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The Church of St Mary of the People in Cantalice: where the village became a community
In the heart of Cantalice, halfway up the stairway that cuts through the medieval village, lies the small square of Santa Maria del Popolo. The name is no accident: the church was built to seal the union of the ancient fortresses that went to form Cantalice Castle. The doorway bears a Latin inscription dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the date (before 1548). The church has three naves, six altars, and an Augustinian convent on the left side.
Inside: a journey through the 17th century and local devotion
The main altar is in polychrome stucco. Above it, a 17th-century painting depicts the Last Supper, and in the niche above there is a half-bust sculpture of the Virgin Mary and Child. The second altar on the left has a replica of Guido Reni's San Michele Arcangelo - the original, from 1635, is in the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini (Holy Mary of the Conception of the Capuchins) in Rome. The archangel is holding the scales for weighing souls; the inscription above reads "Defende nos in proelio".
Two illustrious locals
The church houses the funerary monuments of the town's two most famous sons: Giovan Battista Valentini, a humanist known as "il Cantalicio", and San Felice Porri (St Felix of Cantalice), patron saint of the village and the first saint in the history of the Capuchin Order (canonized in 1712). The friar's body rests in Rome, at Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on Via Veneto. Here only his image remains, with a simple, direct inscription: "Imago hic, Corpus Romae, Spiritus astra tenent".
