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| b. Napoli, 14 August 1777 – d. Napoli, 8 November 1830 |
In memory of King Francesco I of the Two Sicilies, we pray for the happy repose of his soul. Viva ‘o Rre!
Eternal rest grant unto His Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen
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| San Rocco was place on the by-altar with new homemade backdrop generously donated by one of the society members |
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| We were told the break was clean and could be easily mended |
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| Save the date and help keep the tradition alive! |
Sunday morning, over one hundred pilgrims made the trek to the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania to celebrate the annual Feast of the Madonna del Soccorso di Castelfranci. 
Madonna del Soccorso, ora pro nobis
Arriving early, we got to explore the center’s informative museum and cultural center before Mass.
After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the statue of the Madonna del Soccorso was carried out of the chapel and solemnly processed around the center’s bucolic grounds.
Returning to the chapel, revelers adjourned to the picnic grounds for a celebratory meal, some fellowship and pick-up games of bocce and calcio.
Before leaving, we bought a few religious articles at the gift shop and venerated the relics of San Francesco d’Assisi and San Pio.
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| The Madonna della Grazie chapel |
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| The view from the chapel |
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| Processional standard inside the Madonna della Grazie chapel |
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| Santa Massimiana, Virgin, Martyr and Patroness of San Giovanni Rotondo |
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| A copy of Luca Giordano's The Patron Saints of Naples Adoring Christ on the Cross hangs above the actual confessional San Pio used to hear the confessions of women in San Giovanni Rotondo |
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| Side altar dedicated to St. Felix Cantilice and painting of the Immaculate Conception |
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| Statues of St. Francis of Assisi |
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| Relics of St. Francis of Assisi |
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| Replica of Santa Maria Assunta in Cielo from Monte di Procida, Naples and San Michele Arcangelo, protettore di Sturno, Avellino |
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| Monuments of San Michele Arcangelo and Padre Raffaele di Sant'Elia a Pianisi |
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| After Mass, the statue of the Madonna del Soccorso was removed from her glass case for the procession |
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| (Above & below) The procession makes its way around the grounds |
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| San Lorenzo Martire, ora pro nobis |
Adésto, Dómine, supplicatiónibus nostris: et intercessióne beáti Lauréntii Mártyris tui, cujus prævénimus festivitátem; perpétuam nobis misericórdiam benígnts impénde. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.*
August 9th is the Vigil of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. Keeping with the old custom, it is a day of fasting and abstinence. If the Vigil falls on a Sunday, it is moved to the preceding Saturday. Evviva San Lorenzo!
* Attend, O Lord, to our supplications, and by the intercession of Thy blessed martyr, Lawrence, whose feast we anticipate, graciously bestow upon us Thy everlasting mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
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| Detail of The Marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxana (1787) by Mariano Rossi, Alexander's Room, The Reggia of Caserta (Photo by Andrew Giordano) |
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| Fourteen Holy Helpers, orate pro nobis |
August 8th is the Feast of San Ciriaco di Roma, Deacon, Martyr, and Miracleworker. First exorcist of the Church, he delivered the daughters of Emperor Diocletian and the King of Persia from demonic possession. He was tortured and beheaded on the Via Salaria with his companions St. Largus, St. Smaragdus and twenty others by co-emperor Maximian circa 303 for refusing to renounce the Faith. 
San Ciriaco and Companions, orate pro nobis
One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, San Ciriaco is invoked against evil spirits, demonic possession, eye disease and deathbed temptations. He is the patron saint of exorcists and Torre le Nocelle in Provincia di Avellino, Campania.
In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to Saints Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus. The accompanying photo, courtesy of Anthony Scillia, was taken at St. Leonard of Port Maurice Parish in Boston, Massachusetts. Evviva San Ciriaco di Roma!
Prayer to Saints Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus
O God, You gladden us by the annual feast of Your holy Martyrs, Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus; mercifully grant, that we, who celebrate their heavenly birthday, may also imitate the fortitude of their martyrdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
August 8 is the Feast of San Giovanni Maria Vianney (1786-1859), the Miracle Worker of Ars, priest, Franciscan tertiary, ascetic, and mystic. He is the patron saint of parish priests and confessors. In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to St. John Vianney. Pictured is my makeshift shrine dedicated to the great saint. Evviva San Giovanni Maria Vianney!
