Latin cross temple, with a neoclassical façade featuring four Tuscan pilasters made of local stone and a stone portal. According to the Pastoral Visit of May 19, 1877, the church was built in a very remote location near the settlement called Filetto, which had become unsuitable for divine worship due to its age and excessive humidity, making it unworthy of any temporary repairs. His Most Reverend Excellency Bishop Francesco Maria Barzellotti, who was deeply concerned with the greater glory of God, the Immaculate Most Holy Mary, and the spiritual benefit of the population, through his tireless efforts and financial support—along with the generosity of the sovereign Leopold II and donations from the faithful—managed to build a canonical church in the place called Cerreto, a central and healthy location where, according to belief, the Most Holy Mary appeared to the shepherdess Veronica Nucci in 1853. This church, which the now-deceased bishop hoped would be ready for parish use by 1859, was delayed due to political upheavals and was eventually opened and blessed by the canonical capitular vicar, Monsignor Girolamo Bruscalupi, on September 8, 1864. The parish priest Celli later affixed a marble plaque noting that the church was built with the alms of the faithful, without mentioning the various promoters and benefactors who contributed the most, including Leopold II and Monsignor Barzellotti.

**Description:**
A 19th-century painting (post-1853) depicting the apparition. It is the most significant element of the small sanctuary and portrays the event: the Virgin speaks to the girl, who listens while gazing at her face. Both have their hands extended in a pleading gesture—the Virgin asking for prayers and reparatory penance, and the girl, named Veronica, asking for help and protection.

**First Use:** In the year 1853.
**Epiphany:** Virgin Mary. The Madonna appeared to a shepherdess named Veronica Nucci. See: Foundation Legend.
**Image:** Painting.

**Description:**
In addition to the image of the Virgin, the mortal remains of the girl to whom the Virgin appeared, Veronica Nucci, are venerated, as well as the earth where the Virgin’s footprints are said to have been imprinted. A plaster statue of the Virgin Mary of Sorrows is the object of particular devotion, especially on Good Friday and September 15.

As for Veronica Maria Umile Nucci, she was born on November 26, 1841. In October 1854, questioned by the diocesan ordinary and the prelates investigating the apparition, Veronica’s mother, Maria Stella Nucci, recounted a prophetic dream about Veronica:

*”I was six or seven months pregnant when one night I dreamed of a girl wiping the blood flowing from a Crucifix with a handkerchief. Beside me was another woman; I didn’t understand who she was, but in the dream I asked her: ‘Who is the one wiping the Crucifix with the handkerchief?’ And I heard the answer: ‘Veronica.’ Then, still in the dream, I added: ‘If the child I carry is a girl, I will name her Veronica.’ The next morning, I told my mother-in-law about the dream and said I had decided to name the child Veronica if it was a girl. My mother-in-law approved, and since a girl was indeed born, she was named Veronica—the same one to whom the Most Holy Mary is said to have appeared last May and who is now in the convent of the nuns of Ischia.”*

In 1854, Veronica entered the monastery of the Poor Clares in Ischia, where she lived a holy life, experienced repeated apparitions of the Virgin and Christ, and died on November 9, 1862. A recent hagiography of Veronica Nucci was published by Alfredo Scanzani, *La Signora del Cerreto. La straordinaria apparizione a una pastorella della Maremma* (Florence, Publied 2000), from which the above quote about Veronica’s mother’s prophetic dream is taken (p. 13).

**First Use:** Between 1853 and 1862.
**Image:** Statue.
**Relic:** Bones, Other.

**Original Location of the Sanctuary:** Hung around the image of the Virgin.
**Type of Ex-Votos:** Jewelry items.
**Current Preservation:** For security reasons, details about the location where the ex-votos are kept are not provided.

This sanctuary was established in 1853 following a Marian apparition to a shepherdess named Veronica Nucci.

The foundation legend is published in I. Corridori, *Veronica Nucci e il Santuario del Cerreto* (Pitigliano, Atla, 1978, pp. 18-20):

