The rites in honor of the Madonna delle Grazie and the feast of July 2 in the past

The feast in honor of the Madonna delle Grazie, celebrated on 2 July, is still deeply felt today. A custom belonging to the most ancient tradition but which has come down to the present day, even if weakened compared to the past, is the custom of displaying Marian banners or good blankets in the windows, on the occasion of the passage of the effigy of the Madonna, carried in procession for the streets of the town and accompanied by songs and litanies.
For fifty years the wooden effigy has been carried in procession and no longer the terracotta one, which is very fragile and precious to the community. A vehicle is used for transport, while in the past the image was carried on the shoulder. The bearers of the Virgin and Child wore a red sash to further solemnize the anniversary and took turns many times, to allow more faithful to carry the statue. Also until the mid-twentieth century, there were also women and men who, for particular devotional reasons or to fulfill vows, walked up the slope towards the church of the Madonna delle Grazie on their knees. In general, these were votes expressed to bring back children and husbands from the war, to invoke protection on emigrated relatives or to thank the Madonna for the grace received. Devotion led the people to ask for the intercession of the Madonna on the occasion of ailments and calamities. We still remember today the prodigy that occurred during the drought of 1777 and the vote of February 2, 1944, with which the counter-guerrillas asked the Virgin for divine intercession to avert the destruction of the town during the movement of the German front, after the collapse of Ortona . But the Counterguerresi also personally expressed votes to the Madonna delle Grazie and up until the 1960s the statue was almost completely covered with ex votos, many of which found a place in the niche. Among these, heavy coral necklaces stood out, donated by the women of the village. In the niche there were also copper plates of emigrants to America and several photographs.
Among the photographs was that of a little girl who had survived an epidemic which, in the 1920s, had killed a little sister and a grandmother in a few days. The child's mother, desperate, recommended herself to the Virgin to obtain her intercession and, after a few days of very high fever, the young woman recovered completely, leaving the village doctor amazed. Convinced that there had been divine intervention, to thank the Virgin the woman took the little girl to a photographer in Nereto and had a portrait made which, for several years, remained on display near the statue. The cured little girl, Giuseppina D'Anesio, known as Peppinella, then had another sister and three brothers. She passed away in 2021, aged 94. Signora D'Anesio still kept the precious photograph, which was returned to her by the parish priest, Don Francesco Pergolini, when he removed the ex voto from the niche of the Madonna.
In the procession of 2 July the hymns dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie were sung and Don Alfonso Panichi, in his essay La Madonna delle Grazie di Controguerra, collected four songs. With greater vigour, almost at the top of their lungs, these hymns were also sung when the effigy returned to church, for particular devotional reasons. These are repetitive sonorities, almost dirges, which served to accompany the passage of the sacred image and which were sung at the top of their lungs, with very scenic polyphonies and alternations of voices.