Santa Maria del Summano is a pilgrimage church associated with
Monte Summano in the
province of Vicenza
The Province of Vicenza ( it, Provincia di Vicenza) is a province in the Veneto region in northern Italy. Its capital city is Vicenza.
The province has an area of 2,722.53 km², and a total population of 865,082 (as of 2017). There are 1 ...
, region of Veneto, Italy. The church is referred to by various names: ''Santuario della Beata Vergine dell'Angelo di Piovene'' or ''Santuario Santa Maria del Summano''.
History
The church was established around a venerated icon of the ''Madonna di San Prosdocimo'', later renamed the ''Madonna del Monte Summano''. According to an older tradition, in the first century AD, specifically the year 77, the then bishop of Padua, San
Prosdocimo, climbed to the peak of this mountain to destroy the pagan idol statue dedicated to Plutone (Summus Manium). Later St Orso was said to have made a pilgrimage to this site, leading to the construction of a sanctuary chapel and a monastery. The present Madonna statue is said to date to the second half of the 15th century.
Circa 1300 the sanctuary was linked to the order of
Canons Regular
Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule ( and canon in greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a ...
of San Marco di Mantua. In 1452, the church and convent were granted to
Hieronymites
The Hieronymites, also formally known as the Order of Saint Jerome ( la, Ordo Sancti Hieronymi; abbreviated OSH), is a Catholic cloistered religious order and a common name for several congregations of hermit monks living according to the Rule o ...
from the congregation of the blessed Pietro Gambacorta da Pisa. The church was reconstructed with a nave and two aisles, and reconsecrated on 30 May 1516. With the suppression by the Venetian republic of many monasteries in 1777, the venerated Madonna statue was moved to the parish church in Santorso. The church fell to ruins. In the years 1893–1896, the church was rebuilt at the same site, same style, under the patronage of the Italian senator Alessandro Rossi using a design of Ottone Calderari.. A new image, of ''Maria Ausiliatrice'', was sculpted by Pietro Dalla Vecchia of Santorso. In 1894, the hieronymite order returned to the monastery until 1933. The church now belongs to the parish of Santorso.
Diocese of Vicenza
story of the sanctuary.
References
{{coord missing, Italy
Churches in the province of Vicenza