Saying Materdomini is like saying St. Gerardo Maiella, a Redemptorist missionary known throughout the world as a particular patron of mothers, children, and women in childbirth... #tuttitaly
Materdomini is located in the province of Avellino on a hill overlooking the beginning of the upper Sele Valley. Seven hundred thirty-five inhabitants populate the place, bringing its name from an ancient chapel dedicated to Santa Maria Mater Domini.
In 1742, the chapel was entrusted to the archbishop of Conza, Sant'Alfonso Maria de'Liguori, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. He flanked a Convent from which the Redemptorist Missionaries left for their evangelizing work to benefit the towns of Irpinia and the Sele Valley.
One of the Missionaries was San Gerardo Maiella. He met the Redemptorist priests in 1748, and against his mother's advice, he joined them.
The superiors accepted him only after much insistence due to his fragile health, and on July 16, 1752, he pronounced solemn vows to the Congregation.
He was a tireless worker and was credited with several miracles. Today he is universally invoked as the protector of pregnant women.
He died of consumption in the convent at 29 in 1755, and his remains are kept here, on top of which the Sanctuary was built.
From 1799 onwards, several families of Caposelle moved from the municipal capital to the hill of Materdomini, building their houses there. In this way, an inhabited center was formed, which, with the growing tourist flows linked to the cult of the Saint, experienced a significant building increase. More than a million pilgrims are estimated to travel to his tomb yearly to venerate his mortal remains.
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