A Sign of the Transfiguration of the Lord

"Jesus took Peter, James and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light." Matthew 17:1-9

In 1690 the Capuchin Friars of the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello established that August 6 would be the feast of the Holy Face to coincide with the solemn liturgy of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Some time later the Archbishop of Chieti and the superior of the Capuchins agreed that the external celebration of the feast of the Holy Face would be transferred to the second Sunday of May, which later was changed to the third Sunday of May, as it is in our time. However the feast of the Transfiguration remains to this day intimately connected to the history and devotion of the Shrine of the Holy Face