Inside a crystal cylinder, on a silver pedestal, a small silver angel holds up a thorn 45 millimetres long, marked by a dark stain about ten millimetres across and a groove like a cut: tradition says it is a thorn from the crown of Christ, and at Megli they have even named the road up to the church after it. The building too, by tradition, was wanted by the galley captain Fabiano Ageno on his return from the Holy Land: it took shape in 1216 and received from him the Byzantine panel of the Madonna and Child that is still on display. The first document to name it, as Santa Maria del Muegio, is a Syndacatus of 1311; the consecration probably dates to 1520.
What to see
Three naves divided by two pillars on each side and seven side altars: the plan is a diary of additions. In 1582 only the central nave existed; the presbytery came in 1615 with a gift from the Capurro family; the left nave belongs to the first half of the eighteenth century, the right one to the nineteenth, together with the floor and the terrace in front, on the initiative of the rectors Michele Antona and Giacomo Maria Garibaldi. The Baroque decoration you see today is the last coat, from the end of the nineteenth century; the high altar is marble and carries its own carved date, 1755.
On the left side stands the altar of the Madonna delle Grazie, with the panel given by the captain in 1216 and crowned in gold in 1902, the crowns paid for by the women of Megli. The altar of the Holy Thorn dates from 1860, and the church also keeps the carved ivory case, oriental work of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, which according to the Ageno family papers served admiral Giulio Ageno to carry the relic back from the East in 1309. On Maundy Thursday 1921 several witnesses, among them the provost Marco Bacigalupo, said they had seen the tip of the thorn turn red. Along the left nave the ex-voto cases are lined up.
Visiting
Megli is a hillside hamlet of Recco, and the church is reached by the salita Santa Spina, climbing from the valley floor. It is a parish of the Recco-Uscio-Camogli vicariate and has been a provostry since 11 May 1891, by decision of the archbishop of Genoa Salvatore Magnasco: opening hours follow services in practice, and to see the relic it is best to ask at the parish.
Our editors' tip
We look at the panel of the Madonna first and the thorn afterwards, in that order: they are the two objects the church grew around, and both arrived by sea, inside the same family story. It is worth asking about the ivory case, less conspicuous than the reliquary but the oldest piece of all. And before leaving, a glance at the ex-votos: they say who has climbed this hill to give thanks.