In 1610, a new and larger chapel was built to suitably house the venerated image. In 1763, construction began on the new church, which led to the abandonment and subsequent demolition of the previous one.

Description: Painted on an octagonal panel (31 x 23) of fir wood, the artwork, created by a folk-trained artist likely active in the Emilia region, depicts the Adoration of the Magi. In 1602, the painting belonged to a certain Battista Cavicchioli of Ficarolo, whose family had long owned and venerated the miraculous image.
Date of Entry: 1602
Image: Painting
Original Location of the Sanctuary: The collection was displayed on the altar of the Blessed Virgin of the Magi.
Notes on the Collection: The collection is documented in the pastoral visit of Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti (1629), which attests to the presence of “silver items” and the book “de gratyis.”
Types of Ex-Votos: Painted tablets or inscribed plaques, Goldsmithing objects
Current Preservation: No data is available on the current state of the collection.

The pastoral visit of Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti in 1629 marks the last documentation of the cult, which seems to disappear within a few decades. Subsequent pastoral visits refer to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin without mentioning this devotion. On August 18, 1947, the establishment of a “Pious Union of the Madonna of the Magi and Tears” was approved, proposed by the archpriest of Ficarolo, Don Rodolfo Barbieri, who sought to revive the devotion to the Madonna of Tears. The initiative, revisited in more recent times (around 1980), failed to restore the devotion that, in the early 17th century, drew a continuous flow of pilgrims to Ficarolo, even from distant places.

Description of the discovery made in Ficarolo in 1602 of an image of the Virgin Mary and its transfer to the church, Ferrara, Municipal Library “Ariostea,” Antonelli Collection, MS 322.
DON ERCOLE MORELLI (Rector of Bagnolo), Relacione, 1602, Parish Archive of Ficarolo.
GUARINI MARC’ANTONIO, Relatione della processione solenne fatta nella traslazione dell’immagine miracolosa della Beata Vergine, posta nella collegiata della terra di Ficarolo Ferrara, per Vittorio Baldini stamp. Cam., 1611.

Upon learning of an image of the Madonna associated with an episode of weeping on June 2, 1602, the parish priest of Ficarolo, Alfonso Guerra, urged by the Bishop of Ferrara, Giovanni Fontana, had the miraculous panel transferred to the parish church, where on the 13th, “…tears were seen flowing from the left eye of the Most Holy Image of the Virgin Mary painted on this panel…” In 1610, the construction of a new chapel and the granting of a plenary indulgence helped consolidate the devotion to the Madonna of Tears, which grew rapidly in the following years, attracting many illustrious figures, high prelates, and crowned heads on pilgrimage to Ficarolo.

With the brief of August 6, 1610, Pope Paul V granted a plenary indulgence to those who participated in the ceremony transferring the sacred image to the new chapel.

The Church of Sant’Antonio, which housed the sanctuary, is first mentioned in a privilege granted by Pope Celestine II to Bishop Griffo.

45036 Ficarolo RO, Italy