St. Peter's Basilica opens exhibit on Marian coronations

Vatican City (CNS) - Of the more than 1,300 statues of Mary crowned around the world, one of the first to receive this honor is not crowned today. Michelangelo's Pieta, instantly recognizable to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, has been one of several "Crowned Madonnas" in St. Peter's Basilica for over 350 years. By 1924, the disproportionately tall Mary wore a crown of gold supported by two angels, her halo above her head with Jesus limp on her knees. I was. She was crowned in 1568. This engraving marked the beginning of the wave of coronations of Mary that began in the 17th century. "At the beginning of the 17th century, the Capuchin monks came up with the beautiful idea of officially crowning a statue of Mary, which represented some kind of devotion, and began to practice it by touring the city," said Vatican curator of exhibitions. Pietro Zander said. Coronation of Marian. During a guided tour around the statue of Mary in St. Peter's Basilica on May 30th. In 1636, the Vatican began to support and regulate the Coronation of Mary. The local community (usually a church or a Marian shrine) wrote to the Vatican that the statue represented "an enduring and ancient belief in Mary used for religious purposes and led to an increase in veneration of Mary". "We had to make sure we were there," said Walleye. Once the statue was crowned, the community was obliged to send a letter to the Vatican, along with a painting of the crowned statue, assuring that the coronation complied with the prescribed rules. "These photos were handed down because they didn't exist back then. They were commissioned by artists, so they're beautiful," Zander said. The paintings acted as a kind of postcard, intended to convey to the Vatican each community's special devotion to Mary. Often the text at the bottom of the painting describes the dedication of the congregation and relates to the events of the coronation. Hundreds of them are still preserved in the Vatican, and from the Feast of Communion on May 31, 15 of them will be exhibited in St. Peter's Basilica from all over Italy. The exhibition entitled "The Crowned Virgin" is organized by the San Pietro Factory, the office responsible for the maintenance of St. Peter's Basilica. Each image is from a different region of Italy and is accompanied by a story of dedicated sources in the community. The picture, titled "Madonna of the Stones," shows Maria with a wound on her right arm, which is said to have started to bleed after a drunken soldier threw a small stone at her. Another story says that another monk found a worn and discolored statue of Mary that miraculously returned to its original shape and color during mass, and that a wilted flower nearby revived. Zander said the exhibition, which runs until October 7, will enrich the rich history of the Marian devotion that already exists at the Papal Cathedral. Peter's Basilica, he said, was the 12th-century fresco of Our Lady of Eternal Help, taken from the walls of the ancient cathedral that once stood on the site. remembered. In addition, the statue of the "Mater Ecclesiae" (Mother of the Church) in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Columns comes from a fragment of a column that stood in front of the old St. Peter's Basilica. Zander installs an enlarged statue of the Church of Our Lady in the window of the Apostolic Palace above the portico of St. Peter's Square for the Pope to welcome visitors after the assassination of John Paul II in 1981. I explained that I asked for it. The last statue of Mary to be crowned in the Vatican was Our Lady of Czestochowa, widely venerated by Poland and the Polish Pope.