A special bond between the Madonna del Carmine and Messinaamong the very first Carmelite landings of Europe from which a religious spirituality founded on prayer, fraternity and works of charity has spread. A spirituality that the parish priest Don Gianfranco Centorrino It continues to keep alive and which, thanks to its commitment above all in favor of the last, has become a school of humanism to which many citizens draw daily. In the sanctuary church in via Martino (indicated among the jubilant places where, on the occasion of the patronal feast, it is possible to obtain indulgence), which on May 13, 1956 was elevated to the dignity of sanctuary by the then Archbishop Msgr. Paino, the tribute to the Madonna del Carmine was renewed with the procession of the simulacrum through the streets of the center.
The devotion, heard, was witnessed by the great presence of faithful to the procession and the mass that preceded it, participated by the Terz’nore Carmelite. “To you, Fiore del Carmelo, we entrust every good purpose of our good and with you we contemplate the great works of God in order to be able to transmit through your example of servant and pilgrims among men the caring concern and the paternal tenderness of God to all those who need to believe and bet every day of life on what remains and never passes,” said Don Centorrino. On the notes of the Bordonaro gang, to the cry of “Viva Maria” the imposing simulacrum was welcomed to the exit, accompanied by the faithful and escorted by the municipal police on the streets of Messina, “often steep like that Monte Carmelo on which” the Virgin awaits all its children with open arms “, added the priest.