The years indicated are those of the provostship of d. Federico De Manlion, a Spanish priest, in the church of S. Maria di Canneto. But in the history of the sanctuary, we find him more precisely in the years 1530-1533, at the end of his abbacy, when old and ill in his house in Settefrati, he was forced by those in charge of Montecassino to renounce his benefice.
From an unsigned and undated manuscript in the Cassinese archives, but to be dated towards the end of the 16th century, written in the form of an informative letter, we learn that the good priest, seeing himself deceived and defrauded, appealed to the S. Rota which, after ascertaining the facts, reinstated him in his rights and functions.
The document tells us, among other things, that De Manlion had peacefully possessed that benefice “for many and many years” and that he had “repaired the church and the habitation and built many other rooms and arranged and arranged everything so that the people would not lose the devotion they had for that church and so that many relics that were there would not be lost”.
Truly interesting news for our research and, given the era to which they refer, the early 1500s, very rare to find in major archives, such as the diocesan or the Vatican Secret Archives.
First of all, we note for the first time the existence in Canneto of a dwelling for the provost, obviously attached to the church, in an unspecified place, although we prefer to think of it as being on the south side, down towards the river, on the site where the hermit's house was later built, being a sunnier spot and sheltered from the icy north winds.
As for the “many other rooms” that the good abbot-prepot built there, in addition to those of the aforementioned dwelling that pre-existed, they were undoubtedly those that lined the front porch of the church, as well as the two side aisles, close to the perimeter wall of the nave.
Good d. Federico had a portico built at the front of the church with three arches and stone cross vaults, on which he arranged the first three rooms with regular windows on the façade; then, still remaining within the circuit of the outer walls of the pre-existing sacred building, he lowered both side vaults to make four small rooms on each side with small windows on the two opposite sides of the church, north and south. Those on the south side are certain, as can be seen from the first historical photo of the sanctuary, which shows this part and the façade with the small porch below.
Inside, on the floor of the church, to give light and air to the two side aisles, he opened three small windows on each side, as the same photo shows us.
A sure indication of this adaptation made by D. Frederick was the existence of a restored lunette window, which led directly into the interior of the church and was located in the so-called “nuns” room', the last of the old rooms on the right, which have remained to this day.
It undoubtedly proved two things:
- that the former right aisle, and consequently, for reasons of symmetry and architectural needs, the left aisle as well, reached this height with a top lunette window on each side;
- that this was the back wall, which closed the primitive church to the east.
The central nave of the said church also had a lunette window on the back wall at the top for reasons of light and ventilation. The rooms on the upper floor were accessed by an external staircase with one or two flights, located on the north side of the sanctuary. There was no space inside the ancient temple for such a structure.
One of the three rooms on the elevation, and more precisely the one in the south-west corner, as indicated by the chimney stack towering above it, was used as a kitchen. This too is a detail revealed to us by the same photograph.
With this series of rooms and chambers, of which there must have been 11 in all, arranged on the upper floor of the sanctuary, the enterprising abbot-prepot endowed the church of Canneto with the first services, indispensable especially on the feast day, which was already celebrated on 22 August with its eve, consisting of small dormitories, a pantry, cloakroom and kitchen.
It was the minimum required to conveniently house a good number of confessing priests and lay people assigned to various tasks: transporting food with quadrupeds, preparing meals, collecting offerings and cleaning.
From then on, the said services always remained on that floor next to the church until our time, unfortunately conditioning any further development of the sacred building, especially on the side of the three naves, which remained trapped between those services for centuries.
Instead, the new portico or narthex in front covered the three entrances to the temple and at the same time advantageously offered pilgrims a small shelter for the night or during the scorching hours of the day or in case of bad weather, which were and still are frequent on the feast day. In truth, very little compared to the multitudes of faithful who flocked to Canneto.
It was, however, the first attempt to provide shelter for at least a small number of pilgrims, as a sign of hospitality and fraternity. A problem, which has always nagged the shrine's administrators and which, after so many centuries, despite the last major constructions in the 1980s, is still far from being resolved.
Taken from the book by Monsignor Dionigi Antonelli - La chiesa di S. Maria di Canneto: dalle antiche costruzioni all'attuale ristrutturazione generale