In Argentina there is a place of worship, destination of pilgrimage, known as the milagrosa Gruta de los Pañuelos, in Italy known as Santuario della Madonna del fazzoletto. In 1949 two Italian immigrants, husband and wife, placed an image of the Virgin on a pedestal natural, in a cave in the rocky massif of Serra, and added some knotted handkerchiefs to leave a sign of their passage; the couple went there to ask the Virgin for the grace of a child who was late in coming. After four months the Italians went back to the cave to thank the Virgin because the young woman was pregnant: the young Italian couple knotted again handkerchiefs as a sign of thanks: the chain of handkerchiefs began to increase .... Since then the rumor that a miracle had occurred began to spread. After few months the Italians returned to the cave of the miracle with the child and the young mother began to tell everyone was there that their child was the result of the prayers to the Virgin. Over the years the cave began to be a destination of spontaneous pilgrimage by a large amount of people, who went to the cave, knotted handkerchiefs and scarves to form a long chain: miles and miles of tissues surrounding rocks, trees, vegetation up to cover an infinite extension of which, currently, nobody is able to see neither the beginning nor the end. The Gruta de los Pañuelos, in the absence of a holy event, is made / considered sacred by the presence of the image of the Virgin and the presumed grace of a pregnancy: the oral tradition, the story of a miracle, surging to the absolute value, sign the intercession of the Virgin, the divine presence in that cave; and knotted handkerchief takes on a ritual that, as action to replicate, contributes to the fulfillment of a process related to the memory of the divine: this link with the "experienced" rather than the "prescribed", is one of its most lively, excited, ongoing, complex reality of the shrine. The history of every sanctuary, whether it's a place of worship of international fame or a modest chapel inside a church, is the story of the collective memory of a community, but also of the role of the individual who, through the thin but tenacious fil rouge of devotion, passing on the baton from generation to generation, transmitting an inalienable heritage of customs, individual and collective rituals, even through oral tradition. The peculiarity of the sanctuary/holy place is expressed in its complex dynamic relationship with the pilgrims, with the popular religiosity and the pertinent territory, sometimes even beyond the institutional dynamics considered for sacred places. This close relationship with the pilgrims gives to the shrine an extraordinary innovative and evolving feature, even within the relationship with the Church hierarchy, allowing the believers to have unpredictable leeway for religious and devotional practices. Today the Gruta de los pañuelos is a particular place of worship, destination of pilgrimage: can we call sanctuary?
GROTTA O SANTUARIO? LA GRUTA DE LOS PAÑUELOS IN ARGENTINA: NASCITA ED EVOLUZIONE DI UN LUOGO DI CULTO TRA DEVOZIONE POPOLARE E DINAMICHE ISTITUZIONALI
CAMPIONE, Ada
2011-01-01
Abstract
In Argentina there is a place of worship, destination of pilgrimage, known as the milagrosa Gruta de los Pañuelos, in Italy known as Santuario della Madonna del fazzoletto. In 1949 two Italian immigrants, husband and wife, placed an image of the Virgin on a pedestal natural, in a cave in the rocky massif of Serra, and added some knotted handkerchiefs to leave a sign of their passage; the couple went there to ask the Virgin for the grace of a child who was late in coming. After four months the Italians went back to the cave to thank the Virgin because the young woman was pregnant: the young Italian couple knotted again handkerchiefs as a sign of thanks: the chain of handkerchiefs began to increase .... Since then the rumor that a miracle had occurred began to spread. After few months the Italians returned to the cave of the miracle with the child and the young mother began to tell everyone was there that their child was the result of the prayers to the Virgin. Over the years the cave began to be a destination of spontaneous pilgrimage by a large amount of people, who went to the cave, knotted handkerchiefs and scarves to form a long chain: miles and miles of tissues surrounding rocks, trees, vegetation up to cover an infinite extension of which, currently, nobody is able to see neither the beginning nor the end. The Gruta de los Pañuelos, in the absence of a holy event, is made / considered sacred by the presence of the image of the Virgin and the presumed grace of a pregnancy: the oral tradition, the story of a miracle, surging to the absolute value, sign the intercession of the Virgin, the divine presence in that cave; and knotted handkerchief takes on a ritual that, as action to replicate, contributes to the fulfillment of a process related to the memory of the divine: this link with the "experienced" rather than the "prescribed", is one of its most lively, excited, ongoing, complex reality of the shrine. The history of every sanctuary, whether it's a place of worship of international fame or a modest chapel inside a church, is the story of the collective memory of a community, but also of the role of the individual who, through the thin but tenacious fil rouge of devotion, passing on the baton from generation to generation, transmitting an inalienable heritage of customs, individual and collective rituals, even through oral tradition. The peculiarity of the sanctuary/holy place is expressed in its complex dynamic relationship with the pilgrims, with the popular religiosity and the pertinent territory, sometimes even beyond the institutional dynamics considered for sacred places. This close relationship with the pilgrims gives to the shrine an extraordinary innovative and evolving feature, even within the relationship with the Church hierarchy, allowing the believers to have unpredictable leeway for religious and devotional practices. Today the Gruta de los pañuelos is a particular place of worship, destination of pilgrimage: can we call sanctuary?I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
