Photo of the Week: Madonna del Rosariello, Chiesa di Santa Maria del Rosario, Piazza Cavour, Napoli

Photo by Andrew Giordano

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New Book — Dio, Patria, Fueros e Re: Introduzione al Carlismo

A new title that may be of interest to our readers. Available at damicoeditore.it

• Dio, Patria, Fueros e Re: Introduzione al Carlismo by Gianandrea de Antonellis

Publisher: D’Amico Editore
Publication date: October 2025
Hardback: €10.00
Language: Italian
Pages: 162

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Latin Mass Pilgrimage from Arlington, Virginia, to Washington, DC

Fra’ Diavolo and the Defense of Cultural Memory: Correcting the Myths of Masaniello and Beyond

The Revolt of the Neapolitan Fisherman Tommaso Aniello, known as Masaniello (1622-1647) in Naples by Giuseppe Mazza (Museo della scienza di Milano)

A lu tiempo de chisti scunfuorte
Masaniello è bestuto da muorto.
Dint’’a nicchia ’na capa cu ll’ossa
nce ha lassato ’na coppola rossa.
Chesta coppola dà ’na voce,
quanno ’a famme nun è doce,
quann’’o popolo resta ’ncroce,
quanno pave ’stu tributo
pure ’a tassa ’ncopp’’o tavuto.
A lu tiempo de chisti scunfuorte
Masaniello è bestuto da muorto.
Masaniello s’’o credono muorto… [1]

Gianandrea de Antonellis’ article Fra’ Diavolo vive ancora nello spettacolo “Voci, suoni e canti di Briganti in Terra di Lavoro” (Fra’ Diavolo still lives on in the show “Voices, Sounds and Songs of Brigands in Terra di Lavoro”) is a compelling reflection on the politics of memory. More than a historical survey, it is a corrective act: dismantling persistent distortions surrounding figures such as Masaniello and Fra’ Diavolo, and restoring them to their rightful place in Southern Italy’s cultural consciousness.

De Antonellis begins with a meditation on the necessity of heroes.

“Blessed is the people that has no need of heroes." The pacifist and egalitarian intent of whoever wrote that sentence is beyond doubt, but it can also be read in another sense: blessed is the one who has no need of heroes—or of money, or of food, or of anything else—because he already has them, not because there is no need for them.

A people—any people—needs heroes. That is why we are naturally drawn, from childhood, to the stories of historical or literary heroes: Hector and Achilles, Horatius Cocles and Mucius Scaevola, Attilius Regulus and Pheidippides, Lancelot and Gawain… In the Kingdom of Naples we can list the Great Captain, Ettore Fieramosca, Masaniello of Sorrento, and his Amalfitan namesake, Cardinal Ruffo, the Prince of Canosa…

This sets the frame: a people bereft of heroes is a people deprived of memory. De Antonellis shows how cultural tradition continually seeks to supply such figures, though later generations may distort their meaning.

Particularly striking is the article’s correction of Masaniello’s legacy. Popularized as a revolutionary icon, Masaniello in fact led a revolt that was explicitly anti-revolutionary.

Masaniello—who has (wrongly) become a revolutionary symbol (in reality his revolt was fully anti-revolutionary, because it aimed to restore the previous taxation, the respect for Neapolitan law, and, above all, it burst forth with the cry "Long live the King of Spain! Death to bad government!")—is thus seen as the incarnation of the Volksgeist, the "spirit of the people," ready to rise up in case of abuses by the (mis)rulers of the day…

Here, de Antonellis restores Masaniello as a figure of popular legitimacy rather than revolutionary rupture, reminding us that loyalty and protest were not opposed but intertwined.

Bust of the hero Fra' Diavolo
sculpted by Raffaele Mollo (2019)

If Masaniello has been miscast as a revolutionary, Fra’ Diavolo has suffered the opposite fate: reduced from a colonel and duke into a bandit or comic rogue.

But if, thanks to a deft historiographical falsification that is hard to kill, Masaniello has become a (wrong, I repeat) symbol of the revolutionary spirit, it is far more difficult to turn into a progressive a champion of legitimism like Michele Arcangelo Pezza (1771–1806), a guerrilla leader who became a colonel of the Neapolitan army, created Duke of Cassano by Ferdinand IV, universally known by the nickname Fra’ Diavolo.

