In Abruzzo there is a saint to be invoked for any occasion or need. In the first place, in speaking of this region there is one observation to be made. Rome has always been considered geographically as the center of the peninsula, so much so that Rieti, a town near the capital, is nicknamed the “umbilicus italiae” (umbilical cord) of Italy.

It is therefore interesting to note that despite the fact that some parts of Abruzzo are even further north than Lazio (where Rome is located), this region has always been considered, curiously enough, a southern area and that it was part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; and its inhabitants were known either as Papalini, that is from Lazio which depended on the Papal State, or alternatively as Regnicoli because they were subjects of the King of the Two Sicilies.