santuario, mariano, parrocchiale, Madonna della Sanità

On a hill called Monte San Isidoro, three kilometres from the nearest town, stands a church of Basilian origin. It was once part of a monastery of five chambers and other rooms, one of those many Basilian cenobitic houses that fell into extreme neglect. According to local accounts, the site was entrusted to a farmer named Isidoro, who worked the land, maintained the buildings, and kept alive the devotion to the Madonna.

After his wife’s early death, his only son fell gravely ill. None of the remedies worked. Isidoro prayed without cease. One night, the Virgin appeared to him in a dream, seated on white clouds with the child on her knee. She told him to wake, take cherries, feed them to his son, and he would be cured; and on that spot, he was to build a church, to be called the Church of Health. Isidoro woke with cherries in his hands. He gave them to his son, who ate, slept, and by morning, the last Saturday of August, was entirely well. Declared a Marian parish sanctuary in the Great Jubilee year of 2000, this is a place where a simple, stubborn faith found its answer.

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