The church of Sant'Antonio, formerly the church of the Immacolata, is a Catholic church in Altamura. It was first dedicated to the Immaculate Conception; it is built against the Antonian orphanage and the convent of the Figlie del Divino Zelo.
What to see
The church holds the body of Mélanie Calvat, the French nun born at Corps, in France, in 1831 and died in Altamura in 1904, who with Maximin Giraud was one of the two Marian seers of La Salette. Father Annibale Maria di Francia, who went to Altamura after her death, had her body exhumed from the city cemetery and placed in this church, which was then still the church of the Immacolata; it is still there today. The exhumation was carried out on 19 December 1918.
Father Annibale Maria Di Francia's work in Altamura and in the diocese finds its fullest application of the charism of the Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus in the founding of the Antonian orphanage; the church is built right against that orphanage.
Visiting
The church is in Altamura, built against the Antonian orphanage. The sources consulted give no opening hours or visiting arrangements: check them.
Our editors' tip
Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud said they had seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the mountains of La Salette; with a mandate signed in 1851 the bishop of Grenoble ruled in favour of the apparition. The church therefore holds, according to the sources, the burial of Mélanie Calvat, who died in Altamura on 14 December 1904.