San Giovanni Vianney, ora pro nobis
Prayer to St. John Vianney
Saint John Vianney, Your childhood dream was to be a Priest, to win souls for God. You endured years of toil and humiliation to attain the Priesthood. You became a priest truly after God’s own heart, outstanding in humility and poverty; prayer and mortification. Totally devoted to the service of God’s people, the Church has exalted you as a model and patron saint of all Priests, trusting that your example and prayers will help them to live up to the high dignity of their vocation, to be faithful servants of God’s people, to be perfect imitators of Christ the Savior, Who came not to be served but to serve, to give His Life in ransom for many.
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| 31 July, 1816 — 8 August, 1867 |
In memory of Maria Teresa of Austria, Queen of the Two Sicilies, we pray for the happy repose of her soul. Viva ‘a Reggina!
Eternal rest grant unto Her Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Madonna del Soccorso di
Castelfranci, ora pro nobis
Sancta Maria, succurre miseris, iuva pusillanimes, refove flebiles, ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu: sentiant omnes tuum iuvamen, quicumque celebrant tuam sanctam commemorationem. Amen.
Dating back to the sixteenth century, the first Sunday in August is the Feast of the Madonna Santissima del Soccorso in Castelfranci, Avellino.
According to tradition, one summer night Our Lady appeared in the dream of a poor woman and asked her to go to the parish priest and have a chapel built in her honor. Scoffing, the priest admonished the woman and dismissed her.
That night, the Virgin appeared to the woman again and repeated her request. Undeterred, the woman returned to the priest and was again rebuked and brusquely sent away.
On the third night, the Blessed Mother told the woman she would make it snow on the spot where she wanted the chapel built. The next day, the first Sunday of August, snow fell as foretold and the perimeter of the chapel was demarcated.
The townspeople rushed to witness the miracle of the snow and all the sick and lame were cured of their ailments. Now convinced, the astonished priest began the construction of the chapel and instituted the annual memorial.
In celebration, we’re posting the Sancta Maria, succorer miseris by Bishop Fulbert of Chartres (c.952-1028), which is often associated with the August 5th Feast of the Madonna della Neve. The accompanying photo was taken at the National Centre for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania. Ave Maria.
Sancta Maria, succorer miseris
Holy Mary, be a help for the defenseless, strength for the fearful, comfort for the sorrowful, pray for the people, plead for the clergy, intercede for all the holy women consecrated to God; may all who observe your sacred commemoration feel the power of your assistance. Amen.
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| Dr. John C. Rao at the 2021 Catholic Identity Conference in Pittsburgh, PA |
Dr. John C. Rao, D. Phil. Oxon., is Associate Professor of History at St. John's University and Director of the Roman Forum (also see the Roman Forum Facebook page). A well-regarded speaker as well as writer, Dr. Rao presents lecture series on Church history in New York and as part of the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium at Lake Garda in Italy. Applications are available through the Roman Forum's website. (Because of travel restrictions, the 2021 Summer Symposium was held on Long Island.) Recordings of those and other lectures are available on Soundcloud and YouTube. Videos from the 2021 Summer Symposium are available at Remnant TV.
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| The personification of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies |
Submitted by Erasmo Russo
In the last decade there has been an increase in confusing nomenclature. In Western Europe and the United States young people are being told that the term “middle class” is highly elastic and so meaningless, exploited by politicians to give the false appearance of a wide distribution of wealth and power where none exists. They are told, the world is a collection of “oligarchies” and that a percentage ranging from 1% to 10% owns and controls the world’s wealth and them. Naturally, this is cast in the framework of Foucauldian power analysis and postmodern angsty despair and indignation because life in this view consists solely of the material and of power relations. It is a zero sum game in which, according to this line of thinking, if your neighbor earns two ducats you thereby loose two ducats irreparably and cannot ever possibly earn those two ducats back in your lifetime. Therefore, the young are told, they must seize as many material things and as much power as possible immediately. Human beings are no longer human beings who have cultural identities or linguistic identities, but have been reduced to the most simplistic nomenclature based upon superficialities such as the color of their skin. These tired shop-worn notions cobbled together from Marxian analysis of long dead 19th century markets and 1970s French university scholarship which are indeed no longer focused upon in France anymore, have gained traction abroad. Currently, it would seem the United States has become a large exporter of such thought, and like many American exports, it has seduced millions around the world in its shiny new packaging. In a supreme irony of postmodernism, the silliest most reductive labels of past centuries have been rebranded and sold wholesale to the next generation. With all due respect to America and the Anglosphere, we have no need of such products which were cultivated in soil so unlike our own.
