The miracle of Monna Tancia

A long long long long long time ago, in the Middle Ages, my town was a lot smaller than it is today. It was built by the city of Florence, together with other towns near here, to guard the borders of the Florentine state. It had a typical Roman shape (a rectangle of perpendicular streets) and four gates, one of which used to host the image of the Virgin Mary. A year, Black Death decimated the population and in one particular family, both the parents of a very young baby died, leaving him to the care of his old grandmother. She was poor and didn’t have money to buy milk, so she prayed and prayed the image of the Virgin Mary at the above mentioned gate of the town. As the story goes, the old lady, Monna Tancia, was granted the possibility to breastfeed her little grandchild and they both survived Black Death.

If you ever visit my town, you’ll notice our main church, our basilica, is unique. It was built “upstairs”. You can see it from the picture here. This is because it was erected above the gate. When you go inside, you can see the picture of the Virgin Mary who has been performing miracles ever since that special day when Monna Tancia prayed for her grandchild.

Another long, hot, exhausting day here. But after all the chores and errands, R, E and I met for dinner at our usual place! It was lovely to catch up. :-)