Feast of Our Lady of Graces in Nuoro

“Gràssias damus e pedimus, gràssias, de Gràssia Segnora” is the invocation that devotees address to Our Lady of Graces in Nuoro, during the annual dissolution of the vow, inaugurated in 1812 as thanks to the Virgin for protecting the city from a terrible plague.

In the 1950s, a new and spacious building dedicated to Our Lady of Grace was built in Nuoro, while the older one, located in the heart of the historic Sèuna district, is described in Salvatore Satta's posthumous novel The Day of Judgment (1977).

The Seunese are all farmers, from the first to the last, they make town in the country and are said to constitute the original nucleus of the settlement. Nuoro, in short, would have been born from Sèuna: and I am willing to believe it because in Sèuna there is the oldest church in Nuoro, Le Grazie, which is only one of those houses, surmounted by a pediment with a bell in the chimney.

This small church was built in 1670. It consists of a single aisle. Shapes and decorations show a mixture of late-Gothic elements.

The façade is embellished with a portal with a trachite pediment, supported by two semi-columns and a rose window. The interior walls are frescoed with pictorial cycles depicting apostles, prophets, themes taken from the Holy Scriptures. The building is dedicated to Our Lady. The venerated wooden effigy of the Virgin, as tradition has it, was found by a shepherd. The people of Nuoro turned to the simulacrum, which proved miraculous, in 1812, in order to obtain an end to the terrible plague that had struck the city. Since then, every November 21, the Feast of Our Lady of Graces is celebrated annually as a vow by grace received.

The most suggestive moment still remains, during the solemn celebration, the lighting of 19 candles, representing the ancient Nuoro returns.

The devotion of the inhabitants of Nuoro to Our Lady of Graces is deep and deep-rooted. So much so that it can be traced back to it the first name of the Nobel Prize writer Grazia Deledda, who celebrated her name day on November 21, the very day of the feast of Our Lady of Graces.

Update

15/11/2024 - 23:06