500 Year Old Madonna Processes Down the Tiber for Festa de’ Noantri…

… the Festa de’ Noantri brings Mary down the Tiber and by the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere with a welcoming of fireworks.

Fireworks for Mary over Santa Maria in Trastevere. pic.twitter.com/pyRjpxx6ho

— Mountain Butorac (@CatholicTravel) July 27, 2014

A five hundred year old Mary just arrived by boat on the Tiber. Now processing through Trastevere. pic.twitter.com/xoXvqO5CO2

— Mountain Butorac (@CatholicTravel) July 27, 2014

More about the Festa de’ Noantri here.

The Festa de’ Noantri, an important annual festival, takes place in the Rome district of Trastevere until 29 July. Central to the festival, which dates back to the start of the 16th century and whose name “Noantri” (noi altri) translates as “ours”, is the religious celebration of the Madonna of Mount Carmel.

The main event is the procession when a bejewelled and splendidly-dressed statue of the Virgin Mary is carried through the streets of Trastevere from the church of S. Agata towards the church of S. Crisgono, where it stays for eight days before returning home again.

The origins of this popular festival date to 1535 when a group of local fisherman discovered the statue of the Madonna at the mouth of the river Tiber during a storm. The statue was entrusted to the Carmelite friars at S. Crisgono in Piazza Sonnino, and became the patron saint of Trastevere.

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