L’Aquila. Art and devotion in the sign of Mary

From architecture to painting and sculpture. L’Aquila art leads back to the Virgin. The history of the Basilica of Collemaggio as well as three highly significant works of art from a spiritual point of view that accompany the visit of Francis to the Abruzzo capital are testimony to this.

Paolo Ondarza – Vatican City

A story in the sign of Marian spirituality that of the city of L’Aquila. Starting with the Basilica of Collemaggio, dedicated to the Assumption and “commissioned” to the abbot and hermit Pietro Angelerio da Morrone, known in history as Pope Celestino V, by the Virgin Mary who appeared to him in a dream.





The Basilica of Santa Maria in Collemaggio

Three Marian images

Three works of art particularly dear to the Aquilians who will mark the visit of Francis on the occasion of the Perdonanza are also dedicated to Mary: on the altar that will be set up in the churchyard of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio for the celebration of Mass, on 28 August, before the opening of the Holy Door, the sacred image of Our Lady of the Cross will be placed, known as Madonna di Roio, already venerated in 1980 by John Paul II and in 2009 by Benedict XVI; in Piazza Duomo, on the occasion of the meeting with the families of the victims of the earthquake, the canvas of the Madonna del Popolo Aquilano, also known as “Salus Populi Aquilani”, recovered from the rubble by the Fire Brigade on May 3, will be exhibited of 2009; finally, also in Collemaggio, Francesco will stop in front of the urn of Celestino V under the maternal gaze of the Virgin and Child attributed to Saturnino Gatti, recently restored.

The Basilica of Collemaggio (anonymous engraver 1899)




The Basilica of Collemaggio (anonymous engraver 1899)

The shepherd and the finding of the wooden Madonna

The wooden sculpture of the Madonna di Roio, which takes its name from a fraction of L’Aquila, is “a thaumaturgical sculpture”, or to which miracles are attributed, “coming from the sanctuary of the Madonna della Croce in Roio and is particularly dear to devotion degli Aquilani ”, explains Gianluigi Simone, art historian of the Cultural Heritage Office of the Archdiocese of L’Aquila. “The legend would have it that it was found by a Lucolan shepherd who was in Ruvo di Puglia, near Bari, in the distant 1578. The sculpture, in reality, is older and can be dated between the seventh and eighth decade of the fifteenth century; it is attributed to Giovanni di Biasuccio: stylistically, therefore, it is part of the Aquila Renaissance ”.

A fresco of the Madonna di Roio




A fresco of the Madonna di Roio

In time of trial

However, the story of the L’Aquila shepherd who was in Puglia is an evident reference to the tradition of Transhumance: it describes a situation that was deeply rooted in the Abruzzo mountain reality: sheep breeding and wool processing were in fact among the main sources of sustenance of these lands. “The wintering of the flocks in the mild climate of the Tavoliere delle Puglie – continues Simone – was a process that was repeated annually, and which led to a contamination of the cults between Abruzzo and Puglia, as attested by the many local cults linked to San Michele Arcangelo or San Nicola di Bari. The link between the city of L’Aquila and the miraculous image of the Madonna di Roio has always been solid over the centuries, and was reaffirmed in the greatest difficulties: for example, in 1656, on the occasion of the plague, or in 1779, when it was implored against drought ”.

The Madonna of Roio




The Madonna of Roio

The crowns blessed by Pius XII

In the last century, when the Second World War was raging in Europe, Archbishop Carlo Confalonieri publicly made a triple vow to Our Lady of the Cross and on 15 October 1944, for the escaped danger, in the Piazza del Duomo in L’Aquila, placed on the heads of the Madonna he was born in Baby two crowns personally blessed by Pius XII.

Madonna of Collemaggio (detail)




Madonna of Collemaggio (detail)

The star on the head of San Bernardino

Instead, linked to San Bernardino, whose remains are preserved in the Aquilan basilica dedicated to him, is the Madonna di Collemaggio. “In 1506, at the request of the Lenten preacher Brother Angelo da Monteoliveto, the city decided to solemnize the memory of a prodigious event that took place in Collemaggio almost seventy years earlier, during a Marian-themed sermon pronounced by the Franciscan saint and theologian: the apparition of a star on his head ”.

The Madonna of Collemaggio




The Madonna of Collemaggio

An important terracotta sculpture was therefore commissioned: “always kept in Collemaggio – continues Gianluigi Simone – it is currently attributed to Saturnino Gatti, one of the main artists of the Aquilan Renaissance, a movement inspired by the art of Florence, the city with which L ‘ Aquila traded in wool, the real wealth of the Abruzzo mountains at the time ”. The total collapse of the transept of the Basilica of Collemaggio in 2009 resulted in a temporary museumization of the clay work that only a few months ago returned to the place that has always kept it, made safe thanks to an “anti-seismic base that should guarantee – in case of future new tremors – an amortized oscillation, able to avoid trauma and breakage ”.

The Madonna del Popolo from L'Aquila




The Madonna del Popolo from L’Aquila

Symbol of civic religiosity

The Madonna del Popolo from L’Aquila, co-sponsor of the city, painted on canvas and inspired by the Marian fresco venerated in the Sanctuary of Vallebona in Orvinio, in the province of Rieti. “The painting – continues Gianluigi Simone, who at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences” Fides et Ratio “in L’Aquila is also a professor of History of Modern Art -” was donated in 1723 to the church of San Marco Evangelista by the Capuchin Giuseppe Antonio da Trivigliano, who spread the cult. This venerable image gave birth to a specific brotherhood, destined to become a true symbol of civic religiosity, and which saw among its most illustrious members the Austrian emperor Charles VI, his wife and three daughters.

The Collemaggio post-earthquake construction site




The Collemaggio post-earthquake construction site

The memory of the victims of the earthquake

Today the image, recovered from the rubble by the Fire Brigade on May 3, 2009, subsequently restored and crowned again, is venerated in the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio: a copy is exhibited in the chapel of Remembrance, dedicated to the victims of the earthquake of April 6, 2009, while the original is kept in the monumental sacristy. The church of San Marco, severely damaged with extensive collapses from the 2009 earthquake, in fact has only recently seen the start of the urgent restoration work and is still uninhabitable ”.

L’Aquila. Art and devotion in the sign of Mary – Vatican News