Our Lady of Help (Busto Arsizio)
Our Lady of Help is a wooden statue in the church of Santa Maria di Piazza in Busto Arsizio, Italy. It is linked to the sculptor Fabrizio De Magistris, who designed it in 1602 after the Madonna is said to have appeared during a plague in 1576. During the plague, people carried the statue in a procession through the streets. Tradition says the Madonna then raised her right arm to stop the plague, while her left hand held the Child Jesus. Because of this miracle, she is called Our Lady of Help, and the church became a sanctuary.
The devotion led to an annual pilgrimage on St. George’s Day, April 24, to the Madonna del Monte and to honor Beata Giuliana di Busto. The most famous statue was carried in the 1630 procession to end the plague.
A similar devotion to Our Lady of Help spread to Montevideo, Uruguay, where a statue is venerated as Santa Maria de la Ayuda, with copies and related traditions arising there.
In Busto Arsizio, the main image is the wooden polychrome statue by De Magistris inside Santa Maria di Piazza. At the city’s entry points stand pink granite columns with bas-reliefs of Our Lady of Help. In the early 2000s, a small votive capital dedicated to Our Lady of Help was built in the San Giuseppe neighborhood near the hospital, and the image is used as the hospital’s logo.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:38 (CET).