In Loreto Aprutino, an ox is the most blessed of all. Every possible attention is given to an ox: plenty of food, no work and plenty of caresses..

Gentlemen! Take off your hats: it is Saint Sopito's ox!

Saint Sopito's feast arrives. The Saint's statue is carried in procession, and behind the Saint, the ox.

The slow animal, which was never "involved in the clod " (had never worked in the fields) advances majestic. They have embellished his tail and horns with tinsels and ribbons. The ox is covered with a red mantle, and a white dressed boy rides it: white and red: the green will come later.

The crowd is incredible, because there is no neighboring town that has not sent its own contingent. The procession reenters and Saint Sopito goes in. The ox stops in front of the church's door. All eyes are on the ox.

- Do you see it? Do you see it? Has it learned the lesson? -

Yes, gentlemen: the ox knows its duty: the ox kneels! It gets up with difficulty, and enters the church among the applauses and the attention of the bystanders.

I believe even the animal is moved, because in that same moment it unloads the unnecessary weight. The faithful argue about the abundance or scarcity of the harvesting by the quantity of the unloaded matter!

Why did you break the Tables, o Moses, when you saw the Golden Calf? What would you have said if you saw the live ox of Saint Sopito?