Fenomeni religiosi, pratiche devozionali e formazione delle identità sociali nell’Italia settecentesca: Ornago e il caso della fontana miracolosa

Abstract

The discovery of a supposedly miraculous fountain in 1714 in Ornago caused the development of a religious devotion which was related to a small chapel close to the fountain dedicated to the Beata Vergine del Rosario and spread quickly also outside the boundaries of the parish. The belief that the water of the fountain had a miraculous nature and thaumaturgical powers lead the archiepiscopal curia of Milan to intervene with the creation of a number of congregations devoted to verify the healings which were considered to be miraculous. Through a micro-historical analysis, this article aims at exploring the religious phenomena and the devotional activities which were born after the discovery of the fountain, the relationship between the clergy and the laymen of the surrounding community, between the social groups acting inside the parish and the diocese of Milan and between the intermediary groups and the figures belonging to the highest classes of the community. This point of view allows to understand how in the ancient regime the dimension of the sacred, overcoming the specifically religious limits, came to gain also a remarkable civil and “political” value. The analysis of the events after the discovery of the Ornago fountain highlights the wide notion of religiosity in the ancient regime and shows how the religious phenomena and the devotional activities turned out to be an area affected by jurisdictional debates, negotiation of rights and the reshaping of the identity among the numerous social groups constituting the society of the ancient regime.