Santa Maria dell’Aiuto 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 ...

parish church and located on Via Santa Maria dell’Aiuto #80, where it encounters Via San Giovanni and Via Consolato della Seta, in

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, southern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History and description

A church at the site named Santissimi Pietro e Paolo, was renamed Santa Maria dell’Aiuto when a venerated icon of the Virgin was moved inside. Razed by the

1693 Sicily earthquake The 1693 Sicily earthquake was a natural disaster that struck parts of southern Italy near Sicily, then a territory part of the Crown of Aragon by the Kings of Spain Calabria and Malta, on 11 January at around 21:00 local time. This earthquake was ...

, it was rebuilt with a facade designed by

Antonino Battaglia Antonino may refer to: * Antonino (name), a given name and a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Antonino, Kansas, an unincorporated community in Ellis County, Kansas, United States See also * Antoniano (disambiguation) * Antoñi ...

and decorated by

Michele Orlando Michele () is an Italian male given name, akin to the English male name Michael. Michele (usually pronounced ), is also an English female given name that is derived from the French Michèle. It is a variant spelling of the more common (and iden ...

. The facade, approached through a wide staircase of about a dozen steps, has a broken pediment with columns with modified ionic capitals superimposed with two equally tall solid stone columns with corinthian capitals. The lateral volutes are framed by two statues depicting Saints Peter and Paul. Flanking the left of the facade is a bell-tower with a clock. The interior houses an elaborate

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

in the altar of the Crucifix. The venerated icon of the Virgin is housed above the polychrome marble altar. Statues of St Peter and Paul and a depiction of

God the father God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first Person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, Jesus Christ the Son, and the third person, God th ...

frame the icon. The interior contains a chapel hosting a scale replica of the

Holy House of Loreto The Basilica della Santa Casa () is a Marian shrine in Loreto, in the Marches, Italy. The basilica is known for enshrining the house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed by some Catholics to have lived. Pious legends claim the same hous ...

and its marble screen. The second altar on the left contains a Crucifix with a wall of relics. The first altar on the right has a copy of the painting by Filippo Paladini depicting the ''Martyrdom of Saint Agatha''; the original is housed in the cathedral.Facebook page of the parish of Santa Maria dell’Aiuto

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria dell'Aiuto 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Catania