Discover the Miracle of Rosano: the Statue of the Sacred Heart that Wept and Bled

On the banks of the Arno, upstream from Florence, the thousand-year-old Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria a Rosano preserves the memory of recent and moving prodigies: between 1948 and 1950 the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus venerated in the monastic church wept and shed blood on several occasions, before numerous eyewitnesses.

Low Sunday 1948

The life-size statue had been donated to the monastery in 1948 by a devout person, in fulfilment of a vow made during the Second World War. On the evening of 4 April 1948, Low Sunday, during the singing of Vespers, it was observed for the first time that drops like tears were falling from the statue’s eyes. In June of the same year another prodigy, “striking and unexpected”, was added: the effusion of blood.

The Testimonies

The events recurred repeatedly between 1948 and 1950 and are corroborated by numerous eyewitnesses: the nuns themselves, in particular the Reverend Mother Abbess M. Ildegarde Cabitza, but also priests, preachers and occasional visitors. The monastery archive preserves many sworn testimonies, gathered with the rigour the Benedictine community has always devoted to the matter — also recalled in the letter of Bishop Luciano Giovannetti of 4 April 1998, on the fiftieth anniversary.

The Monastery of Santa Maria a Rosano

Founded according to tradition in 780, Rosano is one of the oldest women’s monasteries in Italy still inhabited by its community: the Benedictine nuns keep a Romanesque basilica rich in art — from the thirteenth-century wooden crucifix to the fourteenth-century Annunciation — and a tradition of prayer, work and hospitality that has continued for over twelve centuries. The face of the Sacred Heart, intense and most gentle in expression, continues to invite pilgrims and visitors to prayer and recollection.

Historical Clues and “Adventurous” Research:

• The sworn testimonies: the monastic archive preserves the witnesses’ original depositions: twentieth-century documentation of rare completeness.
• Bishop Giovannetti’s letter (1998): the episcopal document officially recalling the events fifty years on.
• The wartime vow: reconstruct the story of the statue’s donation in the context of post-war Tuscany.

Useful Information for Pilgrims

• Address: Via di Rosano, Rignano sull’Arno (FI), Italy
• Opening Hours: the monastery church is open for the nuns’ liturgies; check the Rosano monastery website.
• Getting There: Rosano lies on the left bank of the Arno between Florence and Pontassieve, reached via the SP34 road.

Historical source: the international exhibition “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World” created by Carlo Acutis (miracolieucaristici.org).