The “Madonna Della Lettera”

The feast in honor of the “Madonna della Lettera” in Messina is one of the most important festivals in the city

in which all the people of  the city take part with great devotion. The cult of the Madonna della Letter in Messina was established in the eighteenth century, a time when the Virgin was elected Patroness of the city. The feast is celebrated on June 3 every year.

According to tradition in 42 A.D. at the dawn of Christianity, the Senate of Messina sent a delegation to Jerusalem made up of four delegates and the apostle Saint Paul, architect of the evangelization of the city, who introduced them to the Virgin Mary, to whom they communicated the conversion of the Messina. On 8 September the delegates returned to Messina, carrying a letter in Hebrew from the Madonna, with a lock of her hair attached. In the document, written in Hebrew there  was this sentence: having known the way of truth through the preaching of Paul the Apostle, elected for which thing, we bless you and the same city of which we want to be perpetual protector. From Jerusalem in the year 42 of Our

Son.

The Feast of Our Lady of the Letter culminates on the afternoon of June 3 when the silver statue created by the Messina sculptor Lio Gangeri, placed on a varetta with the reliquary containing the hair with which the Virgin tied theThe Feast of Our Lady of the Letter of Messina 2022 will take place on Friday 3 June. So best wishes to all the Letterio or Lillo and to all the Letteria or Lilla.