PORDENONE. A confirmation of the fact that in Pordenone, in September 1624, a miraculous event took place in the area where the Sanctuary of Madonna delle Grazie now stands comes from a document recently found in the Montereale-Mantica Archive.
This is a report of the city council, dated 9 November 1624. The document states that “it is not anyone who does not know the universal concurrence of this land and places surrounding the sacred image of the most blessed Virgin Mary, which began months ago in the middle of via di San Gregory, who concurring many supplicants and devotees protest to bring back graces and divine favors, so that as the devotion of the peoples grows daily, it is legitimate to hope for the satisfaction of vows accompanied by pious and religious exhibits of which the effects are seen daily; and because even this community of ours, due to the privileges it holds from the benignity of our Most Serene Prencipe regarding public things pertaining to this land, awaits the decision with what order and how the exhibits and alms mentioned above should be used “.
These were not small offers, because an accounting note tells us that between 1624 and 1625, on average, about twenty-five ducats were collected every ten days.
We can therefore understand the concern of the public authority on the good use of these resources, which were actually used in 1626 for the construction of an oratory, “private and lay … run by laymen with ellemosines”.
Until now there was news of the event thanks to the transcription by Vincenzo Joppi (1824-1900) of the breaking latest news of Pordenone from 1432 to 1549 with additions and obituary, written by Sebastiano Mantica (1477-1553) and his successors.
In fact, the text states that in 1624 «the Madonna delle Grazie was shown, which was painted on a capital of the Braida delli Rorarii (now the Conto Ferro).
It was located near the road that goes to Barche and San Gregorio. Having drawn a great deal of alms from the competition, demanded by the Rev. pre Zuanne Ferro, it was Messer Piero, with his brothers, to have the authority to dispense these offers of money; the Community opposed the above-mentioned Ferro and the cause was put in the College and for a continuous year it was quarreled. Then the judgment arose that a box was made with three keys for alms: one was held by the Provveditor, the other by the deputy of the Conseglio and the other by the oldest of the Ferro ”.
The new document found gives greater authority to this source, because it is a public act, written a few months after the prodigious events.
It is not known what the “demonstration” or manifestation of the Virgin consisted of, but it was in any case linked to the capital of the Ferri, where the Michelin goldsmith brothers, in 1563, to sanction their reconciliation, had an image of Mary painted with the Child, according to the model of the fresco painted by Pordenone in the church of Pinzano in 1525.
On August 13, the dedication of the new temple in 1921 was commemorated in the Sanctuary of the Graces, in the presence of the bishop of Concordia Luigi Paulini: in three years both the fourth centenary of the “demonstration” and the anniversary of the coronation of the Virgin, which took place in 1924 by the cardinal of Santa Prassede in Rome Merry Del Val.
A photographic documentation can be seen until 12 September in the Chiesa delle Grazie, curated by Angelo Crosato, who has also prepared a brochure and a rich booklet on these events.
The hope is that the city community will know how to seize the appointment of 2024, promoting studies and initiatives, to renew the memory of facts that have marked local history and that have not always received the necessary attention in recent decades. –
Angelo Crosato, Roberto Castenetto, Walter Arzaretti
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