Abstract

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Graces on Mentorella (Lazio region, about 50 km east of Rome), one of the oldest in Italy and the world, was built on the site of the conversion of St. Eustace. In the first millennium it was taken care of by the Benedictines, who popularized the cult of Mary there and probably in the 12th century placed a wooden statue of Our Lady with the young Jesus inside the temple. The monks’ abandonment of the site (presumably in the late 14th century) resulted in the decline of pilgrimage traffic and considerable neglect of the place, which regained its former glory only after 1661, i.e., after the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher “discovered” Mentorella. At that time, a new phase in the history of the church began: the restoration project supported by Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg and the German princes, followed by the Jesuit mission (carried out until the order’s suppression), which elevated Mentorella to the rank of an important Marian sanctuary in Europe. The shrine could also count on the support of the Habsburg family in the 18th century – Empress Maria Theresa, known for her devotion to the Mother of God, donated a valuable robe for the statue of the Mentorella Madonna. When the church and monastery were taken over by the Resurrectionist Fathers, during the renovation of the buildings and rearrangement of the temple’s interior, the garments were removed from the statue and a chasuble (or chasubles) was sewn from the fabric donated by the Empress. In 2023, an inventory of the furnishings of the church and monastery on Mentorella was made. Among the preserved liturgical vestments, it was possible to select a chasuble composed from the dresses of Empress Maria Theresa’s foundation and confirm its provenance after comparing the embroidered fabric with a graphic depicting Our Lady of Men­torella in dresses, made by Giuseppe Mochetti “dal vero” in the 1st half of the 19th century. While it cannot be determined that Empress Maria Theresa made the embroidery herself (she herself designed, embroidered, and decorated with appliqués many of the liturgical paraments she funded), the artifact is of great artistic and historical value – bearing witness to the sanctuary’s strong ties to the Habsburg monarchy.