When you live in a dangerous territory, where nature continually dominates man, trusting in the divine becomes a habit for everyone. And the great volcano Mount Etna is dotted with sanctuaries, precisely because popular faith has always found “patrons” to ask to protection against the fury of nature. Mainly, people trust in the Madonna (the Virgin Mary). Sanctuaries dedicated to Mary are everywhere, around Etna. This and other devotions can also become a tourist itinerary, for those who love less adventurous tourism and feel more tied to traditional culture. Here are five sanctuaries that are worth seeing.

Trecastagni

The “Tre Casti Agni” (three pure lambs) that give their name to the town on the southern side of Etna are the patrons of one of the most beloved Etna sanctuaries. Built in the 17th century and dedicated to the three “martyr lambs”, the brothers Alfio, Cirino and Filadelfo, this place is a postcard of natural and architectural beauty. The splendid church, made of lava stone, stands on the side of a large square with a spectacular view of Etna!

Inside the church, rich in precious decorations, are kept the statues of the three holy brothers who more than once are said to have protected the town from the volcanic fury. The church was built to give worthy custody to the relics of the three martyrs found in 1517 in Lentini and transferred here in the same year.

Madonna di Valverde

The story goes that the criminal Dionisius, in the year 1038, was stopped by a mysterious voice just before killing a traveler. It was the voice of the Virgin Mary that not only stopped the crime but led the bandit to conversion. With the money stolen in the past, the former criminal decided to build a sanctuary to the Virgin and it was a flock of cranes that showed him the place, “in Vallis Virdis” precisely.

Today, cranes are the symbol of the municipality of Valverde (district of Catania), a splendid viewpoint overlooking Etna and surrounded by the greenery of citrus groves and orchards. The town is built around this medieval sanctuary, rebuilt in the 18th century with its current shape which includes a loggia and a bell tower. Several miracles have been performed around this sanctuary: a water source that came out of nowhere, in the Carminello area, and a painting mysteriously impressed on a stone pillar by a beam of light. The painting is still visible today in the center of the church.

The sanctuary and the painting still exist today and are destinations of pilgrimage.

La Vena

Located in the territory of Piedimonte Etneo, between the eastern and northern slopes of Etna, this small sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna della Vena (or simply “La Vena”) owes its name -which means “vein of water”- to a legend.

According to tradition, Saint Silvia, mother of Pope Gregory I, had some possessions on this side of the volcano. A mission of Basilian friars from Mascali, wanted by Pope Gregory himself, decided to commission the image of the Madonna Glicofilusa, who arrived on the place on the back of a mule. It seems that the mule, stopping suddenly and hitting the lava ground with its hoof, caused a mysterious source of water to spring forth, thus indicating the place where Mary wanted her sanctuary.

Since that day in the distant 6th century, many events have transformed the territory and the architecture of the sanctuary. But the mysterious stream still flows from a rock next to the church and many come to draw from it considering this water miraculous.

Saint Placido in Biancavilla

Between the 15th and 16th century, a church dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria was built in the municipality of Biancavilla (west side of Etna), incorporating a much older altar containing the image of Saint Placido, patron saint of the town.
The building was expanded in the following three centuries, radically changing its shape (from a Greek cross to a Latin cross, from a wooden ceiling to a brick barrel ceiling) and also adding a bell tower that, with its remarkable 50 meters of height, remains – to this day – the highest in the district. If the pink exterior of the church recalls classical art, inside it is a baroque celebration expressed in the altars of the Madonna dell’Elemosina, in the chapel of St Placido and in the eighteenth-century paintings that follow one another in the naves.
Note the wonderful roof with painted ceramic shards that covers the single spire of the bell tower.

Mompileri

After completing the tour, we return to the southern side. In Mascalucia, just outside the center of the town, there is a large sacred space, the temple of the Madonna della Sciara in Mompileri.

Today you will find a large church of lava overlooking a modern amphitheater (that often hosts gatherings of pilgrims) and reception facilities. The view from this church, both of the coast and of Etna, is spectacular. But even more spectacular is the little buried church you can visit by descending several meters “into the belly” of the nearby lava flow.

The eruption witnessed by this lava is that of 1669, which completely buried the ancient village of Mompileri. Almost a century later, in 1704, a local insisted with the inhabitants of the new village (called Massa Annunziata), to dig into the volcanic rock at least in search of the ancient church. From the excavations, the simulacrum of the Virgin Mother of Grace re-emerged, miraculously intact; it was located between the columns of the ancient transept (still visible today) of the underground church. The painting of the Virgin, today, is kept in the special chapel built in the courtyard of the new church. (ALL PHOTOS  BY G. MUSUMECI)