The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Provenzano

Spread of the Miraculous Image

The image of Our Lady of Provenzano was called prodigious immediately after the shooting by the Spanish soldier. Already during the sixteenth century believers came from all over the city and the Sienese countryside to receive grace from the Virgin. The visit often included leaving behind an ex voto, an object that represented the grace received or desired. These were usually candles or small metal objects in the shape of feet, eyes, or hearts, but also flags and small images that are still conserved in the church today. For the believer, it became indispensable to take away a copy of the prodigious image to be placed on the façade of places or in rural areas as a sign of protection. News of the miracles reached as far as Rome when pilgrims traveling along the Via Francigena arrived there, and then spread throughout Europe. The image of Our Lady of Provenzano multiplied on banners, in engravings and in paintings, often accompanied by the figures of Saint Catherine and Saint Bernardine, who together represent the essence of Sienese religiosity. The image of Our Lady of Comfort, venerated in Arezzo, is a copy of the little statue at Provenzano. An element increasing the devotion and involvement of the people was above all the Opera di Provenzano, a governing body created to manage the patrimony of the church, which used the sacred image for important rural and city events like rogations, propitiatory processions for successful crops and processions for the First Sunday after Easter. The first time the Madonna was carried out of the church in procession for this festivity was in 1681, the year the statue was crowned, a privilege granted by the Chapter of Saint Peter for exceptional cases of devotion. Still today, the custom continues that was established in 1656, a Palio run in honor of Our Lady of Provenzano, whose image is painted on the silk banner awarded to the victorious contrada.