Description
Maria Santissima L’Incoronata dei Poveri – Most Holy Mary Crowned Mother of God and the Poor in Foggia, Italy
I would say that She is my most favoured Black Madonna and therefore I dedicated two altars to Her in the deck. It is said that Padre Pio was devoted to Her.
The sacred oil of L’Incoronata dei Poveri
The Black Madonna dei Poveri is known for Her miraculous oil and this is still available at the Sanctuary and it is said to be still from the same urn and that the oil never dries up.
I brought many small bottles back and most of them leaked out into my blessed handkerchief that I touched to all the Black Madonnas of this particular pilgrimage. This is also the oil that I am using to anoint each and every Black Madonna deck – obviously it is only touched to the cloth onto which the plastic wrapped deck is placed, so as to protect it.
The story goes that on the last Saturday of April in the year1001, the Count of Ariano Irpino, after a day of hunting, spent the night in the woods near the creek Cervaro. At dawn he was suddenly awakened by his servants and fellow hunters urging him to flee with them. The men were terrified by strange flashes of light in the woods, almost like a fire. The Count got up, but though he was also scared, he did not flee with his friends. Instead he was drawn to the strange phenomenon, and cautiously went to the place where the flashes came from. Once he got close, Count Ariano realized with amazement that there were no open flames, but only a strange light. Then he noticed in the midst of it a superhumanly beautiful Lady, shining with heavenly light. In a different version it is told that the same count was stalking a deer until he found it prostrating itself before a great Oak tree. The tree became luminous as if on fire in the midst of which Our Lady appeared.
Both accounts agree that Most Holy Mary told the frightened and awed Count: “Do not be afraid, I am the Mother of God.” Then, pointing to a big oak, she showed him a statue of a brown Madonna sitting on a throne in the tree. The Mother of God said: “I want you to erect a shrine in my honor in this place, without gold or precious ornaments. I will make it famous through the many graces that the devotees will receive who will honor me here with a sincere and filial heart.”
At that moment Count Ariano noticed a farmer, a certain Nicholas, nicknamed Strazzacappa, which means torn cape, a reference to his poverty. The peasant had been on his way to work in the fields with his ox when the animal went to prostrate itself before the apparition in the tree. Thus led by his beast, Strazzacappa came to witness the apparition and the words of the beautiful Lady.
When the splendid Lady and the bright flashes disappeared, the Count and the peasant, filled with divine love, hugged each other. This was unthinkable behavior under normal circumstances, yet at that moment they were united in the same happiness and in the one quest of building a chapel according to their Mother’s wishes as soon as possible.
Clearly, the Madonna was sending a message of solidarity with the poor and social equality, first by insisting that her sanctuary be free of gold and precious stones and secondly by binding together in brotherly love a nobleman and a peasant. Hence her title ‘Mary of the Poor’.
The 2001 brochure of the sanctuary recounts that once the apparition had disappeared, scores of angels and saints crowning the enthroned dark Madonna statue. And so the statue remained as the physical presence of the Queen of Heaven. She was crowned “not by a cardinal, bishop or pope as is usual,” says the church brochure, but by Heaven itself. (This is a recurring theme in Black Madonna legends.
