Description: The small painting is an oak tablet measuring approximately 15×12 cm, with a thickness of 8 mm. The tablet is painted in tempera on a gold background. The Virgin, of Byzantine style, holds the Child on her right arm, who carries a globe topped with a cross. The Madonna’s mantle flows from her head over her shoulders and is fastened below her neck with a clasp. The image dates to between the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
In use: between 1475 and 1515
Image: Painting
Collection of ex-votos: No
The devotion to the Madonna del Fuoco in Faenza dates back to 1567 and originates from a miracle. On August 2, 1567, a violent fire broke out in a small house on Vicolo dei Gerbuliani (now called Vicolo Ugolino d’Azzo Ubaldini) in the Rione Rosso, near the Dominican monastery of S. Cecilia, destroying almost the entire house. Only one wall remained standing, and on it, hanging from a nail, was a painted tablet depicting the Blessed Virgin with the Child. The wooden image remained completely unharmed. People proclaimed it a miracle. The sacred image immediately became an object of devotion, and reports of extraordinary healings began to spread. After an investigation, the Bishop of Faenza, Sighicelli, confirmed it as a miraculous event.
The bishop later had an altar erected on the site and officially inaugurated the devotion to the Madonna del Fuoco. The burned house on August 2 belonged to the Dominican nuns of S. Cecilia. On January 5, 1568, the sacred image was transferred to the chapel of the monastery, in anticipation—due to the continuous influx of pilgrims—of the construction of a church in honor of the Madonna del Fuoco.
In modern times, the devotion took on a civic character. All the people of Faenza participated in the feast: on August 2, the bishop, secular and regular clergy, and confraternities solemnly processed to the Church of the Madonna del Fuoco, accompanied by the ringing of all the city’s bells, trumpets, and firecrackers. Popular devotion also led to the creation of a small shrine or “celletta” in the S. Ippolito district, where a copy of the Madonna del Fuoco image was displayed.
In 1622, Bishop Giulio Monterenzi ordered that the sacred image of the Madonna del Fuoco be carried in the processions of the Minor Rogations (or May processions). On August 26, 1811, the miraculous image of the Madonna del Fuoco was donated to the Dominican church. It had come from the monastery of S. Caterina, where the Dominican nuns of S. Cecilia had taken it after the suppression of their monastery (August 1, 1798).
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the monastery of the Dominican nuns of S. Cecilia was suppressed on August 1, 1798. In the church (now disappeared) attached to the monastery, built in 1570, the nuns recited and sang the canonical hours, both day and night.
48018 Faenza, Province of Ravenna, Italy
