Archangela Soave, mother of Angela and Josephine LaRosa, was from Sant’ Elia, Flumerapido in the province of Frofinone. Sant’ Elia, Flumerapido covers approximately 15.4 square miles and today has a population of 6,441. It is located approximately 100 miles south of Rome and approximately 125 north of Naples. It’s center is full of simple structures although they appear elegant. The architecture has small rooms, small doors, arches, angles, steps and alleys in a tangle of wonderment not giving even a hint of abandonment in some of their buildings. Fine stone work can be found in many of Sant’ Elia’s structures that lend to it’s elegant yet simple appeal.
The manufacturing industry of Sant’ Elia was well ahead of it’s time. The fabrication of cloth was present in the Middle Ages documented in 1268. Such industry increased with time. One factory (picano) was active until 1942. Another industry was the art of tannery for the production of skins. In 1592 the "Cartiera of the Express" originated the production of paper that was necessary for it’s monumental library. In 1856 more than 1,000 people were engaged in Sant’ Elia’s industrial activity. Today most of the factories are becoming a thing of the past and the village is turning some of the existing factory buildings into institutions of Museums of the Industrial Archaeology.
Sant’ Elia’s greatest asset was it’s industrial center and trade until the first half of the 1900’s. From the time of the first post-war period and above all after World War II, Sant’ Elia has known the sad phenomenon of emigration. The wars left the destruction of the factories and an unemployment crisis that citizens were forced to try to find jobs in other European countries and later in the United States and Canada.
