OUR LADY OF THE WELL

Day 144: October 03

Our Lady of the Well, Italy



In the heart of the Trevi district, between Largo Chigi and Via del Tritone, stands the splendid Church of Santa Maria in Via, whose history begins as early as the tenth century AD, as evidenced by the mention of a bull of 955 by Pope Agapetus II.

The origin of the name in via is instead somewhat uncertain: some believe it may derive from its proximity to Via Lata (today's Via del Corso), a crucial junction of the area; others from its position since, as is still clearly visible today, the church was located in the street, or "in the middle of the street”. What is certain is that in the twelfth century, its destiny changed radically.

The church stood next to the stable of the palace of Cardinal Pietro Capocci and it is said that on the night between 26 and 27 September 1254, from the well of the stable, suddenly, the water began to rise, flooding the whole environment! The servants, alarmed by the noise of the horses, rushed to the scene and noticed, amazed, that a heavy tile was floating on the water on which was painted a Marian image – perhaps thrown into the well out of carelessness or contempt – which they immediately tried to grasp, unfortunately to no avail!

They informed Capocci who, dressed in the cardinal's robes, hurriedly went to the stable with all his noble court and, having made a short and fervent prayer to the Virgin, entered the water and at the first attempt managed to grab the precious effigy of Mary, bringing it safely to his apartment where he remained all night in prayer. In the morning, the Cardinal ran to report the incident to Pope Alexander IV, who, amazed, asked for a careful investigation of the prodigy to ascertain its veracity, giving permission to the Cardinal to build a sanctuary incorporating the stable with the well into a precious chapel.

What is certain is that the current church is the result of the contribution of various artists who worked on it over a period of about a century, from Giacomo Della Porta in 1594 to Carlo Rainaldi, who completed the work in 1681. Pope Leo X de' Medici in 1513 entrusted the custody of the church to the Servant Fathers of Mary, who still offer their service in this sacred place.

The Church of Santa Maria in Via today has a high travertine façade, distributed on two horizontal orders, with a remarkable frieze with which the first order ends, embellished with angels and plant garlands, in the center of which there is a plaque that reads as follows: "FRONS ERECTA A D MDXCVI RESTITUTA MDCCCC", or "Façade erected in the year of the Lord 1596 (and) restored in 1900".

Above the frieze, separating the two orders, runs the long inscription: "DEO IN HON(OREM) MARIAE VIRGINIS MATRIS DEI DD A MCCLVI", or "Dedicated to God in honor of the Virgin Mary Mother of God in the year 1256", the year that gave the church great fame.

Once inside, the visitor is immediately welcomed by the Cappella della Madonna del Pozzo, the first on the right, which jealously guards, even today, the small fresco of the thirteenth century by an unknown painter of the Roman School, made on a fragment of tile or blackboard. The Virgin Mary is represented half-length with her head slightly inclined, surrounded by a golden halo and cloaked in blue. The icon is contained in a seventeenth-century tabernacle of polychrome marble between two columns of pavonazzetto and on January 17, 1646 it was solemnly crowned by the Vatican Chapter. Included in the wall of the chapel, you can see the circular well from whose waters the miraculous effigy emerged and where the faithful – even today – continue to draw, through a tap, the miraculous water.

Among the artistic masterpieces of the church, the Aldobrandini Chapel deserves special mention, where there is the altarpiece depicting the Annunciation and the two canvases – Adoration of the Magi and Nativity – by Cavalier D'Arpino as well as the painting of the vault with the First Mass of San Filippo Benizi made in 1723-24 by Gian Domenico Piastrini.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Oh, what a splendor of holiness is that human nature which became "Mother of God", the Immaculate Virgin Mother!"

(Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1996, p. 206)

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