• About
  • Academic Background
  • Contact Me

Medieval Milanetc

~ Just another WordPress.com site

Medieval Milanetc

Tag Archives: Massatio da Vigonzone

The Miracle of the Bleeding Child

14 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Rodney Aist in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Carino of Balsamo, Massatio da Vigonzone, Milan, Milano, Peter Martyr, Peter of Verona, Portinari Chapel, San Satiro, Vigonzone

Milan’s Miracle of the Bleeding Child took place on March 25, 1242 at the Church of San Satiro.

Madonna col BambinoAccording to P. Morigi, Santuario di Milano, 1603 (paraphrase):

‘In 1242 on the day of the Annunciation of Our Lady, a man by the name of Massatio da Vigonzone, who had gambled away everything he owned except for the clothes he was wearing, went in desperation to the Church of San Satiro, and there he saw the fresco of the glorious Mother of God with the young child in her arms, which on the wall of the cemetery  near the door of the church. Full of diabolical rage and fury,  he stabbed the Christ Child, and then blood miraculously began to flow from the image of our Lord’.

The miracle-making icon became the object of devotion, turning San Satiro into a place of pilgrimage. The dagger is still preserved in the church to this day.

PugnaleMassatio immediately repented; Milan’s Madman became a Monk. Moreover, he ‘acquired the merit of being numbered among the blessed’.

The mid-13th century was high season for Milan’s ‘dagger saints’. Exactly a decade later, in 1252, Carino of Balsamo took his dagger to Saint Peter of Verona (Peter Martyr) along the Como highway. He, too, repented, eventually becoming Blessed Carino . The object of his wrath — the body of Peter Martyr, now in the Portinari Chapel — became an object of regional veneration, just as the 13th century fresco of Madonna and Child, now above the central altar at Santa Maria presso San Satiro, is among the holiest images of the city of Milan.

Advertisements

  • Rodney Aist

Photo Banner

The portico of the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, Milan

Recent Posts

  • Milan’s Backyard Bone House: The Ossuary Chapel at San Bernardino alle Ossa
  • San Vitale: Born in Milan, Buried Alive in Ravenna
  • The Miracle of the Bleeding Child
  • Ambrose: On the Death of Theodosius (25 February 395 CE)
  • Alfa Milano: Fast Autos, Past Logos
  • Milan’s Big Yellow Taxi: The Ruins of San Giovanni in Conca
  • A, E, I, O and U: Bonvesin de la Riva and the Marvels of Milan
  • An Irishman in Milan
  • Milan’s San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore

Archives

  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012

Blogroll

  • Culture Quarks
  • www.rodneyaist.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 50 other followers

Advertisements

Cancel