Discover Santuario della Madonna dei Fiori, Bra

Madonna dei Fiori is one of the titles under which the Catholic Church venerates Mary, at the sanctuary of that name in the city of Bra.

The tradition behind it is dated precisely. At Bra, on 29 December 1336, the Madonna is said to have appeared to a young pregnant woman, Egidia Mathis. Threatened with violence by mercenaries belonging to a compagnia di ventura while she was praying at a votive pillar bearing the effigy of Mary, she is said to have been saved by the sudden apparition of the Virgin, who put the attackers to flight. Immediately afterwards she gave birth, apparently assisted by the Madonna herself. All around, though in full winter, the bushes of wild plum are said to have flowered suddenly.

And then the part that is reported as ongoing fact: these bushes still flower inexplicably every year in the depth of winter, instead of in spring, without science having been able to find an explanation.

The sanctuary area stands at the gates of the city as you arrive from Turin and belongs to the parish of San Giovanni Battista of Bra. It is a complex rather than a single church.

This is a site with two churches of very different centuries, and the contrast is the architecture.

The Santuario Antico of 1626 is Baroque and small enough to be a chapel's successor rather than a basilica — it replaced an earlier chapel on the same spot, and its scale reflects that lineage. Its devotional focus is in a side chapel, where the statue is kept.

The Santuario Nuovo is a 20th-century building by an engineer rather than an architect — Bartolomeo Gallo — begun in 1933. The decisive fact about it is that it is still unfinished while being in use: a church that functions without being complete.

Its interior is carried by paint rather than stone: frescoes by Piero Dalle Ceste, and his large canvas of the apparition. At the entrance is a mosaic by Father Marko Ivan Rupnik.

Underneath runs the crypt, in evening use.

And the element no architect designed — the Pruneto, a garden of thorn bushes that the whole complex is arranged around.

The sequence here is the normal one for a Marian sanctuary, and it is legible on the ground.

First a votive pillar. The tradition begins at a piloncino votivo bearing the effigy of Mary — a wayside shrine, the smallest unit of devotion there is.

Then a chapel, which commemorated the miracle on the spot.

Then the Baroque church of 1626, raised in the place of that chapel.

Then, three centuries later, a far larger church. The Santuario Nuovo was begun in 1933 by the engineer Bartolomeo Gallo — and this is where the sequence breaks, because it was never completed. It was opened to celebrations anyway.

Then the institutions. A crypt beneath it, oratory structures, a canonical house, and a rest home for elderly priests named for the Beato Valfrè — a sanctuary turning into a small working settlement.

Do the bushes really flower in winter? The record states it as an ongoing fact: these bushes still flower inexplicably every year in full winter, instead of in spring, without science having been able to find an explanation. That is the source's own assessment, and it is reported here as such.

What is the tradition? That on 29 December 1336, Egidia Mathis — young, pregnant, and threatened by mercenaries while praying at a votive pillar — was saved by an apparition of the Virgin, gave birth immediately afterwards, and saw the wild plum flower around her in midwinter.

How many churches are there? Two. The Santuario Antico, Baroque, 1626; and the Santuario Nuovo, begun 1933 by the engineer Bartolomeo Gallo and still unfinished.

When is the feast? 8 September, when the statue of the Madonna dei Fiori is carried in procession.

Who painted it? The Santuario Nuovo is frescoed by Piero Dalle Ceste, who also painted the large canvas of the apparition to Egidia Mathis. In the old sanctuary the subject is painted by the Flemish Jean Claret.

Is there an entry charge? None is given. It is a working sanctuary in the parish of San Giovanni Battista of Bra.

Can I visit the crypt? It is under the new sanctuary and is used for evening prayer meetings, so it is in regular devotional use.