Libera nos a flagello terraemotus. Immagini e culti contro il terremoto nelle Marche meridionali del Settecento

The aim of this essay is to analyze how in the Eighteenth century (the century of the big earthquakes in whole Europe), some saints acquired a new specific anti-seismic function that they didn’t had before in the Southern Marche, a region in central Italy. This happened in particular to Saint Emygdius, medieval patron saint of Ascoli Piceno, who started to receive a specific cult also in Potenza Picena: since he had been considered responsible for saving the city, the citizens commissioned a painting representing him as protector. For the same reason Saint Nicholas of Tolentino started to be venerated in Offida and the citizens commissioned a wooden processional statue of the saint. In the same period also the Virgin of Macereto, whom temple had survived to numerous earthquakes, enlarged her patronage, because the population believed this Virgin would have protected the area from the seism.