Religious Itineraries

THE VIA FRANCIGENA

Corte Sant'Andrea – Hamlet of Senna Lodigiana

39^th stage of the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome

Middle Age Europe was crossed by a tight network of mixed itineraries, by land, by river, by lake, all directly connected with harbours and linked to sea routes. All of these paths connected sanctuaries and religious key-places one to the other, recovering somehow the ancient roman streets which had been abandoned. It connected the Mediterranean to the North Sea and the Baltic sea, the Iberian and Anglo-Saxon West to the East. The last stage of all of these paths were the three large sanctuary-cities of Christianity: Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Jerusalem.

Among the routes leading to Rome, the Via Francigena was the most well-known. It crossed Gaul, the country of the Franks, and entered Italy passing through the Great Saint Bernard Pass; passing through Aosta, Ivrea, Vercelli and Pavia, it arrived up to Corte Sant’Andrea. There, the Via Francigena reunited with the routes coming from Moncenisio, from Turin and from Tortona. The river Po was a large natural obstacle that was overcome at the ford at Corte Sant’Andrea. After Piacenza, the Via Francigena crosses the Apennines at Monte Bardone (Cisa Pass) and then it continues throughout Tuscany and Latium and it gets, passing from one sanctuary to the other, to Rome. This itinerary was meticulously described by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sigeric, while going back home from his travel to Rome, where he had received the ordination by the Pope.

The Via Francigena enters the Lodigiano territory at Ponte di Mariotto, on the river Lambro, right at the border between the villages of Chignolo Po (in the province of Pavia) and Orio Litta (in the province of Lodi). After the bridge, there is a turn on the right and from here the Via Francigena runs along the Lambro’s bank, with a view of the promontory on which rises the village of Orio Litta; after this, the path goes on following the main bank of the river Po, among the green lodigiana countryside, and finally, after 4 km in a suggestive and quiet environment, it gets to Corte Sant’Andrea, to the Transitum Padi of Sigeric in the village of Senna Lodigiana, the ancient “Curtis Sinna” of the Carolingian time.

Information: “Compagnia di Sigerico”, Senna Lodigiana

Giovanni Favari – Phone +39 339.1268946 - -mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

SAINT FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI

Frances Cabrini was born in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, in a strongly Catholic family, on 15^th July 1850.

She became a teacher and taught for a while in Castiraga Vidardo. In 1880, she founded in Codogno the Institute of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her missionary work started on 31^st March 1889 and it took place mainly in the United States and in central and southern America. The number of missionaries of the Institutes grew at a quick pace, as well as foundations not only in Europe, but also in America. There, nuns were prepared to manage schools, nursery schools, hospitals and orphanages and to carry on religious works. In 1909, she was given the American citizenship. She suddenly died in Chicago on 22^nd December 1917, leaving 67 foundations and 1300 missionaries all over the world. Her body is kept in New York; some important relics are kept in Chicago and Codogno. Because of her great work, Pius XI proclaimed her Blessed on 13^th November 1938 and Pius XII canonized her on 7^th July 1946. In 1950, Pio XII declared her universal patron of the emigrants.

CABRINI’S PLACES IN THE LODIGIANO

LODI

Lodi’s Cathedral (in Vittoria’s Square): in the main conch, Saint Frances Cabrini is portrayed together with Saint Catherine in the large mosaic by Aligi Sassu, next to the patrons Saint Bassiano and Albert.

Church of Saint Mother Cabrini (Via Cabrini): two statues – a wooden one inside and a marble one outside - in a smaller scale than the magnificent one placed inside the Vatican Basilica in 1947.

Statues, full-length windows, frescoes and paintings of Mother Cabrini are venerated in other churches of Lodi and of the diocese of Lodi and several altars are dedicated to her.

SANT’ANGELO LODIGIANO

Her house (in a street that has been named after her) has now been turned into a small museum and a center for documentation about Mother Cabrini, where are kept hundreds of publications of different types and in different languages, together with some important materials about Mother Cabrini coming from different parts of the world. Next to it, in Square XV Luglio, there is a monument dedicated “to Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini and to the emigrant”, a work by the sculptor Enrico Manfrini.

The Cabrini Basilica – the first world sanctuary of the Saint – reminds in its style of the Renaissance of Bramante. Its building is quite recent: it dates back to the Thirties and is dedicated also to the patron of the community of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, that is the Abbot Saint Antony.

CASTIRAGA VIDARDO

Frances Cabrini was a teacher for two years in Castiraga Vidardo, walking everyday along the boulevard, which still exists, where has been built a small chapel with a mosaic commemorating this event. Inside the parish church (in Saint Frances Cabrini Square) is found a chapel where there are a statue and a Baroque artistic reliquary, as well as some pieces of embroidery which were made by the Saint herself.

LIVRAGA

Young Mother Cabrini was often visiting her maternal uncle, Father Luigi Oidini, coadjutor in the parish of Livraga. A valuable painting commemorates her in the parish church. In front of the town administration base there is Square Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini.

CODOGNO

In Codogno there is the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Institute, founded on 1880 by Frances Cabrini. This house (which is in the street named after her) also includes the church of the Tabor, where it is possible to venerate one valuable relic, that is the heart of Mother Cabrini, and the Cabrini Museum, where are kept documents and memories of her incredible activity in the two worlds.

In the parish church of Saint Biagio and in the church of the Madonna of Caravaggio, in the altar piece are worthy of mention a painting and a fresco by Arzuffi. In the parish dedicated to her can be admired an artistic reliquary of 1938, a wooden high relief and a marble statue, the copy in a smaller scale of that made in 1947 by Enrico Tadolini that is now in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome.