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Cercemaggiore is a teeny-tiny rustic village located
in the mountainous province of Molise, 90 miles
northeast of Naples. The name is long but it has
simple origins: "cerce" means "oak tree," and
"maggiore" means "larger." The oak trees near
our old hometown were larger than the ones near the
village down the road, hence, we were christened
"Larger Oak Trees." The other village became
Cercepiccolo, which, of course, means "Home of the
World's Largest Shadoon."
No it doesn't. It means "Smaller Oak Trees." You already knew that. So, it's clear our ancestors weren't exactly lyric poets when it came to naming towns, but the names stuck, and a big oak tree, like the one that decorates our homepage, soon became the dominant symbol on Cerce's coat-of-arms. Historical Highpoints The area around Cercemaggiore was first settled by human beings during the Neolithic Age, a murky period at the dawn of time, just before the advent of the lupini bean. But our ancestors don't appear in world history until a few hundred years before Christ, when they fought off invading Roman legions with stones and clubs. They also practiced a very effective form of martial arts which involved smacking the Romans on the top of the head with an open palm when they were least expecting it, and shouting "l'scoop!!!!" or something, loud enough to startle the invaders out of their wits. (If you've felt it, you know what I mean.) Eventually, though, the Romans conquered Cerce and ruled it for centuries. After the fall of Rome, the town was invaded by European barbarians, (which caused the quality of the cuisine to dramatically decline.) Then came the Saracens, who were way too tall to l'scooop! In feudal times, the French Bourbon kings took over (which may account for our family's distinctive continental flair), and somewhere in there were the Greeks who left in disgust when they couldn't persuade anyone to give up their provolone in favor of feta. The town had other troubles, including a notorious brigand whose gang raided the countryside, murdering the men, abducting the women, plundering and looting wildly, and generally being a great big pain in the keister. His name, by the way, was Francesco Sabatini, who was no relation, I'm sure, to our Sabatines, who are all very nice and not plunderers or pillagers by any means. Eventually, Francesco was caught and, according to the enlightened penal practices of the time, immediately shot. The Legend of the Madonna Sometime during the fifth century, when the Saracens and other invaders were running roughshod over Mediterranean Europe and desecrating Christian churches and shrines, the people of Cercemaggiore placed their precious statue of La Madona Della Libera in a big clay pot and buried it in a field, to protect it from destruction. The statue stayed put for nearly a thousand years, until in 1412, a farmer felt his plow hit something in the sod. He dug up the pot and found the Madonna inside. Legend says a spring bubbled up from the earth in that spot, with miraculous properties. (Oddly enough, the only one to take advantage, as far as we know, was a guy whose dog fell in the water and got cured of rabies, which might sound like the waste of a perfectly good miracle but hey, dogs need something to believe in, too.) Anyway, the recovery of the Madonna was a miraculous event for the people of Cercemaggiore, who gave thanks by building a shrine in her honor. You can still visit the shrine, and see the fabled statue, today. (Gary Spino has some good shots of it in the video of his trip to Cercemaggiore earlier this year). When the people of Cercemaggiore came to America, they brought their love of La Madonna Della Libera with them. And when they built their little church on Highland Ave., they named it after the Madonna whose name, in English is Our Lady of Grace. |
 Explore Cercemaggiore at MapQuest.      Hilltop section of Greensburg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
