During the dark days of World War II, Mount Vesuvius erupted on 22 March 1944. Santa Maria del Principio's parish priest Don Giorgio Tarallo, repeated the offer of refuge within the church, and as in 1855 the statue of Saint George was used to protect the commune from the approaching lava. The lava reached virtually all the way to the steps of the church before stopping (at zone via Amendola). Another procession was added ten years later in honour of the 'miracle'. In 1968 under the parish priest Don Francesco Sannino the two processions of the first and second Sunday of May were reduced to one on the second Sunday of May. In 1972, with the parish priest Don Pasquale Ascione changed the main procession to the fourth Sunday of May.