Our Lady of Graces

Our Lady of Graces (Italian: Madonna delle Grazie or Nostra Signora delle Grazie) or St Mary of Graces (Italian: Santa Maria delle Grazie) is a devotion to the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. Churches with this dedication often owe their foundation to thankfulness for graces received from the Virgin Mary, and are particularly numerous in Italy, India, Australia, United States, France and the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland.

Patronage

"Our Lady of Graces" is the patron saint of the diocese of Faenza, as well as this incomplete list of Italian towns:

• Cautano
• Decimoputzu.
• Nettuno (where Nostra Signora delle Grazie e Santa Maria Goretti is part-dedicated to her)
• Ricadi
• Sanluri
• Toritto

Churches

Italy

The Baroque church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Casale Monferrato, Piedmont, Italy

• Acquaviva Platani
• Alanno, Abruzzo : A renaissance church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, built around 1485 to venerate a miraculous apparition of the Madonna.
• Alife
• Anghiari, Tuscany : Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie o della Propositura, constructed 1628–1740.^,
• Anversa degli Abruzzi
• Arezzo, Tuscany : A late Gothic church built close to the site of a well which had been associated with Paganism, and had been destroyed at the behest of Saint Bernardino of Siena.
• Arzignano, Veneto : The Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, built after the plague of 1485.
• Bevagna
• Brescia, Lombardy : Basilica of Madonna delle Grazie
• Capua
• Casale Monferrato
• Castelfranco di Pietralunga
• Castiglion Fiorentino
• Castiglione d'Orcia
• Cerignola
• Città di Castello
• Colle Faggio di Monteleone di Spoleto
• Cortona
• Fabro
• Faenza
• Farnese, Lazio : The Clarissan monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
• Floridia
• Foligno
• Giano dell'Umbria, Umbria : A small country church, medieval in origin, but restructured in the classical style.
• Grado
• Gravedona
• Gravina in Puglia
• Imperia
• Livorno
• Magione
• Magliano Sabina
• Maiori
• Mantova
• Massa Lubrense
• Melilli
• Milan, Lombardy : Santa Maria delle Grazie, site of the mural of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.
• Modugno
• Montalcino
• Montefalco
• Montegabbione
• Montepescali di Grosseto
• Monteleone d'Orvieto
• Monterotondo
• Montevarchi
• Monticelli di Olevano sul Tusciano
• Montone
• Monza
• Naples (at least three)
• Parma
• Paternò
• Perugia
• Piancastagnaio
• Piazzetta Mondragone
• Pistoia
• Preggio di Umbertide
• Rome (at least three)
• San Giovanni d'Asso
• San Giovanni Rotondo
• Sansepolcro
• San Severo
• Sant'Anatolia di Narco
• Scandriglia
• Scanno
• Scansano
• Senigallia
• Terracina
• Toritto
• Trevi
• Varallo
• Venice
• Vicovaro
• Vigevano
• Villa Santa Maria
• Zafferana Etnea

Switzerland

• Bellinzona, Canton Ticino : A late fifteenth-century church which was attached to a Franciscan convent.

Malta

• Żabbar
• Victoria

Chapels, oratories and other sanctuaries

• Catania
• S. Pellegrino di Gualdo
• Teramo
• Torretta
• Pontassieve

Paintings

There are many thousands of paintings by this name throughout Italy. One may be seen at Grosseto Cathedral (by Matteo di Giovanni, 1470), in the church of San Lorenzo at Poggibonsi, and in the cathedral of Perugia. Unlike the Madonna del Soccorso or the Madonna della Misericordia, the Madonna delle Grazie has no particular iconography, although many of these paintings represent just the head or bust of the Virgin.

Statues

There are statues of her by Antonello Gagini at Chiesa dell'Osservanza, Catanzaro and the church of Madrice Vecchia, Castelbuono, and by Vincenzo Gagini at the Church of San Martino, Randazzo. Another statue sculpted from wood by Mariano Gerada could be found in Żabbar a Maltese town dedicated to Our Lady of Graces, Il-Madonna tal-Grazzja, as known by the locals.

Festivals

Festivals to her are again celebrated in many places. In Italy one of the most famous is at Catenanuova. In Stamford, Connecticut she is celebrated by emigrants from Minturno. In the Maltese Islands at Żabbar and Victoria the feast is celebrated on the first Sunday after the 8th September every year and is the last feast of the Summer season.