The Sanctuary of the Madonna de' Piternis is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church just outside of the town of

Cervaro Cervaro is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio. It is located in the Liri valley, about southeast of Rome and about southeast of Frosinone. Cervaro borders the following municipalities: C ...

, near the base of Monte Aquilone,

province of Frosinone The province of Frosinone () is a province in the Lazio region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Frosinone. It has an area of and a total population of 493,605 (2016). The province contains 91 ''comuni'' (: ''comune''), listed in the ...

, region of

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, Italy.

History

A chapel at the site was present before the year 1000, at a site were a shepherdess received a

Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are more often understood as ...

. A church was built in 1399, and consecrated in 1408, to shelter the aedicule with an image of the Madonna. The title of the Madonna is somewhat mysterious. The church has undergone a number of refurbishments, the last in 1692. The interior contains frescoes from the 15th and 16th centuries. The apse has a fresco of ''

Christ Pantocrator In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator (, ) is a specific depiction of Christ. or , literally 'ruler of all', but usually translated as 'almighty' or 'all-powerful', is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism. The Pantokrator i ...

'' surrounded by apostles and saints. By the entrance is a fresco of the ''Madonna del Latte'', while the left wall has a 15th-century Madonna appearing to a peasant girl.Visit Lazio
tourism website, entry on church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madonna de' Piternis Cervaro Churches in the province of Frosinone 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy