POPE ANNOUNCES VISIT TO SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF BONARIA

Vatican City, 15 May 2013 (VIS) – At the end of today's general audience, the Pope, addressing a group of pilgrims from the Italian island of Sardinia, announced that he would like to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria that is located in the Sardinian city of Cagliari.

“I would like to visit the Sanctuary in Cagliari—almost surely in the month of September,” he said, “because there is a brotherhood between the cities of Buenos Aires and Cagliari because of an ancient story. At the moment of the founding of the city of Buenos Aires ifs founder wanted to name it 'City of the Most Holy Trinity', but the sailors who had brought him there were Sardinian and they wanted it to be called 'City of the Madonna of Bonaria'. There was an argument and, in the end, they arrived at a compromise. Thus the city's name turned out rather long: 'City of the Most Holy Trinity and Port of Our Lady of Bonaria'. Since it was so long only the last [word] remained: Bonaria, Buenos Aires, in memory of your image of the Madonna of Bonaria.”