The miraculous event of the appearance of the “Madonna della Quercia”, made Bettola village well known as a little-religious location in Nure valley.
The appearance of “Madonna della Quercia”
Between 1496 and 1497, the news about an appearance of the Virgin Mary to a little shepherd girl got spread around. Many faithful and pilgrims came, so many that Ludovico il Moro asked some information to his commissioner Ambrogio Zanca, who was living in Piacenza.
Zanca declared that twelve miraculous healings happened in Nure valley thanks to the Vergine della Quercia.
The miraculous place
In this specific miraculous place a little church and a monastery were built, both entrusted to the Franciscan Order, later on they were abandoned.
In 1817 the wooden sculpture of the Virgin Mary was transported in San Giovanni church. During the second half of the XIX century a new monastery was built, it opened on the 31st May 1885.
The devotion to the Madonna della Quercia became more and more popular thanks to some speeches by the Pope, among them:
- On the 12th November 1913, San Pio X declared the blessed Madonna della Quercia main patron of Bettola.
- On the 12th June 1962 the pope Giovanni Paolo XXIII , with the papal bolla, proclaimed ” The Madonna della Quercia Celeste main patron of the Nure valley”.
In Colle dei Frati, a little location near Bettola, there’s the Chapel of the appearance, wanted by Monsignor Luigi Bottazzi in 1954. Inside the chapel a mosaique by Ricchetti is still visible, which is representing the appearance scene.
