On 19 September 1903, Mgr. Felice Gianfelice, the diocesan bishop, as a solution to the lack of priests and needs of the people, wrote to the Capuchin Father General requesting the return of the friars to Campobasso. However, because no suitable housing for the Religious was available, his request remained unanswered. Simultaneously, on 15 December 1904, both the parish priest Don Carlo Pistilli and Mgr. Gianfelice wrote to the Provincial Fr. Pio of Benevento, offering him the custody of the shrine of “Our Lady del Monte,” a small isolated church on the summit of a mountain, overlooking the city, previously the funeral chapel of the Monforte family, then the parish church “Saint Mary Major” and which that very year of 1904, had been solemnly crowned with a Vatican decree.
With the custody of the shrine, the bishop also requested seven conditions. On 3 February 1905, the Provincial accepted the custody of the church and the seven conditions, however making a few changes to these and which the Bishop accepted. An intervention by a local Canon of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops and Regulars hindered the Capuchins hoped for return to Campobasso. On 15 February 1905, Mgr. Gianfelice petitioned at length the Cardinal Prefect of this Congregation in defence of the Capuchins.
The Canon’s appeal was rejected and on 25 May of that year, three Capuchin friars, amongst them the Provincial Fr. Pio of Benevento, took control of the shrine. They began to restore and adorn the little church, entrusting this work to Abele Valerio. On 30 May 1911, the church was solemnly inaugurated and the following day the traditional yearly procession at the end of May took place. A Pontifical edict of 18 May 1921, ratified and approved the 1905 concession of the Del Monte shrine to the Capuchin friars in perpetuity, with the blessing of the Holy See, so that repossession of it by the Diocesan Ordinary or the relinquishing of it by the Capuchins cannot be done without the Holy See’s approval. On 26 July 1921, a further edict from the Sacred Congregation of the Religious conceded to the Religious province the permission to minister this church in perpetuity. When the large “Sacred Heart” friary was opened in October 1931, the small fraternity of the shrine, in accordance with the ruling of the Congregation’s Chapter (earlier in August), became a Hospice under the Superior’s rule of the aforesaid friary. It remained so until 1954, when it became independent. Today the shrine is incorporated with the Sacred Heart friary in the city.