The church of S. Maria della Fontanella was built in the place where centuries ago, I don't know when, a convent of monks stood. Let's not forget that it was a short distance from the Church of the "Knights of the Temple" of which the small village Tempio keeps the memory. This convent sank underground due to an earthquake. “It sank and how? Because? Because the area was and still is impregnated with water. The municipality is Fontanelle, a name that reveals the presence of many water sources. It was swampy terrain; for this, I think, the convent and the church were swallowed up.
The church was called for this reason: "Santa Maria del Palù". But now the area is cultivated in a superlative form; and therefore it is good to call it "Santa Maria della Fontanella". Under the altar stood and still stands a fountain that gave and which gives its clear and fresh water: a symbol of that water of which Jesus spoke: "whoever is thirsty, come to me and drink".
Don Emilio Girelli had the good idea of reviving that past, the ruins of which are five or six meters deep, as far as I have heard. Don Emilio, therefore, had the current and pretty octagonal church built. And my mother, she told me, was so eager to attend the inauguration on March 25, 1924. But she couldn't: I was in her womb. I was born on March 27, two days later. This is why I consider it a bit my little church. And my mother who knows how fervently she will have prayed for me, not yet born. And Our Lady was good to her and to me. I was parish priest in Jafa di Nazareth, a suburb of Nazareth, for forty-two years. I love to attribute this grace to my mother's prayers: and so Our Lady took me from S. Maria della Fontanella to her village where she truly received the announcement of the archangel Gabriel.
I also want to remember that Jafa di Nazaret, according to tradition, is the native town of S. Giovanni and S. Giacomo, patron saint of the Church of Colfrancui, where I was baptized on March 31, 1924.
I have seen and heard that S. Maria delle Fontanella is very venerated. I always saw it full of fresh flowers and candles. I remember that when I was little, under the age of five, many people came to our house, to be able to take holy water from under the altar. One day my mother sent me to fill a bottle of this water for a woman who stayed with her. I returned with the empty bottle and told her: "Mom, the water is deep. and I almost fell into it ”. Mom put her hands on her frightened face and said: "But what did I do?". I did not fall because Our Lady was waiting for me in Nazareth.