La Madonna di San Luca in Città

The much-revered Madonna of San Luca has come to Bologna for a brief stay.

(The footprint I wrote of our visit to the Santuario di San Luca last fall explains about the ancona and why the shrine is so important in the Christian world. You may wish to read it first … https://findpenguins.com/8pccjefaitoru/footprin….)

The ancona of the Madonna and child was processed in on the 9th — that is, she was brought down from the Santuario di San Luca with all the pomp and circumstance of a procession and placed in the Bologna Cathedral … formally the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Peter. She will be in the city until the 17th … when another procession will return her to the sanctuary, which sits at the top of Guardia Hill.

Since we went up to the sanctuary during our Bologna recon trip last fall, we thought it would be fun to take a quick peek at the icon of the Madonna while she’s visiting the city. We purposefully went mid-morning thinking that mass would be over. Turns out that wasn’t the case. In fact, there is a special mass schedule for the duration of the Madonna’s stay at the cathedral.

We were set to leave and try again later when we noticed that in addition to worshippers sitting in the pews for mass, tourist and school groups were coming in and out, wandering around, taking photos and selfies. No one seemed to mind … certainly none of the men dressed in formal black tailcoats — members of a historic lay confraternity who have various duties, including collecting offerings from the faithful — were stopping people from taking photos. So, we found a discreet spot from which to take a couple of photos of the proceedings, listened to the choir singing a hymn, and then quietly left.

I’m not sure if we will try to see the procession returning the Madonna to San Luca. I’m not sure I could deal with the mass of humanity that would be accompanying it. We’ll see.

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REMINISCING: We were in Cusco, Peru in 2009 … right around Easter … when the Señor de Los Temblores (Christ of the Earthquakes) processes around the city. With the promise of a perch that would keep us above and away from the immense crowds that flooded into the square for the procession, I agreed to check it out.

I mention this because the photos of the Madonna’s procession reminded me of that experience … which was admittedly quite interesting. I’m including a link here if you would like to see the images included in the blog … worth taking a peek, if I do say so myself, just to see a ‘youthful’ Mui and Erin 🤣 … https://2totravelperu.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-….Leggi altro