Miracles in the margins : The miraculous image of Santa Maria delle Carceri in Prato

[Extract] The miraculous image of Santa Maria delle Carceri in Prato Shannon Gilmore-Kuziow On 6 July 1484, in the Tuscan town of Prato, a young boy named Jacopino witnessed a fresco of the Virgin Mary miraculously come to life. The Madonna and Child with Saints Leonard and Stephen, otherwise known as Santa Maria delle Carceri, was painted in the fourteenth century on the exterior entrance wall of Prato’s prison – decommissioned by the time of the miracle in 1484 (Figure 6. 1) . According to Jacopino, the Virgin in the fresco opened her arms and beckoned the poor and exhausted masses to her image. Pilgrims from the surrounding countryside answered her call and journeyed to the prison’s crumbling ruins to receive relief from their physical and spiritual troubles. In the early years of the cult, many people gathering before the prison were artisans, labourers and inhabitants of Tuscan agrarian communities.