The Sanctuary of Nizza in the FAI Spring Days

Nizza Monferrato (Italy). On 22 and 23 March throughout Italy, the FAI-Fund for the Italian Environment ETS organizes the FAI Spring Days, the event dedicated to cultural heritage and landscape celebrated with the opening of 750 special places, from north to south of the Peninsula. Many of them are unusual and normally inaccessible, or little known and valued, which can be accessed through visits with free contributions in support of the Foundation’s activities.

To open the doors to reveal their unpublished and surprising stories will be palaces, villas, castles, theaters, places of education, churches, and art collections, examples of industrial archaeology, and production sites, but also craft workshops, lighthouses, shipyards, to which will be added routes in historic villages, paths in natural areas, botanical gardens, urban parks, and special visits on the theme of sustainability. Some proposals will be reserved exclusively for FAI members and those who register during the event.

The complex of “Our Lady of Grace” Institute in Nizza Monferrato (AL), of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Mary Help of Christians Province (IPI), joins the initiative, opening its doors to visitors and pilgrims of the Jubilee.

The origins of the structure seem to date back to a place of Marian worship of the 13th century, a country church, “Holy Mary of Lintignano”. Dear to the citizenry is not only the Church, but the whole structure, still today is called “La Madonna”.

Before the purchase by Don Giovanni Bosco in 1877, there alternated three Franciscan families: the Amadeiti Minor, the Observant Minor, and finally, the Capuchin friars. In 1879 it became the Motherhouse of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.

The Marian Shrine, much loved by the citizens of Nizza and the Salesian Family, has always been a place of pilgrimages, prayer, mystical phenomena, and miracles. Renovated several times and expanded, today it contains paintings by Piero Dalle Ceste and local painters, a statue of the Help of Christians, gift of Don Bosco, and an organ of 1900 by Carlo Bossi, in 1978 enlarged and electrified, reaching the current 2,000 pipes. On 31 January 2025, on the Solemnity of St. John Bosco, the Bishop of the Diocese of Acqui, Msgr. Luigi Testore, inaugurated the Jubilee of hope in the Sanctuary O. L. of Grace, designated by decree of the Episcopal Curia on 8 December 2024, as a Jubilee Church.

Mother Mazzarello’s room is the beating heart of the structure. It is the room where the Saint lived the last years of her life, from 3 February 1879 to 14 May 1881. The history of the Institute has been intense: years of expansion with the first Sisters who left for Latin America in 1877, years of consolidation, with the opening of new works.

Only for FAI members will it be possible to visit the Church of the Sacred Heart and the Hall of Memory.

The Church of the Sacred Heart was desired by Mother Elisa Roncallo, General Councilor of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, for the extern girls (pupils, former students, and oratorians). In the 90s, it was renovated to build classrooms on the upper floor, while the lower floor remained a place of prayer and remembrance.

The Memory Room houses objects that recall the presence of the FMA in Nizza Monferrato: artefacts, souvenirs, objects from the Salesian world, relics, etc. The meteorological observatory, created in 1891 by the Salesian Fr. C. Bretto, as an addition for the secondary school students, was equipped with state-of-the-art tools; active until the 1960-70 forwarded the data to Turin and Rome at the Central Office of Meteorology and Geophysics.

On the occasion of the Jubilee, the Sanctuary also joins the initiative I Luoghi del Cuore of the FAI in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo. The call provides a series of contributions to carry out projects for the restoration and enhancement of the Sanctuary. . It is still possible to vote online through the FAI website.

A simple click is enough to support this Shrine, rich in history and spirituality, as the Animator, Sister Piera Cavaglià, former Secretary General of the FMA Institute, explains in this video: