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It was also a
possession of the Orsini family; in 1423 it was conquered and destroyed by
Braccio da Montone. The church of San Nicola di Bari dates
back to the first
half of the XIV century; today it displays many Baroque features.
The church of Santa Maria D'Arabona, built in 1208, stands on the
site of a Roman temple of Bonae. From the Cistercians who built it, it
passed to the conventual minor friars and then to the Salesians.
A diploma of the Emperor Ludovic II of the year 874 (deed of gift of the
Manoppello castle to the abbey of San Clemente a Casauria) establishes the
foundation of the town which, from the beginning of its history, was
subjected to the monastery of Montecassino. When, in 1638, the Capuchins
came into possession of the Holy Face, Father Donato da Bomba wrote a
“relatione historica”, kept in the provincial archives of the Capuchins in
L’Aquila. In it is explained how the Holy Face arrived at Manoppello and
was owned by the friars. Let’s read the following statement of the
“relatione historica”: “In the times of Iulius II, Roman Pontifex, lived
at Manoppello, in Hither Abruzzi, province in the kingdom of Naples,
Giacomo Antonio Leonelli phisicist and very famous in astrology and other
liberal arts. One day he was talking with other notables of the place in
the open space in front of the mother church dedicated to St. Nicolas of
Bari; right in the middle of the conversation an unknown pilgrim arrived,
religious looking and very venerable who, greeted a so important circle of
citizens, told doctor Giacomo Antonio Leonelli, politely and humanely, he
had to confide a secret very liking, helpful and profitable to him.
Then he took him aside, on the threshold of the church, gave him a bundle
and, without unrolling it, told him to like very much that devotion to
receive divine benevolence and to prosper in secular and spiritual
interests.Giacomo Antonio took the bundle and, retired near the holy water
stoup, began to open it. As he saw the Holy Face, he was greatly
astonished at first sight and he burst into tears of joy then wiped so
that his friends couldn’t notice his emotion. Giving thanks to God for
such an inestimable gift, he re-wrapped the Veil and than he looked for
the unknown pilgrim to thank him and to give him hospitality but he
couldn’t find him. Frightened, nearly stammering, he
inquired about the pilgrim but his friends declared they saw him going into the church but they
didn’t see him going out.
Then he went back home with his friends full of
extreme gaiety and many people flocked to admire
such a wonderful miracle. To revere such a marvellous and holy image and,
as much as possible, to be thankful to God for the received benefit Doctor
Giacomo Antonio immediately had done, in the wall of his study, a niche,
wardrobe-shaped, with its well adapted little doors and keys, where he
kept the Image devoutly and respectfully and with an oil-lamp always
burning night and day. Later on some descendants wanted to share out Giacomo Antonio’s property
received by inhereditance but a great discussion rose from this, so a
certain soldier and man at arms named Pancrazio Petrucci (who had married
Marzia, still alive, descendant of the Leonelli) on the pretext to
vindicate his wife’s rights, rushed into the Leonelli’s house and took the
Holy Image he wanted to possess. But Pancrazio didn’t keep it with the due
devotion and decorum. After having taken it, he didn’t fold back the Image
with the due diligence and devotion but, ill-used and badly folded back,
he took it home where he kept it with not much care and
estimation. Notwithstanding this, it remained fine and intact even though
wringled and spoilt and this event certainly displeased God.
But as the earthly things are more changeable than the moon, the
above-mentioned Pancrazio, who stole the Holy Image, was put into prison
by the royal court in Chieti so he wrote to his wife Marzia and asked her to sell or to
pawn whatever home object, particularly the Holy Image as he knew that
very many people wanted it and to send him money for his release from
prison. Therefore the kind and simple woman went to Doctor Donato Antonio
De Fabritiis, another villager of Manoppello (a man endowed with religious
devotion not less than Giacomo Antonio Leonelli) to sell him or to give
him in pawn (till the return of her husband) the Holy Image. Doctor Donato
Antonio De Fabritiis wishing for a treasure so great and precious, gave
the woman four scudi (nearly twenty liras as it happened in 1618) and took
the Holy Image without observing it or unrolling it.
