The martyrs of Castelfidardo / I leave
Reporting of Federici Studies Center
Il 18 September marks the anniversary of the battle fought in 1860 between Loreto and Castelfidardo, which saw the papal army and the Sardinian army pitted against each other, now Italian. We remember the pontifical heroes who sacrificed themselves for the papal cause with moving quotes taken from Mons' four-volume work. Alberto Canestrari: “The soul of Pius IX as it revealed itself and was understood by the Saints” (Marino, Santa Lucia typography, 1966). Mons. Canestri drew the information from the book of the Marquis Anatole de Ségur: “The Martyrs of Castelfidardo” (Paris 1861).
THE DEAD IN THE FIELD.
In Castelfidardo and Loreto, a requiem mass is celebrated for the fallen of both sides. The dead on the two fronts are temporarily buried at the site of the clash.
Pontiffs. Dead 7 officials, 81 soldiers, for a total of 88 fallen collected in the field. “The bodies of those brave men (to the pope) he died (Cialdini) confused together in a large pit..." (O’Clery 1893: 2165-218).