THE HOLY FATHER OF PERRIERE’S SANCTUARY

The Holy Father of the Perriera’s cave, placed at the borders of the Town of Mazara, was excavated in a quarry once used for the tuff rock processing, that was called perriera.

The cave is still a place of pilgrimage and worship, and hosts a copy of Saint Francis from Paola’s bust.

This friar, the founder of the Minims’Order, who brought a deep change and religious  renewal in the church, was proclaimed saint in 1519 by Pope Leo X and “heavenly saint patron of Italian  men at sea” by Pope Pius XII in 1943.

In 1899 the cave outside was adorned with a small dome and a pronaos standing on two tuff rock columns.

Near the Sanctuary there is the Tuff Museum, formerly an old quarry.