Our Lady of Consolation

Marian devotion of Reggio Calabria (Calabria)

La advocación de Our Lady of Consolation en Reggio Calabria is linked to an ancient Marian image venerated today in the Basílica del Eremo. The local tradition presents this devotion as deeply rooted in the religious history of the city, and the image has been recognized as a sign of protection and comfort for the Reggino people.

Main data

Origin and history

La advocación de Our Lady of Consolation en Reggio Calabria is linked to an ancient Marian image venerated today in the Basílica del Eremo. The local tradition presents this devotion as deeply rooted in the religious history of the city, and the image has been recognized as a sign of protection and comfort for the Reggino people.

As for the specific origin of the image, the documented history places it as a imagen napolitana del siglo XVI moved to Reggio Calabria, where its public cult was eventually consolidated. It does not contain, in the available sources, sufficient documentation to specify in more detail the exact date of the transfer and the initial circumstances of its arrival; therefore, these extremes should be left to the no consta.

Devotion was also expressed in liturgical forms that were typical of the Augustinian spirituality, where the Crown or Coronilla to the Virgin of Consolation appears as a practice extended since the 16th century in communities linked to the Order of St. Augustine. This connection helps to understand the dissemination of the title "Consolation" in different religious environments, although the advocation of Reggio Calabria has its own historical identity.

The image and the sanctuary

The venerated image in Reggio Calabria is a imagen napolitana del siglo XVI; the sources consulted do not provide in this material a complete technical description of the material, format or iconography, so those details should be entered as no consta. It is true that this is the image associated with the great civic-religious devotion of the city and its annual transfer for the main celebration.

The cult is concentrated in the Basílica del Eremo, the name by which the main sanctuary of this advocation is identified in Reggio Calabria. The exact legal category of the temple - for example, if it is minor basilica, diocesan sanctuary o National sanctuary-, so it should be expressed simply as Basílica del Eremo and leave other qualifiers as no consta.

Sponsorship and coronation

Our Lady of Consolation is the patron saint de Reggio Calabria. The sources consulted here do not credit an additional diocesan or national patronage with the same level of certainty, so these possible areas should be indicated as no consta.

The image was coronada en 1908. The available material does not contain with certainty the pontiff or the specific delegate who presided over the coronation, and should therefore be formulated as canonical coronation documented in 1908; pontiff or delegate does not contain.

Party and devotion

The main party is held second Saturday of September. A general source on the advocation of Consolation also mentions the 4 September as a liturgical date in other devotional contexts, but for Reggio Calabria the specific reference is that of second Saturday of September.

Devotion is characterized by a strong dimension popular and processional. The image is transferred every year to the cathedral, which manifests the link between the sanctuary of the Eremo, the city and its liturgical and civil life. The sources consulted do not provide in this set safe quantitative data on the influx, mass pilgrimages or other specific additional traditions; these aspects should therefore remain as no consta.

Link to the Rosary

There is no specific and exclusive historical relationship between this Our Lady of Consolation of Reggio Calabria and a brotherhood or title of Rosary in the revised sources. Even so, her Marian spirituality is naturally integrated into the prayer of the Rosary, because the Rosary contemplates Mary in her mysteries of joy, pain and glory, precisely as Mother who consular comfort and accompanies the faithful.

In a devotional form of this type, it can be expressed that the Rosary offers the most appropriate prayer framework to contemplate the Virgin of Consolation as Near mother, intercessor and shelterwithout establishing a particular historical link if it is not documented.