As I've mentioned before, many of my paternal grandmother's ancestors came from the hill town of Mondolfo, in Marche, Italy. I have visited several times, and made a point of stopping by Santa Giustina, the church where generations of my ancestors were …  | By petrini1 on August 1, 2024 | As I've mentioned before, many of my paternal grandmother's ancestors came from the hill town of Mondolfo, in Marche, Italy. I have visited several times, and made a point of stopping by Santa Giustina, the church where generations of my ancestors were baptized and married. Just before this summer's trip to Mondolfo, I discovered that a third cousin several times removed, Giuseppe Piccioli (1827-1887) was actually a parish priest at Santa Giustina. I have not yet been able to determine where the Piccioli family home was, or multiple homes, I guess. But I did learn the location of the rectory where Giuseppe lived! The wall to the left of the house is part of the church.  This is the rectory of Chiesa di Santa Giustina, in Mondolfo. It was difficult to find because the street name has changed since my cousin Giuseppe Piccioli was parish priest there in the 1800s. The new name of the street, "Via Septembre XX." refers to the day in 1870 when Rome fell to the Italian army and became part of Italy, wresting it from the political control of the Vatican and completing the goal of Italian unification. Rome had been a holdout since 1861. This all happened during Giuseppe's lifetime; the street name must have been changed later. I wonder what it would have been like for a parish priest in a distant part of Italy to hear of the events in Rome. Would he have welcomed a unified country, or mourned the Catholic Church's loss of political power? | | | |  | You can also reply to this email to leave a comment. | | | | |
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