Then the woman went away with the four scudi and Donato Antonio,
dispatched his business he had to attend to, good-humoured and joyful for
the beautiful purchase, spread out the Image which was in the middle of a
square veil and all transparent owing to the thinness of the texture, four
palms wide in every side and he realized that the veil, badly kept and
preserved after the theft in Leonelli’s house, was entirely ragged,
worn-out, moth-eaten and worm-eaten, all corrupt, almost pulverized and
the last rags still hanging could fall down without being touched with the
exception of the Holy Image still beautiful, uninjured and without
deterioration, though very wrinkled.
At first sight the spiritual merchant was astonished and regretted
spending 4 scudi for a thing very polluted and badly kept. So putting it
aside as useless and of no value thing, the doctor thought to return it to
the woman who made fun of him and to get his money back. Absorbed in
thought, he met the President of the friary of the Fathers Capuchins, at
that time with its vestry-board at Manoppello: Father Clemente of
Castelvecchio Sacerdote, a very wise and shrewd person, to whom he
revealed his intention to give back the Veil to recover his money.
Father Clemente heard the matter, then affected at the sight of the beauty
and the quality of the image, he knelt down, adored it and efficaciously
exhorted Donato Antonio not to give it back, on the contrary to give much
more money by request because there is no high price in the world
sufficient to pay it and he added it was a miracle and a gift of
Providence if the Veil remained in a good state. Thanks to this sound and
spiritual advice, the doctor became calm and satisfied because he valued
he had underestimated the Veil.
Therefore the same Father Clemente scissored all the rags around the Veil
and removing very well from it dust, worms and other impurities, he turned
it as it is nowadays.
The above-mentioned Donato Antonio, wishing to enjoy the Holy Image with
better devotion, got it stretched in a frame with plate-glasses in both
sides and adorned with walnut inlay by a friar of ours named Brother
Remigio of Rapino (as he did not confide in other secular artisans).
As merciful and zealous doctor Donato Antonio considered the Holy Image
had to remain more decorously in a devoted church, not resisting this
celestial and divine impulse (not listening to the insistent requirements
of clergy and other monks of the same territory) gave it to our convent of
the Capuchins at Manoppello where it is venerated by that people with
satisfaction of those Brothers who never get tired of revering it".
This is the content of the "relatione historica" (historical
report).
Continuation of
this sacred story
The convent of the Capuchins was founded from 1618 to 1620, exactly when
Giacomo Antonio De Filippis had the Holy Veil put between two
plate-glasses. The church was dedicated to St. Michael Archangel. In this
church the Holy Face was exposed to the veneration of the people on April
6th, 1646. For nearly 40 years it was not object of public veneration but
kept almost privately in a niche, in the right-hand side of the high
altar.
Only in 1686 was built, in the left-hand of the church, a little chapel
with an altar where the sacred relic was moved and was brought the
liturgic feast of August 6th, day of the Transfiguration of Christ on the
Mount. A negative event increased the veneration for the Holy Face. The
eighteenth century started with a lustrum of earthquake shocks which shook
incessantly Umbria, Abruzzo and Sannite region. Father Boniface of Ascoli
from 1703 exposed many times the Holy face to the popular veneration.
 The XIX century was marked by laws of suppression of religious orders: the
monks had to leave the convent twice; the first time on September 6th,
1811; the same day the Holy Face was transferred to the Clarisse convent
situated within the walls. The convent remained uninhabited, the sanctuary
closed up to May 16th , 1816 when the Capuchins returned. The following
Sunday, celebrated the usual feast, the Sacred Veil was taken back in
triumph to its sanctuary.But on December 27th , 1866 a law expelled again
the friars from the coenobium; the Holy Face remained inside the closed
sanctuary. The monks returned on October 27th , 1869 and remained there
till to-day. In 1871 was finished the new chapel. In 1923 was built the
shrine on the high altar. In 1946 the community of Manoppello gave the new
shrine. The church was enlarged and extended in the second post-war period
from 1960 to 1965. The confessional room was built in the jubilee year
2000.
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