Our Lady of Confidence

La Madonna della Fiducia Our Lady of Confidence
Location	Basilica of Saint Mary Major
Date	14 October 1838
Witness	Pope Pius X
Type	Oil painting
Holy See approval	Pope Innocent X
Shrine	Papal Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran

Our Lady of Confidence, also known as La Madonna della Fiducia or Our Lady of Trust is a venerated image depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary. The feast of Our Lady of Confidence falls on the last Saturday prior to Lent.

Pope Innocent X granted a Canonical coronation to the image on 14 October 1838 via Cardinal Carlo Odescalchi at the requested petition of the Roman seminarians. In addition, Pope Pius X was particularly devoted to Mary under this title, drawing his pontificate many times.

There are two different traditions associated with the painting. One holds that it was painted by a religious sister in the eighteenth century. The other states that it was painted by Carlo Maratta, who gave it to a young noblewoman who later became Abbess of the Convent of the Poor Clares in Todi.

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of Confidence can be traced back to Sr. Chiara Isabella Fornari who was a Poor Clare in Todi, Italy. The image is especially noteworthy in that Christ points to his mother, and Mary's intercession is typically invoked through the short prayer "Mater Mea, Fiducia Mea" (My Mother, My Confidence)

Originally this Madonna was located at the Jesuit Collegio Romano, where it is believed she protected the seminarians from the Asiatic flu epidemic of 1837, which claimed many lives in Rome. To repay her, the seminarians crowned both Mother and Child with golden bejeweled diadems. A later story relates that when over one hundred seminarians were conscripted during World War I and forced into the armed services of Italy, they placed themselves under her special care, and all returned home safely.

The Patroness of Rome's Major Seminary is the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Madonna della Fiducia. A miraculous copy of Our Lady of Confidence now resides at the Roman Major Seminary located in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran complex. Pope John Paul II started the papal tradition of venerating this miraculous image each year, subsequently Pope Benedict XVI has carried on the tradition. During his visit on the feast day of Our Lady of Confidence on 9 February 2002, Pope John Paul II ended his time at the seminary commenting on the devotion his predecessors had to Mary under the title Madonna della Fiducia saying,

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