Our Lady of the Navicella (Chioggia)

Marian devotion

The advocation of Our Lady of the Navicella is linked to Sottomarina, in the territory of Chioggia, next to the coast of the Italian Veneto. The church-present sanctuary retains the memory of a Marian cult born on the coast and linked to the life of the clodian community.

Where is he?

The sanctuary is located in Chioggia, in the area of Sottomarina, province of Venice, Veneto region. The location of the map corresponds to the building identified by OpenStreetMap as the Shrine della Beata Vergine della Navicella, in Via P. Cicogna, Brondolo. The coordinate points to the building of the modern sanctuary, not an invented coordinate for the exact place of the 1508 story.

Documented history

The Diocese of Chioggia presents the memory of the Navicella as a diocesan tradition celebrated for centuries. According to the diocesan source, the story is located in the afternoon or night of 24 June 1508, after a very violent time that affected the territory of Chioggia. The protagonist is Baldissera Zalon, described as a hortelan. The diocese also retains the memory of a temple raised in the place related to the event and of the pilgrimages that came there.

The diocesan pastoral documentation allows you to follow some moments in the history of the sanctuary and its feast. The procession did not always maintain the same date: the celebration was linked first to August 5, then to July 2 and 20, and the Synod of 1616 considered this last date as a feast of precept. A decree of Bishop Giovanni Benedetto Maria Civran, dated May 1, 1779, reregulated the feast and procession. In 1860 it was authorized to move the celebration to June 25, a date that the diocese continues to associate with the memory of the apparition.

The historic sanctuary was destroyed in 1799, when the Napoleonic troops put it into military storage and then the building was demolished. The venerated image was transferred, after several vicissitudes, to the urban church of San Giacomo Aéstolo, in Chioggia. During World War II, Bishop Fray Giovanni Giacinto Ambrosi made a vote on January 1, 1944, asking for the protection of the Virgin for the city. The diocese relates that vow to the rebuilding of the sanctuary on its ancient foundations.

The reconstructed temple was consecrated on June 25, 1957 by Bishop Giovanni Battista Piacentini. The diocesan source indicates that his pastoral care was entrusted first to the capuchin friars of the Venetian province and then to the secular clergy. On March 23, 1988, a new wooden image was placed in the present sanctuary by Hermann Josef Runggaldier, a faithful reproduction of the original painting venerated in San Giacomo.

The tradition of Navicella

The diocesan tradition tells that, after the time, Baldissera Zalon heard a voice coming from the shore and saw a Lady sitting on a trunk. The story identifies that Lady with the Virgin Mary. The message that tradition puts on its lips calls for conversion, penance and respect for the holiday, and also mentions the blasphemy and disorderly customs of the inhabitants of Chioggia. We present these details as part of the story transmitted by the diocese, not as facts whose supernatural has been demonstrated on our own.

The Italian name Navigation, small ship or nozzle, belongs to the devotional identity of the place. The sources consulted do not allow to state with precision that the name comes from a historical event independent of the story; they do show that the image, the sanctuary and the feast have been attached to the maritime memory of Sottomarina and Chioggia.

The annual party also retains a civic and community dimension. The diocesan memory recalls the participation of the bishop, the cathedral chapter, the authorities of the city, the cofradies and the faithful. In recent years, the solemn celebration, the pilgrimage from San Giacomo and the procession through the streets near the sanctuary have been documented. These acts do not in themselves add a judgment on the apparition, but they do show how advocation is part of the public and spiritual life of Chioggia.

Ecclesial State

The Diocese of Chioggia maintains the liturgical and pastoral celebration of the advocation, the parish-sanctuary and the annual feast, which documents a living Marian cult and received in the diocese. A formal decree declaring the apparition of 1508 to be supernatural is not contained in the cross-cutting sources. This is why it does not appear here as an approved apparition: the existing cult is distinguished from a specific ecclesial judgment on the supernatural origin of the story.

Devotion and prayer

The memory of the Navicella gathers prayer, procession and request for protection for a community linked to the sea. The diocesan acts have included the celebration of the bishop, the pilgrimage from San Giacomo and the procession after the solemn Mass. In this devotion, Mary is venerated as the Mother of Jesus and is asked to intercede before Him; worship corresponds only to God.

Prayer: Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus and Lady of the Navicella, accompanies the families of Chioggia and those who work at sea. Teach us to turn the heart, to live with respect and to seek in Christ the peace we need. It intercedes for those who sail, for those who wait for their return and for those who suffer any danger. Pray for us and take us always to your Son. Amen.

Sources

• Diócesis de Chioggia: Madonna of the Navicella.
• Diocese of Chioggia: the account and reconstruction of the sanctuary.
• OpenStreetMap: Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Navicella.

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Documented extension

The national register of churches of the Italian Catholic Church identifies the current building as the Shrine of Blessed Maria Vergine della Navicella, in Sottomarina, Chioggia. The architectural chart describes a church articulated in three bodies, with a brick exterior porch and a cyborium in the center of the altar, where the statue of the Madonna della Navicella is preserved. This fact helps to distinguish the current building from the historic sanctuary destroyed in 1799 and from the urban church of San Giacomo that guarded the image during the vicissitudes of devotion.

The continuity of the feast and pilgrimage belongs to the religious history of Chioggia. The Diocese of Chioggia documents the participation of the bishop, the cathedralicio chapter, the civil authorities, the cofradies and the faithful. This diocesan reception proves the existence of a cult and pastoral practice; it does not amount to a specific decree declaring the apparition of 1508 supernatural.