Monopoli's Madonna della Madia

Remember when I briefly introduced you to Maria/ Madonna della Madia in Hurrah! We're in! We're actually living in Italy!?  She was the painting on the ground with what I deemed rather "undignified" Christmas lights!  Well 16th December is a holiday in Monopoli to honour the day she arrived in the town.

I understood that the locals always re-enacted the story which sounded to me like a quaint little tradition that I was excited to try and see.  I was less excited to be woken at 5am by a noise that was anything but quaint and sounded to me like some inconsiderate so-and-so dragging their wheelie bin over the cobbled streets!  This was my first thought, despite there being no wheelie bins out here - a 5am wake up will do that to your logic!  Mr RR's first thoughts were that a building was falling down nearby, followed by the idea that it was a hell of a lot of gunfire!  (He probably wasn't too perturbed by this notion: he's quite prone to fantasising about the zombie apocalypse!)  So when it became clear it wasn't going to stop any time soon and that we were both definitely not getting back to sleep and that actually it sounded like fireworks, Mr RR got up and headed to the balcony where he said the sky was all lit up down by the port and they were indeed coming to the end of a 30 minute firework display!  (In these times of austerity?!  I guess you can't put a price on showing appreciation for Jesus' mum!)

Still around 6am, there were two long sets of the church bells normally reserved for Sunday mornings, and when Mr RR returned from his early morning run, he said there were loads of people up and about, where normally the streets are deserted.  So I guess we missed the re-enactment!

So why all the fuss?  The story of Madonna della Madia is without doubt the most important story in Monopoli's history and has been immortalised in 4 paintings, so here's my understanding of what went on!

Around 900 years ago, Monopoli started building a church but stopped when they ran out of wood for the roof.  10 years passed with the church remaining unfinished, until one night a local man had a dream in which he was visited by an angel who told him the wood for the church roof would arrive into the port.  

Nobody believed him, dismissing him as a drunk, but after 2 more dreams with the same insistent message he headed to wait by the sea.

Incredibly, a huge raft appeared on the sea which, visible as it drew closer, had atop it a painting of the virgin Mary carrying the baby Jesus.  

The wood and painting were taken to the church in a grand procession...

... and the work to finish the church roof recommenced.

The end!

That initial church grew too small for the expanding town and was replaced over 300 years ago with the stunning cathedral that stands today, but some of the wood from the raft remains on display.  (Madia is taken to mean raft, though in modern Italian it means trough - Madonna of the raft sounds a little more dreamy and poetic than Madonna of the trough!)

And the painting has pride of place, illuminated and visible even from the very back of the cathedral.

(Wikipedia has just filled in some gaps of my understanding: apparently the church bells rang as the raft came ashore all those years ago despite no-one being there to ring them, so that explains the bells this morning, and apparently it is traditional that's it's 5am and that there's fireworks!)

It's an incredible story.  I can see why the people of Monopoli are so proud to celebrate it.  But 5am?!