On 15 July 1563, by the decree “Cun adolescentum”, the Council of Trent had decreed that individual cathedral churches, metropolitan and other major churches, depending on their resources and the size of the diocese, should provide religious education and instruction in ecclesiastical disciplines to a certain number of children, to be housed in a “college” situated within the churches themselves or in another suitable location.
These boys had to be at least 12 years old, of legitimate birth, able to read and write to a sufficient standard, and show signs of a calling to the priesthood, starting with certain irreplaceable personal qualities, such as a docile nature and a willing spirit.
The fundamental principle that inspired the Fathers of Trent to establish these “colleges” or diocesan seminaries is set out at the very beginning of the aforementioned decree: “Adolescence, if not properly educated, is prone to pursuing the pleasures of the world, and if it is not imbued from the earliest years with piety and religion, before vices take hold of the whole person, it will never be able… without the almost singular help of the Almighty, persevere in ecclesiastical discipline”.
The importance of the jurisdiction of the bishops of Sora over the church of Santa Maria di Canneto in Settefrati
Wise and far-sighted words, which parents, teachers and priests should always bear in mind so as not to render their educational and formative efforts in vain. The then Bishop of Sora, Monsignor Gigli, who had taken part in the third and final phase of the great assembly, decided upon his return to Sora to establish a college-seminary for the diocese without delay. On 7 June 1565, barely a year and a half after the Council’s conclusion, the pious institution had already been founded. The bishop himself made a wing of the bishop’s palace available to the first pupils as a temporary home.
However, since the college-seminary, according to the Tridentine Council, was to be open above all to “the children of the poor, without, however, excluding those of the rich, provided that they are supported at their own expense…”, the most pressing problem facing Monsignor Gigli was that of securing the financial resources essential for the pupils’ upkeep, for the salaries of the teachers and staff, and, looking ahead, for the construction of a new residence more suitable and better suited to the needs of adolescents.
To meet the aforementioned needs, the Sacred Synod had granted the bishops broad powers over all the revenues and income of bodies, institutions—including those of religious orders and tax-exempt entities—and ecclesiastical benefices. Within the Diocese of Sora, Bishop Gigli, exercising these powers, attached the following benefices, which were vacant at that time and in those places, to the new college-seminary:
On 7 June 1565, the benefices of St Lucia and St Mary in the territory of Schiavi (Fontechiari) were merged with the church of St Bartholomew, situated in the palace of the Marquis of that town. On 28 August and 22 November of the same year, the benefices of St Christopher and St Matthew in S. Donato V.C. were united, as were those of St Angelo in Campoli, St Mary in Vicalvi and St Onofrio in Alvito.
On 8 June 1569, Monsignor Gigli, by means of a public deed drawn up by the notary Giovanni Battista de Baiozzi of Frosinone, also attached to the pious institution the substantial benefice of the church of S. Maria di Canneto in Settefrati, which thereby passed from the jurisdiction of the Abbey of Montecassino to that of the bishops of Sora.
This event marked a genuine turning point in the history of the ancient Marian shrine, which had already spanned several centuries; for as the mountain church of Mary was entrusted from that time onwards to the diocesan and local clergy—that is, to Settefrati— who were more directly involved in and concerned with the events in Canneto, opened up greater opportunities for development, both in terms of the physical structures and in terms of religious life.
This is indeed what has happened over the centuries right up to the present day. The current comprehensive renovation of the sanctuary and today’s magnificent pilgrimage are the clearest and most significant evidence of this.
But the event of 8 June 1569, rather than a transfer from monastic to episcopal jurisdiction, marked a return to the diocese of Sora, after almost three centuries during which the Abbey of Canneto had been one of the Comines’ provostries of Montecassino, that is, from that fateful 13 December 1288, when the college of clerics, residing and serving at that church, which until then had been directly dependent on the bishops of Sora, obtained from Pope Nicholas IV the concession of the Benedictine Rule to be observed in that community, thereby transforming itself into a dependency or cell of the Abbey of Montecassino.
From that time onwards, the church of Santa Maria di Canneto was entrusted to the diocesan seminary of Sora, which was obliged to maintain it and provide it with the necessary furnishings, whilst the rector of the pious institution also became the rector of the sanctuary. This arrangement lasted for four centuries until 1972, when the Bishop of Sora, Monsignor Minchiatti, decided to separate the two roles, allowing the two pious institutions, the seminary and the sanctuary, to go their separate ways.