Shrines Around the World: Our Lady of Consolation, Turin

Where’s that: Turin, the metropole of the Piedmont region in north-western Italy.

Our Lady’s connection: Cure of a blind man.

On October 20 last year, Pope Francis canonised St Giuseppe Allamano (1851-1926), the founder of the Consolata Missionaries, who are also active in Southern Africa. It was a big day for the basilica of Our Lady of Consolation in Turin, which was initially established in the 5th century and dedicated to

St Andrew. St Allamano was its rector from 1880 until his death, and he is entombed there. His feast is on February 16.

The sanctuary of Our Lady of Consolation is one of Italy’s great sites of pilgrimage, with its miraculous icon of Our Lady, said to have been painted by St Luke. According to tradition, it was presented by the Palestinian bishop St Eusebius to St Maximus, first bishop of Turin, in the 4th century.

In 1014, Marquis Arduino of Ivrea built a pilgrims’ chapel for the icon, but that was later destroyed during an invasion which left Turin in ruins and the icon lost.

In 1104, a wealthy blind French nobleman named Jean Ravais had a dream in which Our Lady instructed him to go to Turin and recover the lost icon, promising that he would regain his sight. He did as instructed and led the recovery of the icon. At the very moment that the local bishop presented it to the joyous people, Ravais regained his sight. Many more miracles were reported by pilgrims over centuries.

In 1904, Pope Pius X granted a decree of pontifical coronation of the image. Pope Francis honoured the shrine in 2015 with a Golden Rose, a special token of papal reverence. The Holy Father has a personal link to Turin — which is also the city of the Shroud and of St John Bosco — since his parents grew up in that region.

The basilica, colloquially known as “La Consla”, underwent major reconstructions in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, though its bell tower dates from the 11th century. It was bombed by the British Air Force in 1943, and restored after the war.

The sanctuary’s big annual event is the festa on June 20, the anniversary of the recovery of the icon, when it is taken in a great procession through the streets of Turin.