Herbert_A_Franke

Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime

The Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime is a pilgrimage church in Syracuse. The church is the largest pilgrimage church in Sicily. On August 29, 1953, a plast...
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The Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime is a pilgrimage church in Syracuse. The church is the largest pilgrimage church in Sicily. On August 29, 1953, a plaster painting in a farmer's house began to shed tears. The news about this miracle spread quickly and for the first time hundreds of thousands of believers made a pilgrimage to Syracuse to see an image of the Madonna. After three days, the Curia arranged for the tears to be sampled. The tears flow stopped. The analysis revealed a composition similar to human tears. The Bishop of Palermo declared the tears to be real and a place of pilgrimage was planned. In 1956 the establishment of a place of pilgrimage was decreed. The church could not be built on the site of the miracle because there are many houses here. The current location was then found as a building site. In the architectural competition in 1957, the design by the French architect Michel Andrault (born 1926) and Pierre Europe was chosen (1928-2019).
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