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Of the sanctuary
The Shrine is located in Castel S. Elia, a town in the province of Viterbo, in the diocese of Civita Castellana, just 40 km from Rome. It is on a peak overlooking the Suppentonia Valley, at the centre of a plateau between Nepi and Civita Castellana.
The Shrine, a “pearl of Upper Lazio”, is situated in a tufa rock cave, in the marvellous valley. It’s history dates to the early centuries of Christianity when worship of Our Lady is born in the Valley with the arrival in the 6th century of the Sons of St Benedict.
It is quite likely that the Suppentonia Valley (the Etruscan Nepet – the Roman Pentapoli) welcomed the first hermits who introduced monastic life to the West. Many of them embraced the Rule of St Benedict living in some caved excavated along the rock (and still existing).
St Gregory the Great wrote: «The abbot St Anastasias, notary public of the Holy Roman Church, had taken a monk’s habit. Having retired to that place, for many years he led a holy life and was a diligent guardian and superior of the Convent» (Dialogues I, 7).
«Those holy men assiduously frequented the Cave (the modern Shrine) which was dominated by a very sweet image of the Virgin» (St. Pius X, Motu Proprio, 15.8.1912).
When the Benedictine monks came in the year 520, they built the Cenobio and the Basilica of S. Elia on the ruins of the temple dedicated to Diana. In 1258 they abandoned the Cenobio and their place there was taken for a short period by the Canons of the S. Spirito in Sassia of Rome.
During the five centuries of abandon that followed, the devotion to Our Lady stayed very much alive among the local people.
A new age began for the Shrine in 1777 with the arrival of Fra Giuseppe Andrea Rodio (1745-1818). On Rodio’s death, his work was continued by a series of hermits.
Since 1892 the Shrine was entrusted to the Friars Minor of the Province of S. Croce in Saxony. Through their untiring work under the leadership of Mgr Bernardo Doebbing (1855-1916) the Shrine developed to assume its modern form.
On 15th August 1912 the entire complex of the Shrine passed into the possession of the Holy See and the Shrine was raised to the title of Pontifical and that of Basilica Minor.
In January the order of Franciscans of Saxony was replaced by a new religious community: the Congregation of St Michael Archangel (Michaelite Fathers) originally from Poland, founded by the Servant of God Fr Bronislao Markiewicz (1842-1912). They are still the guardians of the Shrine.