Unable to enlist him ideologically, liberal culture diminished him through Auber’s opéra-comique (1830) and later through Hollywood parody, turning a model of fidelity into a theatrical thief. De Antonellis sharply unmasks this falsification, showing Fra’ Diavolo as a hero of incorruptible loyalty who refused French offers of rank and money: “Because when one has sworn, one has sworn!”

The review culminates in Claudio Saltarelli’s theatrical revival, which gives Fra’ Diavolo his true voice. Through Raimondo Rotondi’s performance in the Laborino dialect, [2] the insurgent emerges not as an artifact of the past but as a living exemplar of courage and fidelity.

And so, on 11 November 1806, Colonel Michele Arcangelo Pezza died. And with him, the Duke of Cassano also died. But Fra’ Diavolo did not die. Because Fra’ Diavolo is always reborn, in each of us.

The sabre of Fra’ Diavolo becomes the counterpart to Masaniello’s red cap, a symbol that can rally every stratum of society—soldiers, nobles, clergy, and common people alike—around the perennial cause of resisting oppression.

De Antonellis’ essay, and Saltarelli’s theatrical work, are acts of cultural reclamation. They remind us that heroes must not be abandoned to distortion, whether by ideological misreading or by the trivializing force of entertainment.

The closing exhortation is the article’s most powerful contribution:

Put it in your heads: the story of Fra’ Diavolo is your story. Whoever wants to make you forget it does not wish you well.

By rehabilitating Masaniello and Fra’ Diavolo, de Antonellis does more than narrate history—he defends memory itself. His work is a reminder that cultural truth, once recovered, can still speak with urgency to the present.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, October 2nd, Feast of the Guardian Angels

* Translations are my own.

Notes

[1] Excerpt from the traditional Neapolitan ballad ‘O cunto ’e Masaniello, preserved in oral tradition and performed by the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare on the album Li sarracini adorano lu sole (EMI, 1974).

In the time of these hardships

Masaniello is dressed as a dead man.

Inside the niche, a skull with bones

has left a red cap there.

This cap gives a voice,

when hunger is not sweet,

when the people are left on the cross,

when it pays this tribute—

even the tax on the coffin.

In the time of these hardships

Masaniello is dressed as a dead man.

They think Masaniello is dead…

[2] The “Laborino dialect” is the local speech of the historical province of Terra di Lavoro (covering parts of northern Campania and southern Lazio), closely related to Neapolitan but marked by distinct regional features.

L'attualità della riflessione etica di Tommaso d'Aquino

In Napoli

Fragments from the Past and the Lessons They Hold

My father, with his older brother and sister, finding joy
in front of their "Charlie Brown Christmas tree"

“What the son wishes to forget, the grandson wishes to remember.”

~ Marcus Lee Hansen

I am a third-generation Duosiciliano (Southern Italian) American. My forebears—hailing from Campania, Sicilia, and Lucania—arrived at Ellis Island around the turn of the twentieth century. God only knows what hardships they endured. My parents and grandparents were mostly tight-lipped about their struggles and would probably bristle at me for airing our “dirty laundry.”

Yet a few stories slipped out, revealing just how poor they were—and how much our lot has changed, though not always in ways that brought greater happiness. My father once told me how, as a boy, he ran home from school, excited to show his mother a ballpoint pen.

“We were poor and didn’t know it,” he would say, “because everyone around us was poor too.” Then, with a sigh, he would add: “We had nothing, but we were happy; today we have everything and we’re miserable.”

He and his brothers would race to snatch up bits of coal falling from passing horse-drawn carts before other neighborhood kids could. In winter, they would wrap heated bricks from the potbelly stove in newspaper and tuck them under the blankets to stay warm.

One memory, though, haunted him his whole life. On his birthday, my grandmother took him to the local ravioleria for lunch. They could only afford three ravioli. His five siblings and my grandfather stayed home—just as he would always stay home on their birthdays. While sitting at the counter, my grandmother asked if she could have one of the ravioli. He refused. She said nothing and quietly watched him eat.

That moment's shame never left him. In many ways, he spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it—being generous almost to a fault, determined that no one under his care would go without. My grandparents lived with us until they passed, their presence a daily reminder of sacrifice and love.

Whenever I think of these stories, I feel grateful to have had such a loving family who passed down their traditions, even when they had so little. Nothing was ever promised to them—or to me. Maybe that’s why I find it hard to understand the sense of entitlement in many young people today.

