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 Inscription in thanks to the Holy Virgin placed under an armour plating. |
The Sanctuary of Holy Mary of the Grazie in Mantova is always crowded throughout the day. When the hall is deserted, there is still a crowd of people on the two circles of joists constructed in the 16th century, each clearly revealing the reasons for which it was built - on arriving the pilgrims enter and see the stories that narrate the miraculous graces received: in most cases they speak of escape from certain death. A young Spanish soldier who had received "two ferocious blows" tells how, praying to Our Lady, she intervened "to hold me in life". And if Papa Pio II Piccolomini from high on the upper balcony declared to have come "to adore You in this temple with the keys, and with cloak, humble and pious", lower down a prisoner condemned to death tells how he survived the first blow of the axe thanks to the Holy Virgin who "freed I was by You, Mary". The temple built on the orders of Francesco I Gonzaga, 4th of Mantova, as a votive offering six centuries ago after the plague that struck Mantova is literally covered inside with votive offerings of a kind which is not seen in any other sanctuary of the Christian Catholic world. The Sanctuary of the Grazie represents the place where statues and parts of statues have accumulated over the centuries: the joists not only hold the statues but are literally covered with life-sized statues in wax that reproduce those parts of the body that have been cured or which have received a special grace. The numerous series of breasts indicates how important it was in pre-modern society - when other forms of feeding did not exist - that a mother might feed her baby. Eyes, hands and feet indicate a miraculous cure and a standard reproduction in wax of the part of the body concerned is made in memory of the graces received, and all are arranged in a decorative manner along the joists or according to the sequence of flight (hands and feet clearly indicate movement to the right or left) and the disposition has been interpreted in accordance with the complex symbolism of alchemy.
 Votive plate recording a soldier wounded in battle. |
Both inside and out of the last chapel to the right of the Sanctuary is an immense quantity of other material - embroidered pictures, hearts of various dimensions and fabrication (tin plating, silver, embroidery), prostheses, sticks, swords, (even the football used by Mantova F.C. in 1961 on entering the first league). The inside walls are literally covered by a host of objects coming from statues of every type and size. It is impossible not to notice the painted tablets - a common feature of nearly all catholic sanctuaries - from the XVII and XX centuries. In all they number about 120, and include images testifying to situations of extreme danger overcome. This is what remains of a large quantity of examples from the early 18th century. In that period there were several thousand, and they were hung inside the Sanctuary. Today they are placed in the corridor behind the vestry). Negligence and probably thefts, have literally decimated the collection. A rapid statistical analysis of the subjects represented on the painted tablets reveal that they are not analogous with productions conserved in most sanctuaries; death was the prevalent theme of the votive offerings. The examples seen can be classified into five types: illness, escape from danger, accidents, illness of working animals, various. The sum of the percentages of the first three types, which are all directly related to death, amounts to 82%. The tablets narrating cures account for 40% of the cases. When the offering concerns matters not relating to problems of life or death, the event represented illustrates the hasty and effective intervention of Our Lady. The votive offering is therefore an index of the validity of the "Sanctuary" as a place of worship, and the miraculous events as testified by the different witnesses assist such a definition.
Paolo Bertelli
