The Church of Our Lady of Health

The church of Our Lady of Health (Madonna della Sanità) is what remains of a Basilian convent (11th century) consisting of several rooms and other premises. The coenobium is known as St. Isidore Agricola and is one of the fourteen (out of the original four hundred) that were still standing in Calabria in the middle of the eighteenth century (Della Calabria Illustrata; by Giovanni Fiore from Cropani).
Inside, behind the altar, there are the remains of a 15th-century Byzantine fresco depicting the Pieta, a saint and the Eternal. Some years ago, three large paintings were stolen by unidentified persons: Our Lady of Health – Madonna della Sanità (oil on canvas from the 18th century), La Pietà (The Pity) and the Saints, the Saints, Anthony of Padua and Francis of Assisi (two oils from 1861). The old wooden altar, decorated with images of the Madonna, dates back to 1746.

Near the altar there is a statue of Our Lady of Good Health with the Child and the Sick (1964) by the sculptor Perathoner from Ortisei (Bolzano). The wooden statue was blessed by Pope Paul VI in Rome on 29 April 1964, in the presence of numerous Badolato residents, led by the archpriest Don Antonio Peronace and the archbishop of Catanzaro-Squillace, Monsignor Armando Fares, and replaced the previous statue by the Neapolitan sculptor Cucchiara (early 20th century), which was destroyed in a fire on the night of 23 August 1963.

The current painting above the altar, created in 2007 using computer techniques, reproduces the stolen one and recalls the legend of the peasant Isidore, whose son was ill. Our Lady appeared to him in a dream and told him to go to the orchard and pick some cherries (it was winter) and give them to the child to eat. Isidore had faith, went to the orchard and found the cherry tree full of fruit. He fed the child, who recovered.

In 2017, with the agreement of the parish priest of Badolato and the availability of the restorer Pino Mantella, the Cultural Association La Radice presented a project for the restoration of the Byzantine fresco to the Archdiocesan Curia of Catanzaro. The Curia and the Superintendence of Cosenza have approved the project and it is hoped that the recovery of this artistic and historical treasure will soon take place.

In 2021, with the direct commitment and funding of the Cultural Association La Radice and AVIS Badolato, the large cistern that collected water from the roof of the Coenobium for the needs of the monks will be recovered and made visible.