With the arrival of numerous offerings and bequests, the current church was built in 1704 and underwent a restoration project directed by the painter Giovanni Misani in 1967. After the partial collapse of the façade in 1854, the interior features a single nave with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The building is flanked by a bell tower erected in 1707-1708 and a caretaker’s house with a portico for welcoming pilgrims.
**Description:**
The altar houses the venerated terracotta statue depicting the Madonna and Child, commemorating the ancient effigy once worshipped in the original chapel. According to legend, the statue was found wrapped in brambles on a fig tree. The current statue is preserved in a niche above the 18th-century altar complex.
**Date of use:** Between 1700 and 1711
**Image:** Statue
**Original location of the Sanctuary:** Along the sanctuary walls. The side walls were once covered with wooden tablets depicting miraculous healings, later removed for decorum. No longer extant is a votive painting showing the procession of the people of San Vito to the rebuilt chapel on August 9, 1674, in gratitude for the end of a drought.
**Types of votive offerings:** Inscribed tablets or plaques, painted tablets
**Current preservation:** Marble medallions on the central nave walls, notably two commemorating the Turina family’s escape from bandits during a journey on February 26, 1825.
The sanctuary was built over a pre-existing votive chapel following an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1668. According to tradition, the Virgin appeared to a 12-year-old mute girl, Brigida Busetti, instructing her to clear the chapel ruins, which had been destroyed and desecrated by soldiers. The girl miraculously gained the ability to speak, and upon hearing this, devotees erected the original shrine, later transformed into the current building in 1704.
The 1807 Offredi visit recounts the traditional story: in 1668, the Virgin appeared to the mute girl as she was bringing food to her father working in the fields. After miraculously gaining speech, she relayed Mary’s wish to recover the effigy, hidden under brambles in a ruined chapel vandalized by soldiers. Her father found the statue wrapped in thorns on a fig tree.
Traditionally built after 1668 following the rediscovery of the Virgin’s effigy, the sanctuary was completed in 1704, as attested by an inscription above the portal. Notable is the partial collapse of the nave vault in 1854. The façade now displays plaques originally inside the sanctuary, commemorating its consecration on December 8, 1704, and the indulgences granted by Pius VII in 1807. Also visible are the burial inscriptions of the founder, Giovan Battista Ceo, and his brother Francesco, the first chaplain.
On November 10, 1807, the parish priest of San Vito, Don Celestino Talamazzi, obtained a perpetual privilege for the high altar from Pope Pius VII, along with a seven-year plenary indulgence for Marian feast days, renewable. Another plenary indulgence was granted for the three days of Pentecost (bull of December 22, 1716), with the authority to absolve sins reserved for the pope.
The sanctuary-oratory was founded in 1704 through the joint efforts of San Vito’s parish priest, Giovanni Battista Ceo, and the confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin of Carmel. His brother, Francesco Ceo, became the first chaplain, as recorded on a plaque. Pastoral visits over the centuries note the presence of dedicated chaplains, except for periods when caretakers resided in an adjacent house.
It is unclear whether the sanctuary had an official patron. Records indicate the church was built in 1704 through the efforts of San Vito’s priest, parishioners, and nobleman Geronimo Silva, with land donated by Cremona’s Ospedale Maggiore. The 1719 Litta pastoral visit notes contributions from local confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin of Carmel, the latter holding services and burying members at the sanctuary.
Italy
