Our Lady of the Source of Caravaggio

Santa María del Fonte · Caravaggio (Italy)

In the fields of Caravaggio, near Bergamo, the tradition places an apparition of the Virgin in 1432 and a source of water tendered by miraculous. There the sanctuary of Santa Maria del Fonte rises.

Origin and history

According to tradition, on May 26, 1432, the Virgin appeared to the peasant Giannetta de 'Vacchi in the fields of Caravaggio, calling for conversion and penance and asking for a church to rise there. Next to the place sprout a water source to which they were soon attributed thanks to healing.

The account of the dialogue, the print on the stone and the miraculous character of the water belong to the devotional tradition. What is documented is the development of the sanctuary: in the 16th century, San Carlos Borromeo commissioned its extension to the architect Pellegrino Pellegrini, giving rise to the present great complex, a pilgrimage centre throughout Lombardy.

In the sources consulted there is no modern decree of recognition of the apparition as in Lourdes or Fatima; the Church has favored veneration and erected the sanctuary.