Believers credit the small wooden statue of the Madonna found in Nuoro by a young shepherd in the XVII century with saving the town from the plague. In gratitude, every year since 1812 the hold of a vow made to the Virgin is broken. The festivities of the Madonna delle Grazie, the town’s patron saint, take place on 21 November, a feast that central Sardinia takes to heart. The “old church” (XVII century) in the Seuna quarter of Nuoro is dedicated to her and is called this to distinguish it from the new one built in her honour in the 1950s, which now houses the ‘miraculous’ simulacrum.