this life on the feast of Saint Lucy, 13 December 2000. Requiescat in pace. “Nana” is the little girl in the bonnet. With her are her brother...
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Quis resistet Sancti Michaelis gladio?
I wrote and posted this piece in 2006: Angels Everywhere Italian baroque churches are full of representations of the angels. There are majestic angels of graceful athletic appearance, angels in...
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Evviva Sant’Antonio!
Six years ago at this time I was in my beloved ancestral town of Piedimonte–Matese for the procession of the relics of Sant’Antonio. This is what I wrote: Organic Continuity of Popular Piety Since my...
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O Rosario benedetto di Maria
Prayer at Noon For Catholics in Italy and throughout the world, tomorrow, Sunday, 7 October 2018, marks the return of an appointment with the Supplica, the passionate supplication to the Madonna of the...
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