Sant’Andrea delle Fratte · Rome, Italy · 1842
In a Roman church on a January afternoon in 1842, a young Jewish banker from Strasbourg named Alphonse Ratisbonne — a hardened skeptic, deeply opposed to Catholicism — was waiting impatiently while a friend arranged a funeral. He had been wearing the Miraculous Medal as a wager. He looked up to the Chapel of Saint Michael, and saw the Mother of God. In the moments that followed, the entire course of his life was changed. The Lady at Sant’Andrea delle Fratte is honored as Our Lady of Zion — the Mother who comes to her own people.
The Conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne
Alphonse Ratisbonne was twenty-eight years old, the youngest son of a prominent Jewish banking family in Strasbourg, betrothed to be married, and on his way home from a tour of the Mediterranean. He had stopped in Rome reluctantly. His brother Theodore had become a Catholic and a priest some years earlier — a betrayal Alphonse considered unforgivable. A friend, a baron, had given him a Miraculous Medal as a kind of joke and asked him to wear it; Alphonse, in mockery, had agreed.
On January 20, 1842, the friend asked Alphonse to wait in the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte while he made arrangements for the funeral of another friend who had died. Alphonse paced impatiently through the empty side aisles. Suddenly he saw the church fill with a great light, focused on the Chapel of Saint Michael. There, in the center of the chapel, stood the Mother of God — exactly as she appears on the Miraculous Medal — radiant, silent, looking upon him.
Alphonse knelt. He could not speak. When the friend returned and found him weeping in the chapel, Alphonse cried: “I have seen her! I have seen her!” Within days he was instructed in the Catholic faith and baptized. He took the name Marie-Alphonse, became a priest, joined his brother Theodore, and together they founded a religious congregation — the Fathers and Sisters of Our Lady of Sion — dedicated to prayer for the Jewish people and to the rebuilding of friendship between Jews and Christians. He died in Jerusalem in 1884.
The Sanctuary Today
The chapel of Saint Michael in Sant’Andrea delle Fratte is now called the Chapel of the Madonna of the Miracle — Madonna del Miracolo — to commemorate the apparition. The image of Our Lady that hangs there now is a copy of the Miraculous Medal vision, painted in 1842 to recall what Ratisbonne saw. A plaque on the floor marks the place where he knelt.
The church remains a parish of the Friars Minor and a place of quiet pilgrimage in the heart of Rome — minutes from the Spanish Steps, but largely unknown to tourists. The Religious of Our Lady of Sion, the congregation Alphonse and Theodore founded, work today in many countries for friendship between Jews and Christians, in the memory of the Mother who came to her own people in the chapel of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte.
A Prayer at Sant’Andrea delle Fratte
Mother of Zion,
you who came to a Jewish skeptic
whose own brother had become a Christian —
come to those who feel divided in their families,
in their faith, in their own hearts.
You who appeared to one who mocked your medal —
be patient with all who mock what they do not yet know.
Daughter of Israel, Mother of the Church,
pray for both your peoples. Amen.
Live from Rome
The church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte celebrates daily Mass in its parish; the Chapel of the Madonna del Miracolo is open for prayer, and the date of January 20 is honored each year as the anniversary of the apparition.
Visit & Learn More
- Sant’Andrea delle Fratte (parish site): santandreadellefratte.it
- Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant%27Andrea_delle_Fratte
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