The Madonna and Child of Trapani

The Madonna and Child of Trapani is venerated in a chapel of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Annunciation (Santuario dell’ Annunziata) in Trapani, Sicily, some 45 miles west of Palermo.

The work of an 8th-century Cypriot sculptor, the original statue seems to have remained in Jerusalem until the failure of the Seventh Crusade (13th c.), when one of the Knights Templar sailed for Italy taking the statue with him, possibly to save it from profanation by the Turks. During the course of the voyage, the ship ran into a terrific storm and soon it appeared that the ship and all on board were doomed. But the knight did not despair–he prayed fervently to the Blessed Mother and solemnly promised her, if they weathered the storm, that he would enshrine her statue on the first land they would touch.

The storm died down and eventually the ship landed at Trapani, Sicily. Attempts were made to move the Madonna from the Sicilian city to Pisa, but all failed. When the holy statue was transported without any resistance to the church of the Carmelite convent outside the city walls, there was no doubt that this place—and no other—had been chosen by the Virgin Mary. The statue is still there today, in the church of Santissima Annunziata in Trapani, where she spreads her blessings over the city, the island and its pilgrims. At one end of the church behind the main altar, there is a fine chapel and in it stands the venerated marble statue of the Madonna and Child of Trapani.

Adapted from Roman Catholic Saints