February 26
Madonna dei Rimedi, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
In 1064, the Norman brothers Robert Guiscard and Roger I besieged Palermo, which was under Arab rule, but tarantulas plagued their camp. The Madonna appeared to Roger and advised him to build a fire. He did so and the plague ended, but they had to give up the siege. When the Normans finally took Palermo in 1072, Roger built a church there dedicated to the Rimedio di Santa Maria (Remedy of St. Mary). In 1610, a Carmelite monastery was built on the site and, in 1625, a splendid new church dedicated to the Madonna dei Rimedi. With the suppression of religious orders during the unification of Italy, the church and monastery closed in 1866. Rebuilding began in 1948, and the new church was blessed October 15, 1949. On February 26, 1950 Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini gave it a statue of the Madonna formerly in the archbishop's courtyard. It is a work of the school of Antonello Gagini, leading sculptor of the Sicilian renaissance in the 1500s. The statue of the Madonna of Remedies was canonically crowned on July 16, 1951. Her feast day is the Nativity of Mary, September 8. (Information from Maria di Nazareth, www.mariadinazareth.it. Picture from "Santuario MADONNA DEI RIMEDI - Palermo," Home page religione, www.tanogabo.it.)
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