| LETTOMANOPPELLO |
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| Pg. 29 |
| Page 1 (history/photos)
Page 2 (history/photos) Page 3 (history/photos) Page 4 (photos) Page 5 (photos) Page 6 (photos) Page 7 (photos: festa) Page 8 (stone-sculpting) Page 9 (Iconicella) Page 10 (people/places) Page 11 (people/places) Page 12 (festa 2000) |
| Page 13 (Marcinelle)
Page 14 (Marcinelle) Page 15 (people/places 2001) Page 16 (people/places 2001) Page 17 (people/places 2001) Page 18 (people/places 2001) Page 19 (people/places 2001) Page 20 (sculpting school) Page 21 (fonte) Page 22 (old photos) Page 23 (history) Page 24 (street map) |
| Page 25 (people/places 2003)
Page 26 (new hotel - La Noce) Page 27 (people/places 2003) Page 28 (people/places 2003) Page 29 (Nino Di Pietrantonio) Page 30 (people/places 2003) Page 31 (Anagrafe / Stato Civile) Page 32 (people/places 2004) Page 33 (people/places 2004) Page 34 (people/places 2004) Page 35 (Church of S. Nicola 2005) Page 36 for future construction |
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| A very interesting resident of Lettomanoppello is retired postal worker Nino Di Pietrantonio, who was the focus of much media attention seven years ago, when his dream about the Fonte del Papa (located on the mountainside above the town) was publicized, with the result that thousands came to the fonte on April 18,1996.
Below is a translation of the newspaper article printed in Cronache Italiane, one of the many newspapers and magazines which carried the story at the time. We thank Nino for sharing it with us. |
| Pescara/ Already they are speaking of sudden cures at the spring where Pope Celestino V of the "Great Refusal" stopped to drink.
Hot Water From the Spring: "A miracle" To thousands on the slopes of the Maiella, a seer promised a wonder Lettomanoppello (Pescara) - They responded by the thousands to the appointed place, and yesterday a little center at the foot of the Maiella became a site of pilgrimage for about 5000 faithful from all Abruzzo. Young, old, children, all called there by a prophecy that April 18 would be the most beautiful day for humanity, a prophecy delivered by the Madonna of Constantinople to a retired man in Lettomanoppello. For seven months he dreamed unwillingly; Nino Di Pietrantonio is not Catholic; he is a follower of the Church of Christ, but "for education," he said, he has shared all his messages, all his premonitions, resolving problems for unknown and unfortunate fellow townspeople who have faith in him. He invited them to wash their faces, in faith, on April 18th in a little spring at the foot of the Maiella, the Fonte del Papa (Spring of the Pope), so-called because Celestino V, the pope of the Great Refusal, stopped to rest there when going to say Mass in a nearby village. No apparitions, no sudden cures, but believe it or not yesterday morning the water of the mountain spring was lukewarm. The message was clear: wash your face or drink of the water and all that is wrong will vanish. And so many, from Aquila, from Teramo, from Giulianova, from Pescara, each with their own prayer, each came to fulfill the prophecy: from 6 o'clock in the morning yesterday the little spring was a picturesque site of pilgrimage. There were those who did not move from there, in expectation of a "miracle," who after following the instructions to the letter gave themselves a brief footbath for arthritis and varicose veins and who filled bottles with the water which was rendered miraculous, according Di Pietrantonio's dream, by the mixing in of the blood of Christ and the tears of the Madonna of Constantinople. "The Lady appeared to me in a dream last September 20th," recounted Nino Di Pietrantonio, his life spent behind the counters of Abruzzese post offices, to those around him. "She presented herself as The Lady, and that is what I call her. She had a child in her arms and she told me that April 18th would be a special day. She told me to spread her message, and the dream was repeated for fourteen days." Then came other dreams, about the illness of the Pope, the earthquake in northern Italy, the bleeding from the bandages on the right hand of Padre Pio, the collapse of three palaces. And the premonitions reported to his fellow townsmen in which Di Pietrantonio foretold how problems would be resolved by drinking from or washing one's face in the water of the spring. And finally April 18th: "In a dream I saw many people in Lettomanoppello, coming from all Abruzzo, and what has happened here today is exactly as it was in my dream. This is surely a day of peace, a day on which, according to The Lady, all the wars of religion will end." People remained until night, thousands, including Jehovah's Witnesses come to verify the prophecy. It was a day of peace for all religions. A flux of people which by afternoon became almost too great for the little spring, which is at the foot of a quarry from which truckloads of stone continuously materialized. Devout people. The Madonna of Constantinople has granted much grace here. Trusting in the words of a respected townsman: "I am not a seer and I don't want to be considered one. I only dreamed the dream, and if after today She returns, I will greet Her as always." The only regret he has is that the town's priest, Don Giovanni Martorella, has not visited the site of the miracle his dreams have made. SIDE BAR ARTICLE: Among the ecstatic faithful was also the president of the province: "I did it because I believe, not to exploit." Lettomanoppello - He stripped himself of his institutional role and washed his face. "For the faith, only for the faith," he explained. In the early afternoon this special citizen of Lettomanoppello did that which his fellow townspeople had been doing for hours. We speak of Luciano D'Alfonso, President of the Province of Pescara, elected from the ranks of the Progressisti (a political party), who arrived like so many others at the spring of Celestino V, scrupulously emphasizing that he, born in Lettomanoppello, was there only for religious reasons. He washed his face and then he left, trusting in God, like all those who had preceeded him. One person in the crowd had come from very far away, fulfilling one of the prophetic dreams of Nino Di Pietrantonio, who told of a woman of Camarda (a town near L'Aquila) whom he saw in a recent dream. He saw the town, where he has never been. He saw her house, which he has never visited, and repeatedly in the dream he told her that she must come and wash her face in the water of the spring so that her fate and that of her family would change. She, prudently, came to the spring and sought out Di Pietrantonio, to whom she recounted details that fit perfectly with the dream, and then she washed her face: "I came here because I read about the dream and I felt that it was I. I have someone at home who has need of this water." A little miracle, added to that felt by so many people at this little spring, located not far from the church of the Little Icon (Church of the Iconicella), where the statue of the Madonna of Constantinople has resided for ages. And there is another who tells of having felt the effect of the miraculous water - Costantino Di Pietrantonio, an elderly man of the town, for whom walking was painful because of arthritis: "I drank the water and I feel better, now I can even run." |