Anyone entering an Italian sanctuary may find themselves facing walls entirely covered with small objects: little painted pictures, silver hearts, crutches, plaits of hair, photographs, wedding dresses, model ships. These are ex voto, offerings left by the faithful to fulfil a promise or to give thanks for help they believe they received. Together they form one of the richest and most moving archives of everyday life in the past.
What ex voto means
The Latin expression ex voto means "following a vow", that is, a promise. The pattern is simple and very ancient: in a moment of danger a person turns to a sacred figure and promises an offering; once the danger has passed, they keep the promise by bringing a gift to the sanctuary.
The initials that accompany many of these objects, PGR or VFGA, sum up the meaning of the gesture: "per grazia ricevuta", "for grace received", or "votum fecit, gratiam accepit", "made the vow, received the grace".
Ancient roots
The gesture was not born with Christianity. In the sanctuaries of pre-Roman and Roman Italy, especially Etruscan and Latin ones, archaeologists have found large quantities of terracotta anatomical votives: reproductions of legs, arms, eyes, ears, internal organs, hands, feet. They were offerings to the gods, entrusting a part of the body to them or giving thanks for it.
The continuity with the Christian world is clear. Even today many sanctuaries hold small silver plaques in the shape of eyes, hearts, legs, arms, offered in the same spirit as the ancient votives.
The painted panels
The most fascinating form of ex voto is the painted panel, widespread in Italy above all between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. These are small pictures, on wood, canvas or tin, made to order by popular painters.
The structure of the image
The panels follow a recurring pattern.
- The scene of danger, in the lower part: an accident, an illness, a shipwreck, a fall from a horse, an assault.
- The sacred figure, above, often among clouds: the Madonna, a saint, Christ, watching and intervening.
- The inscription, sometimes with the donor's name, the date and the initials PGR.
This structure divides the space into two worlds, the earthly and the heavenly, and shows the moment when they touch.
An archive of everyday life
For historians the panels are precious documents. They show how people dressed, how houses were furnished, what means of transport existed, which jobs and dangers were most common. We see overturned carts, building sites, workshops, sickbeds, kitchens and then, as time goes by, bicycles, cars, trains. It is a social history told from below, by ordinary people.
The great collections
Some Italian sanctuaries hold ex voto collections of exceptional importance.
| Sanctuary | Place | Distinctive feature |
|---|---|---|
| Madonna di Montenero | Livorno | Large collection of maritime ex voto: shipwrecks, storms, ships |
| Madonna dell'Arco | Sant'Anastasia, Naples | Vast collection of popular painted panels |
| Alpine and Apennine sanctuaries | Various regions | Ex voto tied to avalanches, falls, work in the woods |
The maritime collections are especially evocative: the panels show sailing ships among towering waves, broken masts, sailors at prayer, and above them the sacred figure calming the storm.
The objects of life
Alongside the panels, sanctuaries take in objects of every kind:
- crutches and canes, left by those who walked again;
- plaits of hair, offered by women as a sign of personal sacrifice;
- garments: wedding dresses, christening gowns, military uniforms;
- photographs, which from the twentieth century often replace the painted panel;
- silver hearts, the most common of modern ex voto.
The anthropological meaning
Anthropologists read the ex voto as a form of relationship between the human being and the sacred, founded on exchange and on one's given word. The believer promises, the sacred figure listens, the gift seals the pact. It is an ancient model of reciprocity, giving shape to the experience of vulnerability and gratitude.
But the ex voto is also a public act. Hanging one's panel in the sanctuary means telling the community one's own story of danger and rescue. The walls covered with offerings thus become a kind of collective narrative, in which each person leaves their own fragment.
In short
- Ex voto means "following a vow": a gift that fulfils a promise.
- The initials PGR stand for "per grazia ricevuta", "for grace received".
- Etruscan and Roman anatomical votives are the direct ancestors of Christian ex voto.
- Painted panels are a precious archive of everyday life in the past.
- Montenero and the Madonna dell'Arco hold some of the most important collections.