It was less than seventy years ago. And judging by the way the economy is heading, and the decline of community, we will face hard times again—but this time without the close-knit families and strong communities that once helped people through hardship. In a low-trust society, dependent on an increasingly inept, corrupt, and overreaching nanny-state, survival may not be so easy.

The stories my father carried—and the silence kept by my grandparents—are not just fragments of the past. They serve as reminders that strength doesn't come from comfort, but from sacrifice. When tough times return, as they surely will, then perhaps what the son wanted to forget is exactly what the grandson needs to remember: that surviving is only possible when families and communities stand together in love, memory, and faith.

~ Giovanni di Napoli, October 1st, Feast of St. Remigius

Our Lady of the Rosary at St. Mary of Mt. Virgin in New Brunswick, New Jersey

Feast of St. Remigius

St. Remigius Baptizes Clovis I, by the
Master of Saint Gilles, C. 1500.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

October 1st is the Feast of St. Remigius, or Rémi, Bishop and Confessor. Bishop of Reims for over seventy years, he is best remembered as the “Apostle of the Franks.” Born around 437 in northern Gaul to a noble Gallo-Roman family, he was noted for his learning and piety from an early age. At just twenty-two years old, he was elected Bishop of Reims.

His most enduring legacy is his role in the conversion of King Clovis I, the pagan ruler of the Franks. After Clovis’s victory at the Battle of Tolbiac in 496, and under the influence of his Christian wife, St. Clotilde, the king sought baptism. On Christmas Day of that year, Remigius baptized Clovis along with three thousand of his warriors in Reims. This moment is considered the symbolic beginning of Catholic France, earning the nation its title as the “Eldest Daughter of the Church.”

Tradition holds that during the baptism, a holy vial of oil—known as the Sainte Ampoule—was miraculously brought by the dove of the Holy Spirit, and it became the sacred chrism used in the coronation of French kings for centuries.

St. Remigius shepherded his flock with wisdom and zeal, strengthening the Church in Gaul, promoting discipline among the clergy, and fostering the spread of Christianity among the Franks. He died on January 13, 533, at the age of ninety-five. His relics are enshrined at the Basilica of Saint-Remi in Reims. St. Remigius, ora pro nobis.

In celebration of his feast, we offer this prayer:

Prayer to St. Remigius

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the solemn feast of blessed Remigius, Thy Confessor and Bishop, may both increase our devotion and advance our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Happy National Italian American Heritage Month!

October is National Italian American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the rich history, vibrant culture, and numerous contributions of Italian Americans. From the arts, science, and education to the cherished traditions of food, family, and faith, Italian Americans have left an indelible mark on these United States.

This month is not only about remembering the struggles and sacrifices of earlier generations who came to America seeking a better life, but also about celebrating the ongoing spirit of creativity, resilience, and community that continues to shape our nation today.

May this be a time of gratitude, reflection, and joy as we honor the Italian American experience.

A Prayer to St. Agatha of Sicily for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Saints of the Day for October

(L-R) Guardian Angel, San Placido, and San Giuda

October is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Rosary, with its feast celebrated on October 7th.

• The first Sunday of October is the Feast of Our Lady of Pompeii
• The fourth Sunday of October is the Feast of San Vincenzo di Craco
• The last Sunday of October is the Solemnity of Christ the King
• October 1 — Feast of St. Remigius

