Four brothers for the Catholic Church

Pietro (Peter Sr.) and Maria Michela Masi had 7 children:

1) Potito Paolo Francesco Maria de Sanctis (Castelgrande, 1817 - 1817)

2) Nicola Domenico Potito de Sanctis (Castelgrande, 1818 - Deliceto 1834). Educated since he was a child to religiosity, was hit by a Redemptorist Fathers' Mission, came to Castelgrande in 1832, so that he decided to go with them. He studied first in Ciorani (Salerno, Campania), then in Deliceto (Foggia, Puglia), where he passed his time praying, studying and doing religious exercises. He used to go away from his companions and used to flagellate his young body for penitence. When he died, at 16 y.o., the witnesses saw the Madonna's image and saw Nicholas who dying was speaking with her. His brother Don Alfonso (priest) wrote a Nicola' Life in 1868. For the centenary of his birth this book reprinted, in 1934. In 1997 a Redemptorist Father from Naples, Father Pirozzi wrote a book. To see some pictures and documents of Nicola click here.

3) Potito Ferdinando Maria de Sanctis (Castelgrande 1820 - 1894). He entered in Seminary in 1836 e became a Redemptorist in 1837. He was ordered Priest in 1844 in Pagani (SA). He was a very valid missionary and preacher . He became the Superior of the Materdomini Convent, in Caposele (Salerno), where he died in 1894 and is buried.

4) Domenico de Sanctis (my great-grand-father)

5) Rosina Maria de Sanctis (1826 - 1830).

6) Vincenzo Pasquale Antonio Stefano de Sanctis (Castelgrande 3/2/1829 - 1896). He studied in the Seminary of Muro Lucano (PZ). He was Archpriest of Castelgrande since 1883. He was faithful to the Bourbon Kings (the Kings of Naples) and with his brother Dominic organized the resistance in Castelgrande in 1860 against the rebels. He is buried in the Castelgrande Cemetery.

7) Alfonso de Sanctis (1833 - 1910). He studied in Naples at the Jesuit Convent and became a Jesuit Father. Since 1855 he was a teacher on Italian Letters at the high schools of Naples, since 1857 (till 1862) he teached in the Royal Medical College of Naples. Then he was Royal Chaplain in the Royal House of Care for Boys in Naples, till 1888 (a reformatory). In 1879 he was nominated "Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia. He went back to Castelgrande and since 1899 he became Archpriest. In 1903 he founded a Religious Order, the "Ordine del Sacro Ritiro di Suore del Preziosissimo Sangue" in the Convent of Castelgrande (House of St. Mary of the Angels). In 1906 he was nominated Vice-Conciliator in Castelgrande. He wrote a History of Italy and two essays about the priests' education and the education of the jails' guardians. With his brothers Potito and Vincenzo Pasquale he had a licence for celebration the St. Mass in his house where was prepared a Chapel. He died some days after his nephew Peter (1910 U.S.A).