SS. Crucifix - (Sicily)

Confraternity of SS. Crucifix

Typology:  Statue

Measures:  H m 3.30 x  L 2.70 m 

Dating:  XVI century

Author: Antonello Gagini

Matter and technique  wood

Subject:  SS. Crucifix

Over three centuries of devotion have passed since that distant 1626 in which the plague was defeated and the simulacrum of the Santissimo Crocifisso di Monreale was carried in procession by grace received.

Until 1989 the Crucifix was considered the work of an unknown author, but some studies attributed it to the famous Antonello Gagini on order of the Confraternity of the Holy Crucifix.

At the SS. Crucifix are combined with several anecdotes that are still handed down from father to son. Il Pitré says that the Crucifix arrives in Monreale almost by a miracle after being fished out of the sea. Then the Palermitans claimed ownership but this did not go down to us Monreales and then to reach a final decision on who really was the "owner" it was placed on a cart pulled by oxen with the agreement that, after being started , the point where he had stopped would have decreed the place of definitive stay. And so it was that the oxen, after their wandering without a precise destination, stopped right where the Collegiate Church now stands.