The Sacred Name of Mary in Italian Toponymy

It is well known how a church, a devotion, a relic, or even a missionary stop, ever since the succession of the barbarian invasions, may have been the origins of the sacred name of an inhabited center or of another urban settlement. These names served to keep all the inhabitants united, both those gathered in the valleys when they went up to the mountains to fortify themselves, and those gathered on the mountains when they came down into the valley to expand their agricultural work.

Thus it becomes clear how sacred toponymy has made, and continues over time to make, a broad contribution to the name of those who lived around Christ. The frequent distribution of these sacred names finds
above all ample reference to Marian devotion with the spread of the name of «Mary», the mother of Jesus.

Although it is known to all that the Virgin of Nazareth never came to Italy, a historical and geographical excursus highlights how in this nation
Marian devotion has always been extraordinarily widespread, as is also shown by the statistical numerical findings regarding the spread of this sacred toponym in our territory.

This is confirmed by the research of the Mariologist Stefano De Fiores and by that on the shrines of our country by Domenico Marcucci, which allow us quite rightly to consider that in Italy Our Lady is at home.

Indeed, these statistics, summarized below, inform us that:

— in Piedmont the Marian toponyms number over 250, of which three are municipal seats: Madonna del Sasso, Mosso Santa Maria, Santa Maria Maggiore, while the only municipality in the Aosta Valley with a Marian attribute is Rhêmes Notre-Dame;

— in Lombardy these toponyms number over 200, of which the largest are: Santa Marta della Versa, Santa Maria di Rovi-gnate, Santa Maria Rezzonico, and Torre Santa Maria. Only 11, however, are the toponyms referring to Mary in Trentino-Alto Adige, 70 in Venezia Euganea, and 20 in Friuli- Venezia Giulia;

— Liguria records more than fifty of them, relating to tiny centers, while in Emilia-Romagna one reaches 120 Marian toponyms, with one among the best known: Our Lady of S. Luca in Bologna. In Tuscany the sites with Marian names reach 125, of which only one — in the Pisan area — is a municipality: Santa Maria a Monte. Similarly, in the Marches only Santa Maria Nova is a municipality among the 190 smaller centers in this region that refer to Mary;

— for Umbria the names of these Marian places number 100, with a single municipality: Santa Maria Tiberina. In first place among the Italian regions is undoubtedly Lazio, where 260 toponyms dedicated to the Virgin are counted. In Rome, the strong attachment to Our Lady has always been shown also by the iconography of the numerous aediculae that, since the Middle Ages, were placed at the corners of buildings;

— in Abruzzo and in Molise Mary is named in 170 centers, of which 4 are municipalities: Rocca Santa Maria, Sante Marie, Santa Maria in Baro, Villa Santa Maria. In Apulia, however, there are 110 Marian sites, and in Basilicata the toponyms dedicated to the Virgin reach 66, while in Calabria 70 are counted, including that of Our Lady of the Chain near Cosenza. Included in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia, there is the municipality Domus de Maria, completing the other 35 of this region. On the other island, Sicily, the name of Mary is recalled in 120 places, among which Santa Maria di Licodia, a municipal seat.

From this carefully researched and detailed calculation of the toponyms dedicated in Italy to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it may be deduced how, in proportion to the area and population of each region, this sacred toponym is:

— strong in Lazio, Umbria, the Marches, Abruzzo, and Apulia, but even more so in Basilicata;

— medium-high in the two larger islands, in Campania, and in Calabria;

— modest in the north-eastern area, even if more substantial in Piedmont.

These statistics therefore highlight how in Italy there stands out a very strong tendency toward the prevalence of popular faith, simple and not imposed, as a concrete and marked ethnic and religious devotional attachment typical of the less socially elevated classes. In this, everyone, whether they like it or not, should take satisfaction, not so much because of the numerical ranking, but because of the meaning that has emerged from it, which leads one to infer that “Italy is called Mary.”

Father Mariano, the popular Capuchin who as a religious chose his name by dedicating it to Mary, asserted in 1954: “A man who knows who Mary is and wishes to realize the wonder that
this woman unique in history awakens in him passes from surprise to surprise… She is most certainly a historical figure… She is the woman most often depicted in art, Marian bibliography is boundless, the name of Mary is the most frequent among Christian women, the Christian people invoke her, pray to her, name her continually.”

All this certainly helps us to perceive how much the “sense” of Mary has meant, means, and will mean for all those on earth who in any way have had recourse to her as Comforter and Mother: this is the name that constitutes its most significant synthesis.

BRUNO LUTI