The Icon of Mary at the Campo Santo Teutonico

For centuries, the Madonna Santissima di Belriguardo was venerated in the church of the Archconfraternity Santa Maria della Pietà on Campo Santo Teutonico: Our Lady with the beautiful gaze. An altar was erected to her in a separate chapel. The Piedmontese, who venerated this Madonna, took care of the image's decoration for a long time.

On 25 October 1626, they requested the right to hold services in the church and bury their dead in the cemetery from the archconfraternity, citing earlier privileges.

The inscription on the lower frame refers to the year 1591 (not 1891 as repeatedly claimed in the literature). However, the picture has certainly been "restored" or repainted several times over the centuries.

The large panel painting could actually be the devotional image and, in a way, the national image of the Piedmontese, who are first mentioned in a document from Campo Santo in 1583. In fact, there is a chapel of the Madonna del Bel Riguardo in the village of Frassinetto in Piedmont, and the Madonna of Campo Santo seems to have originated from there.

Others interpret the image as "Madonna Liberatrice" due to the style in which Mary is depicted: Libera nos a poenis inferni - deliver us from the torments of the underworld! There was a church on the Forum Romanum dedicated specifically to Maria Liberatrice; it was demolished during the archaeological excavation of the Forum.

For a time, the image of the Virgin Mary of the Campo Santo hung in the sacristy, then it was banished to the oratory, which was hardly used, so that the image was hardly ever seen. It is now displayed in the church during the month of May for the May devotions.

Lit.: A. de Waal, Der Campo Santo der Deutschen zu Rom (Freiburg 1896) 177f.; G. Hagedorn, in: Hundert Jahre deutscvhes Priesterkolleg beim Campo Santo Teutonico (Freiburg 1977) 246; E. Lisa u.a., Gesie 'd Frasinej (2008) 82-85; G. Russo, in: Iconographica 20 (2021) 134f..

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Category: Roman notes