The Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Aiuto

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The Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Aiuto had started as a simple devotion chapel (a capitèl, as the people in Trentino say), about the end of the 17th century (the first reference in an official document dates back to 1710.)
In that place, not far from the hamlet Scancio di Segonzano, the building dedicated to Mary was rebuilt and enlarged several times during the following centuries, culminating in the works in 1961, when there were carried out the stained glass windows based on drawings by Cesarina Seppi. Noteworthy the window of the presbytery, representing the Madonna's hands.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was introduced the ceremony of the first Sunday of September: in that day the procession dedicated to the Virgin Mary takes place and large crowds of devotes go to the Shrine. The church is too small to hold everyone, and many of them stay outside nearby the centuries-old linden, whose branches curiously remind the shape of a branched candlestick.

Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Aiuto in Segonzano
and the near linden 1

Inside the Sanctuary it's kept a venerated image of the Virgin with the Infant, painted in oil on canvas by anonymous in the last quarter of the 12th century. The picture was indirectly inspired by the one painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1514, and it's currently kept in the church of Saint James in Innsbruck. In 1611 it was copied in Passau by the court painter Pius: the copy is still in the beautiful small German town, in the Mariahilf Sanctuary.
It's from this last painting that the Madonna of Segonzano derives. The baron Ferdinando Francesco a Prato, indeed, became canon of Passau in 1676: there he saw the Pius's work and got a copy done, that he brought to the Holy Trinity church in Stedro. It's likely that to the baron himself it should be attributed the construction, in the place of the Sanctuary, of the first "capitèl".

A number of miracles are ascribed by the believers to the Marian image; a letter of 1774 of the Rules official of Segonzano Vigilio Villotti states that there was a flux of faithful to the chapel «not only our people from here, but also many foreigners, to whom this Holy Image has bestowed several remarkable gifts […]».

A popular legend tells about the image of the Virgin:
«It was found in the wood by a young shepherd, who framed it and hung it on a tree. The parish priest of the hamlet, become acquainted with the event, brought the painting to the church; but the next day the picture had disappeared!
The countrymen scattered to look for it and found it in the wood, in the same place where it had been hung by the kid: this has been interpreted as the will of the Virgin.
Therefore it was built a church that since then preserves the holy image».
Venerated image of the
Madonna of the Aiuto (i.e. Helping Madonna), in Segonzano

Beyond the painting of Mary, in the church there are a few wooden works by Fiorenzo Bazzanella: a crucifix and the statues of the Saints Joseph and John Gualbert.
Moreover, in the past several ex-votos used to be shown by the altar, denoting a genuine popular faith.

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© 2005, Fabio Vassallo