Our Lady of Caravaggio

Advocación mariana de Farroupilha (Rio Grande do Sul)

La advocación de Our Lady of Caravaggio nace de una Marian tradition linked to an alleged occurrence in Caravaggio, Lombardy, Italy, 26 May 1432. According to this tradition, the Virgin appeared to a young peasant named Giannetta de’ Vacchi - also called Joaneta in some versions - and, as a sign, it had a water source sprout at the place of apparition; hence the alternative title of Santa María de la Fuente. This is the devotional basis of the advocation, but it belongs to the plane of the pious tradition, not to a verifiable historical documentation of the supernatural fact.

Main data

Origin and history

La advocación de Our Lady of Caravaggio nace de una Marian tradition linked to an alleged occurrence in Caravaggio, Lombardy, Italy, 26 May 1432. According to this tradition, the Virgin appeared to a young peasant named Giannetta de’ Vacchi - also called Joaneta in some versions - and, as a sign, it had a water source sprout at the place of apparition; hence the alternative title of Santa María de la Fuente. This is the devotional basis of the advocation, but it belongs to the plane of the pious tradition, not to a verifiable historical documentation of the supernatural fact.

La documented history it refers mainly to the later veneration and the development of the Italian sanctuary. The sanctuary of Caravaggio began to be built in 1575with the encouragement of the archbishop san Carlos Borromeo and project attributed to Pilgrim TibaldiThe works were extended for centuries, and the temple was raised to in 1906 por Pío X. The devotion came to Brazil for the work of inmigrantes italianos; en Farroupilha, Rio Grande do Sul, started with an oratory raised in 1879 And it was growing to consolidate there the great pilgrimage center of the Serra Gaúcha.

The image and the sanctuary

In the sanctuary of Farroupilha a image of Our Lady of Caravaggio which, according to the local history of the place, was modeled by the artist Stangherlin, en Southern caxias, en 1885; the model would have been a black and white picture of 1724 from Italy. The traditional iconography of this advocation represents the Virgin together with the seer, with a flowering branch as a memory of the sign associated with the apparition. There is no more detailed official description of the material or plastic features of the main image of the sanctuary in the sources consulted.

The main temple is the Shrine of Our Lady of Caravaggio, en Farroupilha (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), considered the greatest Marian sanctuary dedicated to this advocation in Brazil. The construction of the present sanctuary was carried out between 1945 y 1963; is a building of Roman stylewide, with approximate capacity for 2,000 people. The sources consulted present it as a great pilgrimage sanctuarybut it is not in them that it is a minor basilica, a national sanctuary or a diocesan sanctuary.

Sponsorship and coronation

Our Lady of Caravaggio is Patrona de Farroupilha and has a strong pastoral connection with the Diocesis of Caxias do Sul, then 1959 was declared by the Holy See patron of that diocese. In the devotional practice of the Serra Gaúcha, its patronage extends to many communities of Italian influence, and on 26 May it is usually celebrated as a day of daily religious in several municipalities of the region.

No consta una documented canonical coronation in the sources consulted.

Party and devotion

La main party se celebra el 26 May, date of apparition according to tradition and liturgical / devotional day widely associated with this advocation. In Farroupilha, the sanctuary concentrates a large annual rosemarywith pilgrimages, masses and popular expressions of Marian piety; the sources emphasize that the place receives an increasing number of pilgrims and that devotion has been consolidated as the main Marian center of the Gaucha Serra.

The local tradition retains very concrete features: the memory of water from the source linked to the apparition, the prayer before the image of the sanctuary and the custom of going to Rome, especially around May 26. The references consulted insist on the massive and stable nature of the pilgrimage, although they do not provide a unique and verifiable number of annual inflow.

Link to the Rosary

The devotion to Our Lady of Caravaggio is closely linked to Rosary in popular praxis: some sources describe that the celebrations of May 26 are included Masses, processions and prayers of the rosary. There is no doctrinal link exclusive to this advocation with a concrete mystery of the Rosary; however, its Marian spirituality is naturally integrated into the contemplation of Christ with Mary, who is the center of the rosarian prayer.

In a devotional fact sheet, it should be emphasized that the Rosary accompanies this advocation as a prayer of pilgrims: she presents Mary as a Mother who leads to Christ, and harmonizes well with a piety born of the tradition of apparition, de la rosemary y del sanctuary.