The figure of Mary, mother of Jesus and mother of believers, accompanies humanity on its pilgrimage through history. On this journey, the shrines dedicated to her become “thresholds,” places of passage, where the ordinary opens to the extraordinary, where daily toil encounters consolation and pain seeks a redeeming meaning. Even before anyone speaks of God or the Madonna, the shrine building offers itself as a symbolic language, a text to be deciphered. Those who enter can experience something beyond the ordinary. This is also true for those who cross the threshold of the shrine of Maria Consolatrice, better known as “la Consolata,” in Turin.
The Sanctuary of the Consolata has a very ancient history. Indeed, as can still be seen today from the side facing the street of the same name, the basilica stands on the remains of one of the corner towers of the city walls of ancient Augusta Taurinorum (Turin, founded by the Romans in 9 BC).
In the 5th century, the protobishop St. Maximus erected a small church in honor of St. Andrew, probably on the ruins of an earlier pagan temple. It included a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where an icon of the Madonna was placed. The icon had been brought to Piedmont by the Bishop of Vercelli, Eusebius, and donated to St. Maximus, with the aim of strengthening the cult of the Virgin Mary.
The sanctuary is linked to two very important episodes recounted in two texts dating back to the 11th and 13th centuries, respectively: the Chronicon Novalicense and the “Chronicle of Fruttuaria.”
The Chronicon Novalicense tells the story of the Benedictine monks who fled from the Novalesa Abbey in 906 due to Saracen raids and settled near the then church of Sant’Andrea in Turin.
The Chronicle of Fruttuaria, on the other hand, contains the story of the vision of King Arduino. In 1016, he reportedly had a dream in which the Virgin Mary ordered him to build three chapels in her honor, one of them in Turin, near the church of Sant’Andrea, and to dedicate it to Our Lady of Consolation.
The discovery of the icon
According to tradition, the image of the Madonna located in the chapel had been lost due to raids and looting. It was rediscovered by a blind young man from Briançon, who claimed to have received, first in a dream and then through a miraculous apparition of the Madonna, precise instructions regarding the recovery of the sacred image and the promise that he would regain his sight.
The young pilgrim set out and, after passing Susa and Rivoli, reached Turin, in the hamlet of Pozzo Strada. There, for a few moments, he regained his sight and saw the bell tower of the church of Saint Andrew in the distance, so he set out toward it. Upon reaching the church, he knelt and began to pray.
Bishop Mainardo, informed of what was happening, also arrived and, after listening to the young man’s story, joined in his prayer. Several people began digging at the indicated location: the icon of the Virgin Mary resurfaced and the blind man finally regained his sight. It was June 20, 1104. Since then, devotion to the Consolata has known no interruption.
The architectural transformation of the early 20th century
The architectural transformation of the sanctuary, as it appears today, is the result of work carried out over the centuries. The last was completed in 1904 by Carlo Ceppi, commissioned by Saint Joseph Allamano, Rector of the sanctuary and founder of the Consolata Missionaries, who added four side chapels and two choirs to the sides of the presbytery.
Concluding his book, dedicated to Allamano and the Consolata sanctuary, Father Tubaldo emphasizes:
The Consolata sanctuary doesn’t have many openings; it doesn’t even have bright, spacious windows. It’s intimate and secluded. It almost seems closed in on itself. Allamano made it transparent, as if made entirely of glass, allowing those who enter to gaze out into broader and more distant horizons… the true horizons of the Church.
For the missionaries who bear her name, crossing the threshold of the Consolata Shrine means returning home and opening our hearts to the Mother who welcomes, listens, consoles, and reawakens hope.
A Mother who, after looking upon us with tenderness and care, invites us to walk and be companions on the journey with those who seek to give meaning to their days, with those who strive to bring about the dawn of peace, with those who hope for comfort in their pain, with those who wait for someone to fill their loneliness… With Mary, St. Joseph Allamano, our Father and Founder, continues to remind us:
“The name you bear must push you to become what you must be…: presences of consolation!
Sr. Maria Luisa Casiraghi, mc
