Pilgrimage to Todi

TODI, Italy – About a two-hour drive north of Rome is the peaceful town of Todi in the Umbrian province of Perugia in central Italy.  It has an elevation of 1,345 feet, sitting on top of a hill overlooking the east bank of the Tiber River. University of Kentucky architecture professor Richard Levine once described Todi as “the model sustainable city,” prompting the Italian media to call it “the world’s most livable city” in the 1990s. American sports stars, showbiz celebrities and writers bought property in the town and today, 600 of the population of 17,000 are foreigners. Painter Al Held, writer Bill Pepper, actor Bud Spencer, artists and American football and basketball stars built vacation homes in Todi whose history dates back to 1330 B.C. 

On the upper slopes, growers produce wine and olives and in the valley floor, farmers plant wheat. During the hunting season, gamesmen shoot buzzards, deer and wild boar. Todi is a perfect marriage of nature and culture. There are 12th and 15th century palaces and churches and Etruscan, ancient Rome and medieval walls that welcome visitors. 

Two churches stand out in a pilgrimage to Todi. The basilica-cathedral was built in the 12th century, possibly on the remains of a Roman temple. You walk along the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, considered one of the world’s most attractive plazas, and go up over 50 steps to reach the landing, which leads to three entrance doors connecting to three naves. A narrow hall with two columns of pews is surrounded by pillars and columns. The altar is simple but impressive. On the reverse of the façade is a fresco by Ferrau Fenzoni depicting Judgment Day. The choir stalls are wooden, a masterpiece executed between 1521 and 1530 by Antonio Bencivenga and his son Sebastiano.

A visit to Todi wouldn’t be complete without praying at the basilica-cathedral.

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The other church to visit is in honor of St. Mary of Consolation. At the foot of Todi’s hill, construction of the domed church was started in 1508 and finished in 1607. It is known as “one of the most masterful of all renaissance churches” with a high altar at the center of which is an ancient image of the Virgin with Child and St. Catherine of Alexandria. Local folks relate that when a laborer was chiselling stone out of solid rock, he was surprised to find the ancient image underneath the rubble in the 15th century. The laborer couldn’t see in one eye and when the image emerged, he touched the picture then rubbed his blind eye with his hand. Miraculously, his vision was restored.

The Church of St. Mary of Consolation was once described as “perhaps the most limpid of all classical architecture that has ever been built in Italy.” Architect Cola di Matteuccio of Caprarola designed the structure. 

Last Sunday, my wife Menchu, our friend Janice Viarnaud and I attended 11 a.m. Mass at the church. A town choir, featuring two young boys, sang and children recited the prayers of the faithful. A newly appointed parish priest in his 30s delivered a meaningful homily taken from the gospel, reminding the church-goers to thank the Lord for His blessings and resist the temptation of envy.  

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From the church, we drove about 10 minutes to Collevalenza, a small village, to visit the Sanctuary of Merciful Love, a shrine dedicated to the late Venerable Mother Speranza who founded the Congregations of the Handmaids of Merciful Love in Madrid in 1930. She established the Sons of Merciful Love in Rome in 1951.  

Mother Speranza or Maria Josefa Alhama Valera was born to a poor family in Spain in 1893, the eldest of nine children. She died in Todi in 1983 and is buried in the Sanctuary, which was consecrated in 1965. The process of her beatification and canonization was initiated in 1988. Mother Speranza was declared “Venerable” by Pope John Paul II in a decree transcribed in the Acts of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints in 2002.

Mother Speranza’s life was marked by a variety of illnesses from which she often suddenly and surprisingly recovered as evidenced by doctors. She wrote that Jesus Himself gave her Holy Communion twice. There are incidents of unexplained miracles traced to Mother Speranza and today, pilgrims from all over the world pray before her tomb at the Sanctuary. A nine-day novena, written by Mother Speranza, was approved for publication by Bishop Alfonso De Sanctis in 1945 and is available at the shrine. Pilgrims also drink the spring water coming from the shrine for miraculous healing.

Another feature of the shrine is a 24-diorama display of Biblical episodes and Jesus’ life. There are 22 miniature detailed dioramas and two large-scale dioramas depicting the Nativity and Crucifixion.