Basilica and Sanctuary of Merciful Love at Collevalenza

Why pilgrims come

Visit the resting place and legacy of Blessed Mother Speranza of Jesus

In the Umbrian hills south of Todi, the Basilica and Sanctuary of Merciful Love is the great pilgrimage work of Blessed Mother Speranza of Jesus. Born María Josefa Alhama Valera in Spain in 1893, she founded the Handmaids and the Sons of Merciful Love and came to Collevalenza with the first communities in 1951. Her central message was not that sin is unimportant, but that the repentant sinner meets God as a loving Father who forgives, restores, and calls his children home.

The complex grew in stages. The smaller Chapel of Merciful Love was completed first, in 1955, around the distinctive crucifix commissioned by Mother Speranza. As pilgrim numbers increased, architect Julio Lafuente designed the much larger basilica and crypt, consecrated in 1965. The Italian Ministry of Culture describes a modern sacred architecture organized around circular forms, local pink stone, a concave wall of stained glass, and an altar at the center of a gathered worshipping community. A spiral stair joins the upper church to the crypt.

Behind the crypt altar lies the tomb of Blessed Mother Speranza, who died at Collevalenza on February 8, 1983 and was beatified there on May 31, 2014. Her tomb is integrated into the architecture as a seed beneath the earth—a visual meditation on John 12:24 and Christian hope in resurrection. The sanctuary also remembers Pope St. John Paul II's visit on November 22, 1981, his first apostolic journey after the attempt on his life that May. The sanctuary received the title of minor basilica in 1982.

Water is part of Collevalenza's devotional life, but it must be understood through the sanctuary's own teaching. Mother Speranza directed that a deep well be dug, and pilgrims may take water or participate in the Liturgia delle Acque and, when operating, the sanctuary pools. The official instructions place sacramental conversion before requests for bodily healing: the water is a sign of grace, not a magical treatment or a substitute for medical care. Pool participation requires advance reservation and current confirmation.

The sanctuary is unusually well equipped for an extended pilgrimage. The Casa del Pellegrino welcomes individuals, families, parishes, youth groups, retreats, conferences, and pilgrimages involving people who are ill. A visitor can also ask about guided access to Mother Speranza's house, the memorial rooms, the Way of the Cross, the information center, and the community's liturgical program.

A dramatic Purgatory account widely circulated online is attributed to Mother Speranza. It describes a deceased bishop saying that two days of purification seemed longer than eighty years of earthly life. Catholic Tourist records it only as an attributed private testimony: it is not a measurement of time in the afterlife, an independently verified historical event, or binding Catholic doctrine. The sure center of this pilgrimage is the Church's sacramental life and the sanctuary's message of repentance, mercy, and hope.

Pray at Mother Speranza’s tomb, celebrate the sacraments, and receive the sanctuary’s message of merciful love before approaching its water, memories, or attributed private testimonies.