In this environment, the survival strategy of the poor and of the wealthy alike is to rally around 20th century socialism and virtue signal, so as to not have to do any heavy-lifting such as making charitable donations or modifying lifestyles so as to effectuate the greater good. Meanwhile, the politicians rally around internationalism and supranational entities such as the European Union, which serve as reliable scapegoats to blame for every one of their domestic policy failures. Since the 1950s countless European politicians have loved to tell their citizens that they could have done marvels at home but for technocrats and bureaucrats in Bruxelles blocking them. To some extent Guy Debord was correct in his La société du spectacle, we have gone from millennia in which we had to actually have things and to do things in order to project status and power. Now we merely have to have the appearance of having things and doing things. Posting on social media always suffices. Shouting slogans and rolling eyes work well also. We are no longer active agents. The generations of “larpers/poseurs” par excellence have come into their own. From both the right and the left, there are few men and women of action. Indeed, to celebrate such people of action is deemed a retrograde embracing of medieval notions of chivalry and Christian virtue, and even worse, of 20th century Fascism! Quelle horreur!
Yet another irony confronts us, now that postmodernism finds itself in crisis, theorists are racing to forge a “metamodernism” which even dares to include a reincorporation of religious values and an ersatz spirituality. We are now told, we don’t have to actually believe in the Divine or the Sacred, but merely act as though we do, so that we may have some foundational myth to help us cope and tally forth. Plus ça change, rien change. We have come full circle and are once again stuck at the impasse of the French Enlightenment. The day after the atrocities of the Revolution, we seek to solve our problems by reincorporating Christian and Roman law and values but remove all reference to their origins or to “God.” We find that we actually do like and need, and can make good use of the great Western Christian tradition; of course we dare not refer to it as such. We must ask, why do our time’s thinkers and politicians find themselves stymied and stuck in old circular patterns? Those of us who live in and according to our civilization refuse to feign ignorance or to forget who we are. We reject this self-destructive dead end nihilism. We are not deracinated people floating adrift in a sea of oblivion. Unlike the loud unthinking extremists, we do truly know who we are and shall remain who we are. We authentically have our great religious and philosophical traditions, which we have indeed never left. We have political subsidiarity which comes down to us from Aquinas and the great empires of our Continent, whereby local decentralized authority was able to make decisions for ethnic and political minorities. We don’t even need Burke’s notions of neighborliness in the modern nation state to replace our historic love of our neighbor and our communities rooted in Roman mos and Christian virtue with a dose of Greek ethics. So why must we be called upon to be poseurs? Those of us who never gave up our religion, our languages, our cultures? We premoderns, who never had to suffer as postmoderns and metamoderns! We are Occidental, European, Mediterranean and Christian and accordingly live plumbing the depths of our civilization. All are free to be us; so be us. No more posing or semiotic hijinks and virtue signaling. 
The faithful inside the Cappella di
San Gennaro by Giacinto Gigante
• Instrumental Music in Late Eighteenth-Century Naples: Politics, Patronage and Artistic Culture by Anthony R. DelDonna
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: November 10, 2022
Paperback: $32.99
Language: English
Pages: 338
Click here to see more books
Listing does not imply endorsement
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| San Giustino Russolillo, ora pro nobis |
August 2 is the feast of San Giustino Maria Russolillo (1891-1955), St. Justin of the Holy Trinity, Priest and Founder of the Society of Divine Vocations: Vocationist Fathers (1920) and Vocationist Sisters (1921).
In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to St. Giustino Maria Russolillo. The accompanying photo, courtesy of Anthony Scillia, was taken at St. Nicholas Church in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Evviva San Giustino Russolillo!
Prayer to St. Giustino Maria Russolillo
St. Giustino Maria Russolillo, you lighted a lantern for those stumbling along the paths of discernment. Intercede for our young people that they may choose their vocations in accordance with the will of God. Amen
Pray Novena to San Lorenzo Martire for nine consecutive days, August 1st to August 9th, in preparation for the Feast on August 10th. Evviva San Lorenzo!
