Our Lady of Consolation

Today in Turin it is the feast of the Consolata, and it is the feast of the city more than a date on the calendar. The sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione — which everyone calls the Consolà — is one of the oldest places of worship in Turin: beneath the present church are the remains of a Romanesque church and, before that, of an early Christian building, and the bell tower dates from the year one thousand. The church you see today is a masterpiece of Piedmontese Baroque, and Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra and Carlo Ceppi all had a hand in it. On the portico is written AUGUSTAE TAURINORUM CONSOLATRIX ET PATRONA, consoler and protector of the city of Turin. So her proper name would be Consolatrice, the one who consoles; the people of Turin have always said Consolata, the consoled one, as if she were the one being consoled rather than the one consoling — and it is a slip no one in Turin has ever wanted to correct. It is where the social saints of nineteenth-century Turin came to pray: Don Bosco, Giuseppe Cafasso, Giuseppe Cottolengo, Leonardo Murialdo. That generation of priests who took care of street kids, the sick and prisoners in a city that was becoming industrial passed through here. The Smorfia puts the Madonna at number eight. If your name is Consolata, today is your name day.