Among the various moments in the life of the history of the Sanctuary are the numerous visits from popes and emperors and many others of greater or lesser fame. Among the first of the illustrious visitors to the Grazie was the antipope Giovanni XXIII in 1414, on his return from Lodi, where he had met the Emperor Sigismondo of Luxembourg. A few years later in 1419 Pope Martino V arrived and during the period of Lent in 1420 Saint Bernardino of Siena arrived at the Sanctuary by walking miraculously across the waters of the lake. Between 1459 and 1460 Pope Pio II, who had come to the city of Mantova for the Conciliation, visited the holy temple on several occasions.

In 1598 Margherita of Austria arrived. Margherita had just married Philip of III of Spain by proxy in Ferrara and was on her way to Madrid. She arrived at the Grazie with an entourage of 7000 people and was accompanied by Duke Vincenzo I and his wife Eleonora. On being greeted by the Franciscans, she asked for a gift in memory of her visit to the Sanctuary. Since nobody had yet put hand to the opera, the Franciscan monk, Ippolito Donesmondi, began work on the 'Historia dell'origine, fondatione et progressi del famosissimo Tempio di S.Maria delle Grazie in campagna di Curtatone fuori di Mantova, published by Casale in 1603.

After the period of foreign visitors which characterised the XIX century - Napoleone Bonaparte and his wife Giuseppina visited the Sanctuary and later still the Austrian Marshal Radetzky - two great pilgrims visited the Sanctuary in modern times: Saint Pio X, who, in his capacity as bishop of Mantova, gave the Sanctuary the title of basilicata minore at the beginning of the 19^th century, and Pope John Paul II, during his visit to our diocese in 1991.

Paolo Bertelli