Gesualdo

Gesualdo is a rural town in the Samnite Apennines, situated between the Calore and Ufita rivers. It was founded during the Lombard period by Gesualdo of Benevento, founder of the Gesualdo family who held the surrounding area in fee.
Places of interest are the castle which was enlarged in the 16^th century, the 17^th-century Church of Santa Maria and the Parish church (1755) where 18th-century canvases and wooden statues of the Naples school are preserved.
The Capuchin convent was built at the expenses of Prince Don Carlo Gesualdo and it belonged to the religious province of Naples. After the 1866 suppression law, it was abandoned and in 1905 it was entrusted with the Capuchins of the province of Foggia.

Brother Pio spent about one month at the convent, which was once also a center for theological studies. He studied moral theology. There is no evident sign of Brother Pio's stay in this convent, except for the witness borne by his fellow students.

Padre Guglielmo of San Giovanni Rotondo, Brother Pio's fellow novitiate and student, said: "His continuous illnesses kept him away from us for long periods of treatment and, therefore, he was absent indefinitely. His absence was felt spontaneously, leaving the convent with this strong feeling of emptiness; we used to live in hope and expectation, feelings which comforted us, as we were certain that the lovable presence of Brother Pio was always with us. Every time he returned among us, it was as if he had never left, so strong and continuous was the memory we had of him. This was what the others and myself would feel, when we saw him again after several months, studying Holy Theology in Gesualdo … where, once again, he had come to stay.
He, too, had kept us equally alive in his memory and now, once again, he would show us his affection through his habitual ways of goodness and kindness. Again, owing to his health, he soon left Gesualdo to return to his father's house."

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