Madonna dell 'Erbia (Our Lady of Erbia)
On top of Mount Erbia, about 4 km from the village, stands a small shrine of the Madonna dell 'Erbia a short distance from the sanctuary of the Trinity. On this hill a church was built there after a miraculous intervention that occurred August 5, 1550. According to tradition, at the farm of a peasant, there was much venerated image of the Madonna Del Presepe. To get full view of the numerous pilgrims who crossed the fields surrounding treading on the grass. A farmer, during the night scarred the painting with strokes of the hoe, magically reappeared.
A Carlo Lanfranchi, friend of Louis, invited them to accompany him on Mount Erbia brought from the chickens he had there, locked in a farmhouse. Accompanying his friend, Louis went to the barn of his father's estate, not far away, and found the barn locked. Suddenly a storm of frightening proportions was unleashed and Luigi, scared, and took refuge from the wind and raint under the porch of the church of Our Lady dell'Erbia. It was the evening of August 6, 1839.
The child, right corner of the porch, she continued to weep and cry, when suddenly he heard the loud crash hatch with double doors of the small church and saw it get out of the Madonna, dressed in white and red, with a child in arm , said:
"Do not fear or Luigi, come with me I will put you to sleep, in half an hour will be with your father."
At the request of Louis who wanted to know where he was being led, Mary said:
"Here in the barn, that although it is locked, I will open it ".
And so saying he took him by the hand and led him to the door of the barn that opened by itself. Once inside the Madonna made a bed of hay , then told him to keep quiet and not to worry and then vanished. Louis ate the bread and then fell asleep, waking up later when he heard the voice of his father calling him by name. The barn was locked and the man, together with a friend, had to work hard to enter: he found the child with even a piece of bread in his hand.
This occurrence started the tradition of distributing small loaves with the imprint of the Virgin dell'Erbia which are then consumed by people who are sick. In 1867, after the violent outbreak of an epidemic of smallpox, they vowed to expand the church and was so small that the temple was transformed into a shrine between 1877 and 1881 and these further enlarged in the years 1927-28.
The feast is celebrated on August 5, but the increased flow of people and pilgrims has the following Sunday during the solemn ceremonies which are celebrated.
In 1873 the bishop of Bergamo, Mgr. Pierluigi Hope, ordered an investigation into the facts, which ended Oct. 12 of that year with a notarial document certifying the miracle.
Source: http://www.mariadinazareth.it/
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