Commemorating the 160th Anniversary of the Death of Sergeant Romano in Gioia Del Colle, Bari

After the luncheon, participants take a commemorative photo
Photo courtesy of the Comitati delle Due Sicilie

Each year on January 5th, members and friends of the Comitati delle Due Sicilie honor the memory of Sergeant Pasquale Domenico Romano and his men who valiantly fell in the forest of Vallata defending his beloved Gioia Del Colle, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the Catholic Faith from the Piedmontese occupiers in 1863.

Sergeant Pasquale Domenico Romano

Holy Mass in suffrage for the fallen was celebrated by the Capuchin Father Massimiliano Carucci and a memorial wreath was placed on Sergeant Romano's funerary obelisk in the Bosco di Vallata.

Afterward, a convivial “Brigands’ Banquet” (Banchetto del brigante) was held in a cozy nineteenth-century farmhouse in Acquaviva delle Fonti. On the walls, the flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the portraits of Their Sicilian Majesties SG King Francesco II and Queen Maria Sofia of Bavaria, the “Heroine of Gaeta,” were prominently displayed.

Copies of the late Don Massimo Cuofano’s book Discorsi Duosiciliani were presented to the organizers by the Delegation.

Read full story [in Italian] by Cosimo de Gioia at www.comitatiduesicilie.it

For more on Sergeant Romano see last year's coverage: Sergeant Romano of the Two Sicilies Army