San Lorenzo Martire, ora pro nobis
Glorious Martyr, St. Lawrence, we come to you in humility as we see your greatness and your power of intercession with God. You were so strong in your faith that you readily suffered tortures from the pagans and died a cruel death becoming an outstanding witness to Christ and His Church. As we discern your strong faith we believe in your powerful patronage and pray you to obtain for us a living faith, an unwavering hope and love of God and of our neighbor. Keep us pure and chaste; make us obedient to our elders. Help us to help the poor, the down trodden, the sick and those in trials and difficulties. Touch the tepid Christians and enkindle in them the fire of faith, and give the non-Christians the grace of faith in Christ. As the pagans were moved to your faith in Christ so may your immortal faith make the unbelievers embrace the true faith that the Kingdom of God may flourish. Assist us always to overcome our trials and temptations. Grant that we may always live a true Christian life and finally be victorious in the battle of faith that being true witnesses to Christ we may die in Him to join you and other saints and live for all eternity in His Kingdom to praise God forever and ever. Amen
O St. Lawrence, who in the flower of youth suffered and died for the faith, hear our prayers. With confidence we fly to your patronage. Obtain for us deep faith, strong hope, a sincere love of God and neighbor, unsullied chastity and humble obedience. Inspire us to succor the poor, the needy, the sick and the afflicted. Lead the erring back to the Father’s Home. May God’s Kingdom spread far and wide on earth. Help us in all our needs especially (Mention your request here…) Finally grant that we live as the worthy people of God, die a holy death and join you in the heavenly bliss forever. Amen.
O holy St. Lawrence, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need to you, I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance. Help me in my present urgent petition. In return I promise to make your name known and cause you to be invoked.
Say 3 Pater Noster, 3 Ave Maria and 3 Gloria Patri
St. Lawrence pray for us and all who invoke your aid. Amen
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| The Death of Hector and the Triumph of Achilles (1815) by Antonio Galliano, Mars Room, The Reggia of Caserta (Photo by Andrew Giordano) |
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| San Leucio d'Alessandria, ora pro nobis |
In 1773 the utopian colony of San Leucio in Caserta was founded and named after the great Saint by King Ferdinando IV of Bourbon.
In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to St. Leucius courtesy of the San Leucio Society of Paterson, New Jersey. Pictured is the Saint’s statue in San Salvatore Telesino. Evviva San Leucio d’Alessandria!
Prayer to St. Leucius
Eternal Father, I wish to honor St. Leucius, and I give You thanks for all the graces You have bestowed upon him. I ask You to please increase grace in my soul through the merits of this saint, and I commit the end of my life to him by this special prayer, so that by virtue of Your goodness and promise, St. Leucius might be my advocate and provide whatever is needed at that hour. Amen.
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| Sant'Ignazio di Loyola, ora pro nobis |
July 31 is the Feast of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, priest, knight, mystic, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and great protagonist of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. One of the 52 co-patrons of Naples, he is also the patron saint of soldiers and spiritual retreats.
In celebration we’re posting a prayer to St. Ignatius Loyola. Pictured is Sant’Ignazio di Loyola in Gloria by Mattia Preti. Evviva Sant’Ignazio di Loyola!
Prayer to St. Ignatius Loyola
O Glorious Patriarch, St. Ignatius, we humbly beseech you to obtain for us from God above all things, freedom from sin, the greatest of evils. May your example inflame our hearts with an efficacious glory to God and the good of our neighbor; and obtain from the loving Heart of Jesus, our Lord, the crown of all other graces, the gift of final perseverance, and eternal beatitude. Amen.
Reprinted from Calabria: the Other Italy
Brigand Way (Photo courtesy of Calabria: the Other Italy)
The word “brigand” – brigante in Italian – is heard quite a bit with reference to Southern Italy, and I have noticed a certain confusion, particularly amongst English speakers, as to its significance. It’s an important term in understanding the Italian South and the history of Italy, so I thought I’d contribute my two cents to the question, “What is a brigand?” in an Italian context.
Brigand: In the Dictionary
Brigand in the early 1800s
Taking the dictionary definition, there’s no doubt, the term has strong negative connotations. Bandit, robber, outlaw, marauder and highwayman are common synonyms for brigand, which is often used to describe a member of a band that ambushes and robs people in forests and mountains.
Brigandry or brigandage – brigantaggio in Italian – is classically the form of the word that depicts the criminal activity carried out by brigands.
So why then, when in Southern Italy, do you hear the word brigante pronounced with a quasi-reverence?
Brigand - Brigante: Historic Use
Words have a way of changing their meaning. In the Middle Ages, an Italian brigante was a type of foot soldier, an adventurous member of a mercenary unit. The term’s negative characteristics apparently came through the French, who used it during the Napoleonic period to disparage Italian revolts to their occupation. Thus, brigante referred not only to bandits in the pure sense of the word but also included those with social and political motivations. Continue reading
