Jesuit shows Neapolitan Nuns how to prevent lightning and earthquakes.

[Weather] / [Nuns]. Pagella avuta da Lecce pel digiuno da farsi agli 8. Xbre per essere liberate dai fulmini. [With:] Alla Reverenda Madre La Superiora delle Monache Salesiane in Donnalbina… Reverenda Madre Superiora, Fin da che era nel Settembre ultima per occasione della Congreazione Provinciale in Napoli… [And with:] Deve digiunare in pane ed acque li [7] del mese di [Xbre] per ogni anno. In quel Giorno si deve confessare, comunicare, e recitare una terza parte di Rosario per implorare la speciale protezione di Maria Immacolate contro i fulmini, e i tremuoti: e deve recitare ogni Giorno in onere di ess Beatissima Vergine le seguenti parole… [Lecce:], letter signed by Giambattista Rossi, 1847. [27.2 x 21.7 cm the letter unfolded], [1] f. letterpress document with manuscript annotations, [1] f. manuscript letter with stamps and wax seal, and [1] f. cover sheet labeled in manuscript. Items well preserved, folded as intended.
 
 
Very unusual, unrecorded letterpress document produced in 1847 by the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception at the Jesuit church of S. Francesco in Lecce. The document instructs nuns how to “implore the special protection of ‘Maria Immacolata’ against lightning and earthquakes.” 
 
The sheet was included in a letter written by Giambattista Rossi, rector of the Jesuit College in Lecce, to the Mother Superior of the Salesian Sisters (Visitandines) at Sta. Maria Donnalbina in Naples. In the letter Rossi notes that, during his visit to Sta. Maria Donnalbina in the previous year, the nuns had expressed an interest in the ‘Madonna of Tunder’ (‘Madonna del Tuono’) statue venerated in Lecce. He therefore included in his letter a printed ‘page’ with instructions on how best to seek Her protection from storms and quakes.
 
The recommended formula for avoiding earthquakes and lightning is this: On a given day (here the form is filled out by hand indicating “7 December”) one must fast on bread & water, confess, take communion, recite a third of the rosary, and then say the prayer, “Benedetta sempre sia l’Immacolata Madre e Vergine Marià, che per grazia di Dio singolare fù Concetta senza macchia di peccato originale” (“Blessed always be the Immaculate Mother and Virgin Mary, who by the singular grace of God was conceived without stain of original sin”).
 
 
The letterpress sheet is not located by OPAC/ICCU/SBN, OCLC, or KVK.