Historic Italian Pilgrimage Connects LGBTQ+ People to the Madonna

At a Catholic monastery in rural southern Italy, LGBTQ+ pilgrims have been finding  protection and celebration for centuries as pilgrims to a shrine of the Black Madonna. 

Every February, hundreds of femminielli–meaning “little women” in the Neapolitan dialect–gather for a pilgrimage to the monastery of Montevergine, located in the southern Apennine mountains.  The femminielli are a historic third-gender community from southern Italy where there is wide acceptance of them.  Other members of the broader LGBTQ+ community also participate in the prayerful event.

Icon of the Black Madonna of Montevergine

The pilgrims travel to this sacred site to honor the Black Madonna, held by many as a protector and patron of the queer community. This is a continuation of a centuries old tradition of this local Catholic community welcoming and embracing the queer community, Fair Planet reports. 

While there are no official public records that denote the exact year the pilgrimage began, pilgrims and regional religious leaders suggest that it likely started sometime after 1256, when local legend holds that the Black Madonna saved a gay couple who had been tied to a tree and left to die by local townspeople. 

Each year, the pilgrimage begins near the town of Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo and proceeds up a mountain towards the monastery. Along the way, pilgrims pause to pay respect to the Black Madonna and to nature and are offered food and drink by local residents who line the path. For the townspeople of Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo, the pilgrimage is honored and respected out of reverence for the Black Madonna and generations of shared tradition. 

“Years ago, whole groups of femminielli used to stay at our home, and we’d feed them until they left to go up the mountain,” said Maria, an 81-year-old resident of Ospedaletto d’Alpinolo. “This is their holy day, we must respect that.”

According to Neapolitan folklore, femminielli–seen as neither male nor female–are believed to hold a unique connection to God, occupying a special place in southern Italian society. Stefania Zambrano, a 40-year-old femminiello, has been making the pilgrimage since childhood and visits the Black Madonna, whom she refers to as “mother,” several times a year, explaining:

“I know that she is with me all year round, but I feel obligated to see my mother a few times a year to at least say hello. Every time I go on the pilgrimage and enter the church, it’s like I feel the emotions for the first time again. It’s such a thrill; such a warm feeling.”

Pilgrims at the shrine of the Black Madonna (Photo by Savin Matozzi)

According to Don Salvatore, the parish priest of two parishes in Naples, the pilgrimage is accepted by the Church as an expression of local Neapolitan faith, and in turn the Church learns from these customs that the Black Madonna receives queer people. He stated:

“The Neapolitan people have simply accepted what happened at Montevergine as reality. The Madonna tolerates gay people and she freely welcomes them, who am I to not do the same?

“I, as a Christian, believe in God and the sanctity of Mary.  I must imitate her in her sanctity and the way that she was in her everyday life…She must be imitated not just because of her holiness, but also in her virtue of tolerance. Here in Naples, this has manifested itself in this accepting approach to these people and their reality.”

Vincenzo Vassallo, a 26-year-old non-binary pilgrim who has been participating in the pilgrimage for nearly a decade, views the tradition and the site at Montevergine as a rare place where faith, sexuality, and gender identity can coexist. He elaborated:

“We’re forced to perform all the time. This is the one place, time and space where we don’t have to perform. There’s no point of performing in the eyes of God. God knows who we are under our wigs, under our makeup, under our nail polish – and welcomes everyone.”

For the queer pilgrims who journey to Montevergine to honor the Black Madonna, their pilgrimage is a way to embrace both their queerness and their faith and to be received by the local Church fully as themselves. 

In a similar way, this September, a group of LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies will be making a pilgrimage to Rome to mark the Jubilee year, to gather in queer Catholic community, and to demonstrate the presence and faith of LGBTQ+ Catholics. In both cases, the holy task of a pilgrimage serves as a way for LGBTQ+ individuals to connect with, celebrate, and constructively challenge their Catholic community to truly be a home for all.

—Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, August 4, 2025