The places of the Marian cult
The cult of Mary mother of Jesus has remote origins, probably dating back to the very origins of Christianity. The Latin Church, as well as the Eastern churches, has developed the cult of Mary both in the liturgy and in private devotion. The cult towards the Blessed Virgin then went on increasing until it reached a notable diffusion after the Council of Ephesus (431), which officially recognized her as "Mother of God".
In the Middle Ages the Marian cult develops further and in the contemporary age, the cult spread through phenomena of apparitions of the Madonna. The apparitions of the Madonna to Catherine Labouré (1830) and Bernadetta Soubirous in Lourdes (1858) accompany the formulation of the "Dogma of the Immaculate Conception" (1854), proclaimed in 1854 by Pope Pius IX in union with all the Bishops of the world. The great diffusion of the Marian cult culminates in the "Dogma of the Assumption of Mary" sanctioned by Pius XII in 1950.
In Sicily the Marian cult is widely proposed in the regional territory, mainly through miracles. With this in mind, the main places of the Marian cult have been included in the Regional Charter of the places of the identity of memory in the area (LIM) "The Places of the Sacred". The IWB was established by the Sicily Region in 2009.
Cult of the Annunciation:
- Church of the Annunciation of Bronte (province of Catania), cult linked to the miracle of the cart pulled by oxen
- Church of the Annunziata of Chiaramonte Gulfi (from Ragusa), cult linked to the legend of the interrupted mass
Cult of Mary:
- Marinello lakes (Tindari, Messina), cult linked to the miracle of the fallen child
- Maria S Sanctuary of Capo d'Orlando (Capo D'Orlando, Messina), cult linked to the miracle of the pilgrim and the whelk
- Sanctuary of the Madonna on Monte San Giuliano (Custonaci, Trapani), cult linked to the custonaci
- Church of the Madonna Child (Mascalucia, Catania), cult linked to the notice of the earthquake of 1693
- Aedicule in the Zotta of the Madonna delle Grazie (S.Caterina Villermosa, Caltanissetta), cult linked to the miracle of the Statue
- Church of the Madonna dei Mirti (Villafranca Sicula, Agrigento), cult linked to the miracle of the two sacred paintings
- Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Udienza in the Convent of Carmine (Sambuca di Sicilia, Agrigento), cult linked to the miracle of the oxen
- Mother Church dedicated to the Madonna della Neve (Francofonte, Syracuse), cult linked to the miracle of the picture in the bush
- Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Milizie in Donnalucata (Scicli, Ragusa), cult linked to the apparition and intervention of the Madonna in the 1091 battle of Ruggero di Altavilla against the Saracens
- Sanctuary of Maria SS. of the Cava (Pietraperzia, Enna), cult linked to the miracle of its appearance
- Church of the Madonna del Carmelo (Leonforte, Enna), cult linked to saving the city from the plague
- Maria SS. Immaculate (Burgio, Agrigento), cult linked to the miracle of the knight
- Church of Our Lady of Victory, today the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Montalto (Messina), cult linked to the miracle of the apparition of the White Lady
- Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Olio (Bivona, Agrigento), cult linked to the emergence of a miraculous oil
- Sanctuary of the Madonna della Rocca (Alessandria della Rocca, Agrigento), cult linked to the prodigious finding of the statue of the Madonna
- Sanctuary of the Madonna delle Lacrime (Syracuse), cult linked to the miracle of the tearing of the statue
Source of photos: Internet