• October 2 — Feast of the Guardian Angels
• October 3 — Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux
• October 4 — Feast of San Francesco D’Assisi
• October 5 — Feast of Blessed Bartolo Longo
• October 5 — Feast of San Placido and Companions
• October 5 — Feast of Santa Flavia
• October 6 — Feast of San Bruno di Colonia
• October 6 — Feast of Santa Maria Francesca delle Cinque Piaghe
• October 7 — Feast of Our Lady of Victory and the Most Holy Rosary
• October 8 — Feast of Santa Brigida di Svezia
• October 9 — Feast of San Dionigi e Compagni
• October 9 — Feast of the Blessed Martyrs of Turón
• October 11 — Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• October 12 — Feast of San Grammazio di Salerno
• October 12 — Feast of San Carlo Acutis
• October 12 — Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar
• October 13 — Feast of Santa Chelidonia di Subiaco
• October 13 — Feast of Beato Gerardo
• October 13 — Feast of St. Edward the Confessor
• October 14 — Feast of San Callisto I
• October 15 — Feast of Santa Teresa de Ávila
• October 16 — Feast of San Gerardo Maiella
• October 16 — Feast of Sant’Irene di Tessalonica
• October 16 — Novena to San Gavino Martire
• October 17 — Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
• October 18 — Feast of San Luca Evangelista
• October 19 — Feast of Sant’Asterio & Sant’Eusterio di Salerno
• October 19 — Feast of San Pietro d'Alcántara
• October 21 — Feast of Blessed Karl I of Austria
• October 21 — Prayer for Servant of God Empress Zita
• October 23 — Feast of San Vero di Salerno
• October 23 — Feast of the Blessed Martyrs of Valenciennes
• October 24 — Feast of San Raffaele Arcangelo
• October 25 — Feast of San Gavino Martire
• October 25 — Novena to Sant’Uberto di Liegi
• October 26 — Feast of San Gaudioso di Salerno
• October 27 — Feast of San Gaudioso di Napoli
• October 27 — Feast of San Nestore Martire di Tessalonica
• October 28 — Feast of the Holy Apostles Simon and Jude
• October 29 — Feast of San Gaetano Errico
• October 30 — Feast of Sant’Angelo D’Acri
• October 31 — All Hallows Eve
• October 31 — Feast of St. Wolfgang of Regensburg

Our Lady of the Rosary at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, New Jersey

From Fast to Feast: Celebrating San Michele Arcangelo with Sicilian Specialties

Arancini al burro with meat and besciamella

I live within walking distance of six bakeries, so I never want for bread, taralli, cakes, or pastries. Each one has its specialties, but whenever I make it to Villabate-Alba on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, I get genuinely excited—there’s something extraordinary about this traditional Sicilian pasticceria. Honestly, it’s a blessing I don’t live closer; I’d surely be 50 pounds heavier if I did.

Since I was working on 18th Avenue, I took the chance to enjoy a morning espresso with a cornetto. I also picked up a few savory treats to celebrate the close of my forty-day fast for Saint Michael’s Lent, which runs from the Feast of the Assumption on August 15th to Michaelmas on September 29th. Admittedly, my fast wasn’t perfect (especially during the Feast of San Gennaro), but I did my best—and the Feast of San Michele felt like the right moment to indulge.

Evviva San Michael!

Sfincioni

Iris al forno

A Look at the 52nd Annual Bay Ridge Third Avenue Festival

The neighborhood boys really enjoyed the fresh
squeezed limonata (lemonade)—and so did we

We had an absolutely wonderful time at the 52nd Annual Bay Ridge Third Avenue Festival, where the neighborhood came alive under a picture-perfect sky. The air was filled with the aroma of Sicilian flavors as we enjoyed arancini, sfincione, pulpo, pane panelle, and crocche—each bite a tribute to tradition and celebration. To finish, we washed it all down with a cheeky and refreshing limonata a cosce aperte (“open legs lemonade”), an effervescent Neapolitan specialty bursting with zest. It was a feast of food, culture, and community spirit, the kind of day that stays with you long after the last sip of lemonade.

Chef Vincent Dardanello set up his lemonade stand in front of Amunì Restaurant

Blood oranges

Crocche and arancini

Pane panelle with ricotta on the side

Sfincione with anchovies

Sfincione without anchovies

Polpo

Photo of the Week: Madonna del Carmine, Chiesa Madre di San Michele Arcangelo, Pomarico, Matera

Photo by Andrew Giordano

Download Il Concordato del 1818 e la soppressione delle piccole diocesi della Costa d’Amalfi at Alta Terra di Lavoro

Il Concordato del 1818 e la soppressione delle piccole diocesi della Costa d'Amalfi by Crescenzo Paolo Di Martino explores how the Concordat of 1818, signed between Pope Pius VII and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, reshaped the religious map of Southern Italy. On the Amalfi Coast, centuries-old dioceses—Ravello, Scala, Minori, and Capri—were suppressed and merged into Amalfi, despite local resistance and appeals to preserve their historic sees. The book highlights the clash between papal policy, Bourbon centralization, and the deep civic pride tied to cathedral tradition.

Available at Alta Terra di Lavoro: Read the full text in Italian (PDF)

Simple Pleasures — Charms and Curios

Always love seeing the unique things people collect — today it was a beautiful pair of ceramic cornicello and mano cornuta from Calabria. Folk tradition, protection, and artistry all in one.

Remembering Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Naples and Sicily

24 November, 1724 — 27 September, 1760

In memory of Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Naples and Sicily (later Spain), 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.

