Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Noto, heir to the Head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, has presented -as Grand Prefect of the Constantinian Order- to His Excellency Msgr. Giuseppe La Placa, Bishop of Ragusa in Sicily, the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Constantinian Order granted in 2021 by the Grand Master and has delivered to him the diploma of appointment with the royal seal, in the presence of the Order’s delegates for Sicily, Salvatore Bordonali di Pirato and Ferdinando Testoni Blasco.
During their meeting, the Prince expressed to Bishop La Placa his wish to visit Ragusa and the Cathedral of Saint George, who is the Patron Saint of the Sacred Constantinian Order, and Bishop expressed his desire for a prompt visit and stated that it would honour the diocese of Ragusa. Before leaving the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, Prince Jaime stopped to venerate the silver urn containing the relics of Saint Corrado Confalonieri.
The Prince paused to state: “In this splendid basilica I have been able to contemplate the immutable beauty of a temple of worship that, despite the wounds caused by the earthquake and the damage of the nineties, has not stopped beating in a renewed way as the heart of the Church in Noto, enlivened by the numerous faithful involved in ecclesial life and in civil society.”
The Duke of Noto emphasized that “following in the footsteps of my predecessors I return to bear witness to my service to the city and to the Church in Noto.” The Prince reaffirmed that, in fidelity to the Roman Pontiff, as borne witness by his own Family and their Christian life for centuries, the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies will always be at the side of the Church of Sicily, helping as much as they can this splendid land that was among the first to receive the proclamation of the Gospel, in Syracuse with Saint Paul already in the 5th century AD, in Christian communities that were already present from an even earlier time.
Among a huge number of Sicilian faithful, the crown prince of the thousand-year-old Sicilian dynasty, accompanied by the Mayor of Noto, Corrado Figura, left the cathedral amid many spontaneous invitations to him and to the entire Royal Family to return soon and to visit the ancient monuments of the Ducal city.