*”Here is how the event unfolded. That afternoon, Veronica, daughter of Antonio Nucci and Maria Stella Franci, modest farmers living in Cerreto di Sorano, was grazing sheep with her brother Giovanni Battista. Gradually, the sky darkened. Lightning and thunder created an atmosphere of fear. Anticipating a heavy storm, the two siblings began herding the sheep toward a hut where they also planned to take shelter. According to Veronica’s words: ‘As I prepared to go to the hut, I saw before me a kneeling woman, not knowing where she came from, slightly shorter than me from the knees up—since she was kneeling and I was standing—and when we were both kneeling, the top of my head reached her heart level… She wore a white dress sprinkled with small red flowers, each about the size of a thumb, and a black, shiny sash about two fingers wide. She had a blue mantle on her head, which fell below her waist to her knees; her forehead and a small part of her cheek were uncovered, and the mantle draped over her arms, covering her hands, which she held extended obliquely, palms open as women do in supplication. The mantle had circular red stains, and above her head was a shining crown resembling gold, with a cross about eight fingers high in the middle… When she saw me, she called me, saying: “Veronica, come here to me, you won’t get wet. Kneel here,” pointing to the spot where I should kneel. Since she was facing the parish church of the Most Holy Madonna of the Eagle, I also turned that way. Then she added: “Let us say five Creeds to my Son,” and together we recited the Creed. Then she said: “Let us say the Protest,” and we recited it together… The woman continued: “Help me weep,” and indeed I saw tears flowing from her right eye. I asked her: “Why are you crying?” She replied: “I weep for so many sinners. Do you see how much it rains? There are more sins than raindrops falling. My Son’s hands and feet are pierced, and He has five open wounds. If sinners do not repent, my Son will bring about the end of the world. Would you be content to live three or four months longer or to face the end of the world?” I replied: “I want to die.” Without responding to my wish to die, the woman continued: “Say seven Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glorias to the Shed Blood every day, five Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glorias to the Five Wounds, and seven Hail Marys, Our Fathers, and Glorias to me, for I am called Mary of Sorrows. Now go to the hut, or you’ll get wet. Remember what I told you. Go home, tell your mother, and have her tell everyone she meets that I am called Mary of Sorrows.”*

Upon returning home, Veronica ran to her mother to recount what had happened, but her mother was bedridden with a sudden illness, so the girl decided to remain silent. The next evening, Veronica found her mother recovered and told her the story. The news spread from her mother to the family and then to relatives and neighbors.

On May 21, a group of men and women went to the spot Veronica indicated as the exact location of the apparition. To their great astonishment, they observed the imprints of knees left by a kneeling person on the wet soil. A few days later, while Veronica was praying there, she heard a voice say: *“Veronica, go to your mother, have her take you to the bishop, and tell him to build a small chapel here.”*

**Painting depicting the Virgin’s apparition to Veronica Nucci.**

Devotion to the Virgin of Sorrows was already present in the area before the apparition to Veronica Nucci. A pastoral visit in 1835 notes: *“In the collegiate church of Sorano, there is a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows.”* This chapel, once belonging to the family of Mr. Vincenzo Salvi of Sorano, is now maintained by the piety of the faithful and entrusted to the care of the woman Maria Mari. In the niche is the statue of the Sorrowful Virgin, which is displayed for public veneration and carried in procession on the third Sunday of September.

After the apparition, Bishop Francesco Maria Barzellotti listened to and questioned Veronica Nucci. On July 20, 1853, he wrote to Pope Pius IX, describing the event. The pope responded on August 13, writing, among other things: *“We praise the thought, Venerable Brother, of building a chapel where the Sorrowful Virgin is said to have appeared to the girl Veronica Nucci. May the Most Holy Virgin Mary be a perpetual protector for you, this flock, and the Universal Church, through whom God grants so many favors and aids.”*

Veronica Nucci, thirteen years old at the time of the Marian apparition, left Cerreto the following year and entered the monastery of Saints Philip and James in Ischia di Castro, taking the veil as a Poor Clare. She died in the odor of sanctity on November 9, 1862, at the age of twenty.

On May 8, 1857, Bishop Barzellotti laid and blessed the foundation stone of the sanctuary. The church was opened for worship on September 8, 1864. The inscription commemorating the miraculous apparition reads:

*“This temple, erected with the voluntary offerings of the devout people of Santa Maria dell’Aquila and other donors, on the site of the miraculous apparition of the Most Holy Mary of Sorrows in 1853, was solemnly blessed on December 8, 1864, by Monsignor Girolamo Bruscalupi, Capitular Vicar General of the diocese, with Canon Curate Don Vincenzo Galli as rector.”*

This entry was compiled by Paola Bartolacci and Beatrice Sordini.

**Indulgence of forty days granted during the Pastoral Visit of May 19, 1877, on the Feast of the Holy Sacrament and the anniversary of the Virgin’s apparition to the shepherdess Nucci.**

The church of Cerreto became a parish seat, replacing the ancient Aldobrandesque Pieve of Santa Maria dell’Aquila, shortly after September 8, 1864, when the church was opened for worship. Initially, the clergy of the Pieve of Santa Maria dell’Aquila officiated there, later replaced by the clergy of the archpriesthood of Sorano. Currently, the Carmelite nuns of the Ianua Coeli community reside in the Cerreto complex.

Piazza del Pretorio, 58010 Sovana GR, Italy