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Lucia Pisapia Apicella, known as Mamma Lucia, was a woman of humble origins and great selflessness, who distinguished herself in the immediate post-war period by recovering and returning the bodies of German soldiers abandoned on the ground to their families.

Shocked by the sight of some boys playing with the skull of a soldier and driven by a vision in a dream, Lucia began her mission, accompanied by two grave diggers and a relative, Carmela Pisapia Matonti. She cleared and gathered the bones into zinc boxes made at her own expense, carefully cataloging personal belongings and documents of the deceased. Despite the risks, such as the presence of unexploded bombs and the abandonment of the grave diggers, Lucia continued alone, driven by faith and love for those young “sons of mothers” who had died far from home.

In 1951, she was invited in Germany, where she was welcomed as “Mama Luzia”. She received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1959, she was awarded the Commandery of Merit of the Italian Republic and proclaimed honorary citizen of Salerno.

The people of Cava are still very connected to the figure of Mamma Lucia, and in her honor, a museum was inaugurated in 2020.