Apparition
Apparition of Our Lady of the Miracle (Sant'Andrea delle Fratte)
Church-approved Marian apparition · Basilica of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, Rome, Italy, 1842
On 20 January 1842 Alphonse Ratisbonne, a young Jewish banker from Strasbourg, hostile to the Catholic faith and in Rome only as a traveller, entered the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte and there saw the Blessed Virgin Mary as she is shown on the Miraculous Medal. He was baptised eleven days later. Pope Gregory XVI ordered a canonical investigation, conducted by his Cardinal Vicar Costantino Patrizi, which concluded in 1842 that the sudden conversion was a true miracle.
Background
Ratisbonne had accepted a Miraculous Medal and the Memorare only days before, as a wager against a Catholic friend. After his conversion he became a priest and, with his brother Théodore, founded a congregation dedicated to prayer for the Jewish people. The chapel where it happened is now the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Miracolo within the basilica. The vision was silent; Ratisbonne always insisted that he had been given no words but an overwhelming knowledge of the truth of the faith.
Location
Basilica of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, Rome
Country
Italy
Approved status
Approved
Year of apparition
1842
Visionaries
- Alphonse Marie Ratisbonne
Subject
marian
Decision year
1842
Content subtype
approved_apparition
Decision authority
Cardinal Costantino Patrizi, Vicar General of Rome, by the canonical inquiry ordered by Pope Gregory XVI