Madonna del Sasso

Marian Invocation of Orselina (Locarno) (Tesino)

La advocación de la Madonna del Sasso is linked, according to the traditionwith an apparition of the Virgin Mary to fray Bartolomeo d’Ivrea en 1480, on a cliff over Locarno, in Orselina, by the Lake Mayor. This devotional memory explains the origin of the sanctuary and its name, "de la Roca," very widespread in Italian Switzerland.

Main data

Origin and history

La advocación de la Madonna del Sasso is linked, according to the traditionwith an apparition of the Virgin Mary to fray Bartolomeo d’Ivrea en 1480, on a cliff over Locarno, in Orselina, by the Lake Mayor. This devotional memory explains the origin of the sanctuary and its name, "de la Roca," very widespread in Italian Switzerland.

La documented history the sanctuary shows that the place soon became a regional pilgrimage center and the main Marian shrine of the Tesino. The Orselina complex is today associated with the shrine of the Madonna del Sasso and to the long continuity of a devotion rooted in the diocese of Lugano and in Italian Switzerland.

The image and the sanctuary

The venerated image is a representation of the Virgin Mary under the title of Madonna del Sasso; in the sources consulted there is a devotion to the image, but no con seguridad in the results provided the precise material description of the size or painting, so that data should be reserved.

The place of worship is the Sasso Madonna Sanctuary, en Orselina (Locarno), Canton del Tesino, Switzerland, erected on a rock that dominates Lake Major. The sources present it as the principal Marian sanctuary of the Italian Suiza; no specific ecclesiastical designation as a minor basilica or national / diocesan sanctuary is included in the results.

Sponsorship and coronation

In the results consulted no consta an unequivocal official patronage of city, municipality, diocese or nation for this advocation in the terms requested.

Neither contains a documented canonical coronation in the sources provided.

Party and devotion

The great pilgrimage of the sanctuary is celebrated August 15the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the main date of local devotion.

The pilgrim tradition of Madonna del Sasso is characterized by its strong popular roots in the Tesino and its status as a reference sanctuary for Italian Switzerland.

Link to the Rosary

In the sources provided does not contain a specific and documented historical link between the Madonna of the Sasso and a unique fellowship, title or practice of the Rosary. It can be said, in the general Marian sense, that the pilgrimage to a sanctuary of the Virgin is usually naturally linked to the prayer of the Rosary as contemplative prayer of the life of Christ with Mary, especially in places of long devotional tradition like this.