Santuario Maria SS. della Consolazione

The Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione (Saint Mary of Consolation) is a place of worship close to Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Paternopoli.

Known in the past as the Church of San Nicola (Saint Nicholas), the Sanctuary was built in 1522 following the expansion of the previous mediaeval building, initially dedicated to Saint Luke and then to the Annunciation. 
The building was later altered and extended in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the underground crypt was enlarged to make room for burials. It was during that period that the Church took on its current name, which is closely linked to the worship of the Virgin Mary, following a double miracle on 16 April 1751. A local carpenter, Giambattista D’Amato, miraculously regained his voice, which he had lost five years earlier after an apoplectic fit, and recited the Magnificat in front of the image of Mary. The episode amazed everyone, including the priest Fr. Filippo Cubelli, who went to his brother Gennaro - gravely ill with tuberculosis – asking him to pray with the congregation in honour of the Virgin of Consolation. Incredibly, the priest’s brother was also cured.  
The worship of Mary grew as the years passed, until her Coronation on 12 May 1774: the ceremony was then celebrated again on 25 May 1806 and 14 May 1815.

Today, access to the Sanctuary is via the imposing stairway, which also dates back to 1774. 
The current structure of the Church, which has a main nave and two aisles with eight side chapels, dates from the 1948 restoration works. It has large rounded-arch windows and square blocks of limestone from the Roman age along the exterior walls, on which several figures have been carved. Inside, each of the side chapels is decorated with a series of historic paintings, including the exquisite Mary of Consolation, which is attributed to Fiorentino and depicts the Virgin Mary seated on the throne of glory holding the Infant Jesus in her arms. Many other works of art are kept in this Church, including a series of decorations completed in 1851 by the Neapolitan artist Giovanni Girosi (1818-1891). There are 12 paintings on canvas, each depicting a saint, placed above the frame that divides the arches of the nave from the windows; Faith, Charity and Justice represented on the side walls and two scenes of Miracles of the Virgin of Consolation on the central wall.

For centuries a place of art, faith and pilgrimage, the Sanctuary of Saint Mary of Consolation is still honoured by the local community, particularly during the festivities which are held in tribute to the Virgin Mary in May and June.