santuario, diocesano, Santa Croce

The Santuario Diocesano di Santa Croce stands on a hilltop in Motta Filocastro, a frazione of Limbadi in Calabria, at 362 metres above sea level. The site is six kilometres from the town centre and belongs to the parish of Santa Maria della Romania. It was formally designated a diocesan sanctuary in May 2002.

The church owes its existence to a prodigious event. Local tradition recounts that in the 1500s a farmer, digging to plant a vineyard, unearthed a wooden cross. He placed it on a rough altar of stones gathered on the spot. The next day he brought his sick daughter; as soon as she kissed the cross, she was healed. An alternative tradition holds that the cross was brought to Limbadi around the mid-twentieth century by Mother Giovanna Francesca Ferrari, foundress of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Incarnate Word, and was initially kept inside the town.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.