Nuestra Señora del Trompone (Moncrivello, Italy)

Where is he?

The Shrine of the Blessed Vergine del Trompone is located in the town of Trompone, within the municipality of Moncrivello, province of Vercelli, in the Italian Piedmont. The institutional source of the sanctuary is located next to the state road 595, between Cigliano and Villareggia. The cartographic point of this sheet corresponds to the place of worship identified by OpenStreetMap; it does not intend to point out the exact point of the trunk or scene narrated by tradition.

Documented history

The institutional page of the Trompone presents the sanctuary as a place of Marian devotion linked to a story dated June 26, 1562. According to that source, the Virgin would have appeared to Domenica Millianotto on a thumpa or a large trunk, and the sanctuary was then raised in the place. The same page relates the continuity of the work of assistance to the House of Cura Mons. Luigi Novarese, located next to the sanctuary. The present existence of the sanctuary, its community and its care activities is an institutional fact; it does not amount to turning every extraordinary element of the story into a proven fact.

Contemporary devotion also has a concrete ecclesial reference. The site of the sanctuary reports that the archbishop of Vercelli, Enrico Masseroni, issued a decree on 18 June 2006 that consented to a particular veneration of the Virgin of the Trompone as a protector of epilepsy patients. This data documents an authorization of veneration and a pastoral orientation; the source does not formulate it as a modern declaration of supernatural apparition.

Tradition

The tradition tells that Domenica Millianotto suffered several diseases and that, on June 26, 1562, she saw the Virgin on a trunk. The story states that Mary cured her and that the event led to the construction of the sanctuary on the initiative of Gabriella di Valperga, a consort of the Marquis de Moncrivello. This narrative belongs to the devotional memory of the place and is presented here as a received tradition, not as a transcript of a contemporary act that allows to check every detail.

Legend and limits of the record

The details of the apparition, the healing and the causal relationship between the event and each later stage of the building form the extraordinary core of the story. It is not said here that there is a modern medical test of healing or a decree that declares the apparition supernatural. The word "miracle," when it appears in the institutional presentation of the sanctuary, is preserved as a language of devotion and does not become an independent conclusion of this fact sheet.

Ecclesial State

It consists of a Catholic sanctuary with public veneration and an episcopal decree of 18 June 2006 that allows a particular veneration of the Virgin of the Trompone as a protector of the patients of epilepsy. This record is therefore recorded. permitted veneration. This decree is not presented as an approval of the supernatural of all the events of 1562, nor is it said that the faithful are obliged to believe in the apparition.

Anecdotes and stories

A unique feature of the Trompone is the proximity between the sanctuary and the health work that continues to care for sick and disabled people. The institutional source explains that the current centre was opened on 7 October 2006 and that the care activity was subsequently accredited within the regional health system. This social dimension helps to understand contemporary advocation as a place where Marian veneration and care for the sick appear united, without confusing the health service with a test of the supernatural account.

Prayer

Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, intercedes for those who live with disease, disability or fragility. Teach us to care patiently, to seek the truth without exaggeration and to put all hope in God. Amen.

Sources

• Sanctuary of Trompone, «The apparition and history», institutional source, HTTP 200.
• OpenStreetMap Nominatim, Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine del Trompone, HTTP 200.