There were many. We had our first glimpse of them during the provostship of Father Federico de Manlion (…1530–1534); then a
A more specific reference is found in 1574 in the writings of Prudenzio di Alvito, who tells us that amongst those many relics there was also a small piece of wood from the cross.
The Bishop of Sora, Giovannelli (1609–1632), himself a staunch and fervent devotee of relics and the bodies of diocesan saints – such as that of St Julian the Martyr, which he discovered in the church of the same name in Sora – notes in his own hand (the handwriting is clearly recognisable) in the «Collection of Decrees of the Holy Visitation», notes in his own hand (his handwriting is clearly recognisable) that in his day all the relics of Canneto, a church attached to the seminary of Sora, were kept beneath the high altar of the church of St Stephen in Settefrati; and on the opening pages of his “Green Book” he provides us with a detailed and precise list of these, which is given prominent prominence.
There were exactly 32 relics. I shall mention a few of them here. The list begins with the relics of the apostles: St Andrew, St Bartholomew, St Simon, St Luke, then St Mark the Evangelist, St Blaise the Martyr and other saints, and concludes with St Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr.
There were at least two possible reasons why they were moved to Settefrati and why there were so many of them: to ensure their greater safety and to serve as a means of protecting the village.
As for the first reason, the substantial collection of relics from Canneto was safer in Settefrati than in the mountain church of the Madonna, which was so isolated and far from any settlements, and therefore more vulnerable to theft – including that of relics – which was so common in those days.
As for the second reason, it had been a common belief since medieval times that relics were tangible tokens of
protection and defence; and consequently, the more one possessed of these, the more holy intercessors one had in heaven to implore grace and favours at the throne of the Most High, especially against those who were the mortal enemies of our lands, ever lying in wait: the hordes of adventurers and marauders who, for centuries, came and went time and again, plundering and destroying these parts; the local bands of brigands who relentlessly plagued these areas until 1870; as well as the
natural disasters (famines, epidemics and earthquakes) which periodically ravaged those very valleys.
In such situations and circumstances, the local people – defenceless and left to their own devices by central governments that were often weak or non-existent – placed their hopes for salvation solely in their patron saints.