A Clothed Madonna, a Sanctuary, an Ancient Devotion
In the Sanctuary of the Carmine there is a Madonna and Child.
It is a clothed statue, an ancient devotional form, where the careful rendering of garments made sacred images feel tangibly present.
She stands within an altar of Carrara marble, crafted by the renowned workshop of Giovanni Possamai of Solighetto.
She is known as the Shepherds’ Madonna, recalling that the main livelihood on these steep pre-Alpine ridges was once sheep farming.
Her origin dates to the seventeenth century, likely in thanksgiving to Mary for protecting these lands from the plague of 1630, the same plague that haunts the background of Manzoni’s The Betrothed.
We know that by 1683, a chapel and a hermitage stood here, sheltering a hermit.
This was once a widespread expression of faith, lasting until the late eighteenth century, found across these mountains on both the Treviso and Belluno sides.
An ex voto shows a small church with an adjoining building: that is how the site appeared in 1849.
An old document describes the land as ‘barren’ revealing the poverty of its people. And yet, across the centuries, and especially between 1820 and 1913, they made continuous physical and financial efforts to enlarge and beautify the sanctuary of the Madonna del Carmine.
Along the Via Crucis, one can almost see a line of people, stepping in slow rhythm, carrying on their shoulders the materials needed to complete the works after Sunday Mass.
Its original rustic form is gone. Today, it presents a neoclassical profile.
There is a graceful bell tower and a broad open space from which to admire the view.
The gaze follows the narrow Visnà valley, reaches Miane, recognises the hamlets nestled in the gullies of the hogback ridges, and spills out over the Veneto plain.
Humans have always placed the divine in the heavens, and have borne witness to it by raising crosses on mountain peaks or building sanctuaries at the summit of every climb, however steep.
An imaginary line connects the Sanctuary of Santa Augusta in Vittorio Veneto, that of San Francesco di Paola in Revine, and this one, the Carmine, in Miane.
But the position of this last sanctuary recalls an ancient tradition found in the Bible.
In the First Book of Kings, we read the story of the prophet Elijah. He lived in solitude on Mount Carmel, a green height between the northern Galilean desert and the Mediterranean, a sort of paradise garden.
Today, that mountain is a district in the industrial city of Haifa, in Israel.
There, the prophet had a vision of a woman borne on a cloud, able to bring rain to the desert.
She is the prefiguration of Mary.
With the arrival of the Crusaders, devotion to the Madonna of Mount Carmel grew. When the Crusaders were driven out, the devotion spread across Europe.
In the thirteenth century, great religious orders were founded: the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and also the Carmelites.
Their foundation is linked to the vision of Mary received in 1226 by Saint Simon Stock, the first prior general of the Order, later divided into the Ancient Observance and the Discalced, also known as the Teresians.
That is why the statues of Saint Simon Stock and Saint Teresa of Ávila stand at the feet of Mary in this church and why they appear in the ceiling painting, a work by the painter Vittorio Casagrande of Vittorio Veneto, completed in 1912.
EMOZIONATI ANCORA! SCOPRI ALTRI LUOGHI!
Ex voto:
- nell’oratorio del Carmine a Pieve di Soligo.
- nel capitello di Refrontolo.
- nel santuario della Madonna di Loreto a Corbanese.
- nell’oratorio di Sant’Antonio da Padova a San Giacomo di Veglia.
VAI ALLA MAPPA “LE VIE DEGLI ARTISTI- EN”!
