to darlei zanon
150 years ago the first immigrants who left Italy arrived in southern Brazil. They brought with them few suitcases, some dreams and a lot of hope of building a new life in those distant and fruitful lands. In this sense, the profound faith pushed him, especially to the Madonna, a mother who welcomes us and supports us on every occasion. Among these Marian devotions, one has grown in a particular way, becoming today one of the greatest pilgrimages to Brazil, in the city of Farroupilha, Rio Grande del Sud. It is the devotion to the Madonna di Caravaggio, which reaches its 146th edition this year.
The rector of the sanctuary, Don Ricardo Fontana, recalls that “our progenitors, coming from Italy, sowed here the faith with zeal and care, in front of a small painting of 30 by 40 centimeters, in black and white, a beautiful press that today is on the throne on the altar of the Madonna di Caravaggio. The wait is so great, the heart is in celebration. We feel joyful and moved by the life of prayer, as it should be in a sanctuary: A place of mercy, welcome, where we find the tenderness of the Mother of God. That everyone participates in these wedding, where the bridegroom itself is our Lord Jesus Christ, always remembering Mary’s words to the wedding of Cana: ‘Do what he will tell you’ “.
From a small church suddenly built by the first immigrants Antonio Franceschet and Pasqual Pasa, with an image donated by Christmas Faoro, the sanctuary has grown and today welcomes thousands of pilgrims every year. 1885 the painting is replaced for a statue that remains to date as an object of devotion and worship, with a place of honor close to the main altar, but which in these days of pilgrimage is moved to the entrance of the sanctuary.
The image represents the meeting of the Madonna with Giannetta De Vacchi, on that distant May 26, 1432, in the town of Caravaggio, in Lombardy, and was packaged by a local painter known as Stanghelin. The inspiration for his creation came of a small postcard of 1724, brought by Lombardy by one of these first immigrants.
The poster for the dissemination of the 146th edition reproduces the original image, above the theater this year – “Mother of hope, pray for us” -, with the colors of the flag of Italy at its basis in homage to the 150 years of immigration in the region. The theme connects to the Jubilee that the church celebrates along this year, centered on hope, but also refers to the victims of the flood that destroyed the same Brazilian region exactly one year ago. According to the rector Don Fontana, “in 2025, in a spirit of thanksgiving and reconstruction, we meet at the sanctuary of Our Lady of Caravaggio to renew our faith, strengthen our hope, revive our families and move forward in the pilgrimage of life, certain that, with the Madonna at our side, we will always have the strength to continue”.
The novelty introduced in the pilgrimage of this year was the light procession, with about eight thousand candles, on the night of Saturday 24 May. The inspiration came from the long tradition of the Marian sanctuaries all over the world, and which concretizes one of the requests made by the Madonna to the poor Giannetta, that Saturday days were celebrated with honor to invoke the conversion of hearts and the company returned to the path of unity and peace, which we still need so much today.
The main mass of these three days of peregrinages was celebrated by the diocesan bishop of Caxias do Sul, Msgr. Giuseppe Gislon, who in his homily stressed that “this is once to revive our hope, symbolized in the tenderness of the mother from the roses and the symbol of the anchor, which, since the beginning of Christianity, has represented the strength and hope established in Jesus Christ. The Madonna of Caravaggio becomes the great mother of hope for all our people, especially for her devoted pilgrims,
Madonna di Caravaggio, pray for us and give us hope!
