In 1755, following the miraculous event, construction began on a church at the site where the shrine stood. The work was completed in 1762. On June 20 of that year, the church was consecrated. The church was designed as a hall, with two side chapels. In 1850, work was carried out to extend the church and the residence for the clergy. By 1870, the extension was completed, featuring a new three-arched façade and the square in front. Two additional altars with their respective chapels were added, bringing the total to five. Two towers or bell towers were intended to flank the façade. After the damage caused by bombings during World War II, the Sanctuary was restored in 1955 and reopened for worship.
**Description:**
The fresco detached from the shrine, now embedded in the main altar of the Sanctuary, depicts the Virgin Mary with the blessing Child. The Virgin holds the Child, who blesses with His right hand and holds the world in His left. The Mother is draped in a celestial blue mantle, while the Child wears a green tunic with a red cloak. The Virgin has a transparent veil over her head. Mother and Child are supported by a crown of clouds. Below the clouds, on the right, stands St. Anthony of Padua holding a lily, and on the left, St. Nicholas of Tolentino with a star on his chest.
**In use between:** 1499 and 1755
**Epiphany:** Epiphany
**Image:** Painting
**Original location of the Sanctuary:** Around the image of the Virgin and the surrounding walls.
**Notes on the collection:**
Canon Giacinto Ciavaglia, tasked with collecting and preserving the ex-votos, stored them in a wicker basket for protection, where they remained until August 23, 1755, when they were cataloged. The collection included liturgical furnishings, 141 gold rings, 60 gold earrings, 13 silver rings with stones, 68 silver hoops, 48 silver ex-votos (one heart-shaped, one eye-shaped, and 46 hand-shaped), 154 coral necklaces, 57 women’s garnet and gold-button necklaces, 18 women’s yellow amber necklaces, 5 yellow amber crowns, 33 silver filigree medals, 22 silver hairpins, and 13 silver sword-shaped hairpins, as well as a necklace of wolf teeth set in silver capsules. From March 31 to August 20, 1755, monetary offerings totaled 760 scudi, 22 baiocchi, and three quattrini. Votive tablets were hung around the altar and on the side walls. Other offerings included fruits, vegetables, livestock, and real estate.
Among the bombs dropped in 1944, one that fell on the square in front of the church did not explode. The people of Giuliano, without disarming it, carried it into the church as an ex-voto. For many years, they lit votive candles in the shell’s fuse hole without it ever exploding. Today, emptied of gunpowder, the shell is preserved in the Sanctuary as a testament to a modern-day miracle.
**Types of ex-votos:** Inscribed tablets or plaques, painted tablets, goldsmith objects, anthropomorphic figurines, real or represented prosthetics.
Shortly after the miraculous event, a list of graces granted by the Virgin was compiled: from April 22 to June 29, 1755, 113 were recorded.
The miraculous event occurred in 1755 in a small shrine, around which the church was built and consecrated in 1762.
On March 29, 1755, Holy Saturday, a woman from Giuliano named Maria D’Ercole, while praying before the image of the Virgin enclosed in the Cona dei Venti, heard the Virgin speak, inviting her to go to the parish priest and ask him to visit. The woman went to the priest to relay the message, but he did not believe her. The following day, Easter Sunday, the woman returned to the Virgin to report what had happened with the priest. The Virgin then instructed her to go back to the priest, repeat the request, and remind Pietrantonio Bonelli of the promise he had made to the Virgin. This time, the priest investigated Bonelli’s case, who confirmed he had promised the Virgin 10 scudi for the construction of a church in her honor, as she had saved him from an enemy who wanted to kill him. The priest immediately spread word of the miraculous event, and everyone—clergy and laity alike—rushed to venerate the sacred image. Miraculous healings began occurring immediately.
It is likely that the Colonna family introduced the devotion to the Madonna della Speranza in Giuliano.
On September 25, 1755, Giuseppe Antonio Bedotti, a Piedmontese engraver, was granted a license to engrave a copper plate for printing holy images. After 1862, the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was established, affiliated with the primary one in Rome.
On June 20, 1762, the day of the church’s consecration, the Bishop of Ferentino granted a one-year indulgence to all faithful who visited the Sanctuary that day, as well as a 40-day indulgence on the anniversary of the consecration.
On May 22, 1850, the Church of the Madonna della Speranza was donated to the Jesuits. The Sanctuary then fell under the jurisdiction of the College of Ferentino.
Since its inception, the Sanctuary has always been under the care of a hermit.
Initially, the Jesuits were hosted by private citizens of Giuliano. From 1862, they moved into the new residence adjacent to the Sanctuary, where they remained until 1915.
The Discalced Trinitarian Fathers entered the Sanctuary in 1844, summoned by the heirs of Archpriest Canori, who had stipulated in his will that they should provide clergy for the Sanctuary’s care. However, due to conflicts with the chapter of the Collegiate Church of S. Maria, after five months—on February 1, 1945—the Trinitarian Fathers had to leave the Sanctuary.
Piazza S. Maria Maggiore, 17, 03020 Giuliano di Roma FR, Italy