Latin Rosary Brigade to Meet on Mondays at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Newark, New Jersey

For those that may be interested, there is a weekly Holy Rosary in LATIN and chanting of the Litany of Loretto by Prof. David DiPasquale every Monday at 6pm at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church (259 Oliver St.) in Newark, New Jersey. Rosaries and prayer pamphlets provided. NO ROSARY ON MONDAY, OCT 13 (COLUMBUS DAY).

Michela Musolino and Rosa Tatuata at Poster House

Poster House
119 W. 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

First Friday: Sicilian Frame Drum Workshop with Michela Musolino

Friday, Oct 3, 2025
2–3pm

Discover the vibrant rhythms and cultural heritage of Sicily in this hands-on workshop led by internationally recognized Sicilian-American singer and musician Michela Musolino. Presented in connection with the exhibition The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy, this program explores the resilience of folk traditions and the enduring power of community expression through music.

Participants will receive guided instruction in the techniques of the Sicilian frame drum, one of the most important percussion instruments in Southern Italian folk culture.

Open to all experience levels; no prior musical background required.

Michela Musolino is an internationally recognized Sicilian-American singer who explores her cultural roots and shares them with the world through the study and reinterpretation of the folk songs of Sicily and Southern Italy. With voice and frame drum, Musolino sings songs of daily life, songs of feast days, songs of protest, and songs of love, weaving the ancient and the modern into powerful melodies. She is the founder of Rosa’s Drum, a cultural events and educational organization that promotes and teaches folk traditions from Sicily and Southern Italy.

Sicilian and Italian Folk Music with Michela Musolino and Rosa Tatuata

Friday, Oct 3, 2025
7–8pm

Experience the vibrant traditions of Sicilian and Southern Italian folk music with Michela Musolino and her ensemble, Rosa Tatuata, in a performance presented in connection with the exhibition The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy. This program highlights the resilience of cultural expression in times of change, showing how folk music continues to bridge the past and present.

Drawing on years of research into traditional instruments—including the tamburo (Sicilian frame drum), organetto, marranzano (jaw harp), and zampogna (Southern Italian bagpipes)—Musolino and Rosa Tatuata weave a tapestry of sound that blends old-world authenticity with fresh interpretation.

Join us for an evening of music that celebrates resilience, joy, and cultural memory—an opportunity to hear how ancient traditions continue to resonate in our world today.

Michela Musolino is an internationally recognized Sicilian-American singer who explores her cultural roots and shares them with the world through the study and reinterpretation of the folk songs of Sicily and Southern Italy. With voice and frame drum, Musolino sings songs of daily life, songs of feast days, songs of protest, and songs of love, weaving the ancient and the modern into powerful melodies. She is the founder of Rosa’s Drum, a cultural events and educational organization that promotes and teaches folk traditions from Sicily and Southern Italy.

For more information, visit www.posterhouse.org

Simple Pleasures: N’ata Volta Ancora

Big thanks to my friend for this new T-shirt straight outta Napoli — it says “N’ata Volta ancora” (“One more time again”). Style, soul, and a little Neapolitan magic.

Feast of St. Therese at the Carmelite Monastery in Morristown, New Jersey

Compra Sud — Peppino’s Candy Shoppe

Let's support those who keep our traditions and folkways alive

Peppino's Candy Shop
7725 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209
347-492-0643

www.peppinoscandyshoppe.com

Also see:
• Compra Sud — Peppino's Pizzeria Restaurant
• Compra Sud — Peppino’s Liquors & Wine

* Our recommendations will be unsolicited, and only from our personal experience. No second hand suggestions will be made.

Join Us at the 52nd Annual Bay Ridge Third Avenue Festival!

Arancini

This Sunday, September 28th, our friends at Amunì Restaurant (7217 3rd Ave.) will be bringing true Duosiciliano flavor (Sicilian & Neapolitan) to the 52nd annual Bay Ridge Third Avenue Festival!

Come savor: Golden Sicilian arancini, sfincioni, and refreshing limonata a cosce aperte (open legs lemonade)— an exploding lemonade straight from Naples.

Neapolitan-themed mini baking cups, perfect for serving bite-sized delights

The festival runs from 10 AM to 6 PM along 25 blocks of Third Avenue (69th to 94th Street) with 180+ vendors, live music, and family fun. Don’t miss this chance to taste tradition, right here in Brooklyn.

Amunì — let’s go eat!