On the evening of 18th August 1878, the Carabinieri and soldiers arrived in Bagnore, the house where David had died a few hours earlier, and searched everywhere for the flags and costumes which had been worn during the procession. Conceived by David and designed by Giuseppe Corsini, who had also painted the banners, the clothes had been made on Monte Labbro in early August. The red, white and blue cotton fabrics, red woollen sweaters, headbands, caps, and red and yellow-gold silk cords were all from Turin, where Lazzaretti had stayed years before as a guest of Don Bosco. The boxes containing the clothes arrived at Monte Amiata station, which had been inaugurated a few years earlier, in 1872. A rumour spread that they were in fact rifles, that the mountain supported the republic, that communism was being taught there, and that a riot was being planned. The fragile, rare, red sweaters from the procession that were preserved and repaired were still strongly evocative however. Photographs, which had been a carefully guarded secret for years, clearly show the sweaters being worn by Lazzaretti’s old followers, some of whom even requested to be buried in them! David's cloak, which was blue with a red lining, and the French-made feathered hat that he wore during the procession come from the collections of the National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions.
