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family of Villa Santa Maria. The statues in the church were of those of St. John the Baptist, St. Roch, St. Anthony of Padua, the Madonna del Carmine, St. Agatha, and that of St. Vincenzo Ferreri, the patron and protector of Fallo. In back of the church there was the holy water font, a veined dark and white stone shell held by the bust of a woman with exposed breasts which we as children contemplated and furtively touched. In back of the church there was also a narrow spiral stairway that led to the balcony above where the organ was
located. The back of the church and the balcony above were reserved for the few men who went to church for the religious services. The men stood up and never sat. Only the women sat in the pews of the church (there were only chairs before the pews were purchased in the early '30s). The men also sang the traditional Gregorian Mass at Christmas and carried the statues of Saints in processions through the village on religious holidays.

The old belfry attached to the church and built with the same gray

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stones, like every structure in the village, had three bells of different size.
The largest of the bells, the " Campanone", was dedicated to St. Vincenzo Ferreri and was cast in 1883. It had a deep rich peal and it was used in every occasion with the other bells. It rang alone to announce the "Ventunore" (33 peals
at 3 o' clock in the afternoon in memory of Christ's age at the time of his death ). The middle size bell, "the Mezzana", had a sharper but still mellow peal, while the smallest,"the campanello", had an acute sound. This last bell was often cracked and not used. Bells played an important role in the village. They rang three times to announce the masses or vespers, they rang to keep storms and hail away, and they rang in harmony and for a long time on holidays. This last practice was cherished by the boys chosen to ring the bells for the occasion. To climb the belfry and ring the bells was almost a rite of passage for the boys. The bells also announced someone's death with a slow cadence of a single peal from each bell. This could be heard even far away in the fields, and the workers crossed themselves wondering who had died.