All in line for Mary Magdalene

The exhibition “The Fire of Love” inaugurated: masterpieces from the Vatican Museums, lecture by Cardinal Reina, emotion in the Cathedral for the Jubilee of Artists

AGRIGENTO – A silent and composed line, eyes wide open and shared wonder: it is Guercino's Mary Magdalene that ideally opens the path of the great exhibition "The fire of love. Mary Magdalene. Witness of female hope" , inaugurated this afternoon at Mudia , the Diocesan Museum of Agrigento. The work, on loan from the Vatican Museums , is the centerpiece of an exhibition that unites art, faith and culture , built in synergy between the Agrigento 2025 Foundation and the Archdiocese .

The exhibition is part of the official program of Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture and the Jubilee Year : an extraordinary occasion that brings to the city paintings and sculptures from all over Italy - including works by Cecco del Caravaggio, Mattia Preti, Nicolas Regnier, Pietro D'Asaro, Andrea Vaccaro, Francesco Hayez - in dialogue with the local heritage. Powerful icons, capable of recounting the complexity of the figure of the Magdalene: saint and sinner, disciple and witness, symbol of a radical and absolute love.

Giving voice to this story, in a very well attended lectio magistralis in the Cathedral of San Gerlando , was Cardinal Baldassare Reina , vicar general of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome. Born in Agrigento, Reina outlined a spiritual and theological profile of the Magdalene, "first witness of the Resurrection" and a figure still full of strength, autonomy and hope. " Each of us is a prodigy," he said during the celebration of the Jubilee of Artists, "and we must not allow anything or anyone to obscure this prodigy ."

A message that moved the audience of artists, cultural operators, students and simple visitors gathered in the cathedral for the occasion. An intense day, open to dialogue between art and spirituality, between history and contemporaneity, between beauty and meditation.

The exhibition, curated with scientific rigor and iconographic depth, unfolds in a journey through centuries of painting and visions. Alongside the names of the great masters, such as Guercino and Hayez, the traits of local devotion emerge: from Cammarata to Racalmuto, from Sambuca to Sciacca, the Magdalene returns in frescoes, panels, posters, wooden crosses, living testimonies of a shared identity.

Also on display are Cammarata's posters and the works of Fra Felice da Sambuca , which reveal a popular narrative capable of accompanying cultured art, showing how the figure of the Magdalene has become over the centuries a universal icon of contradiction and salvation , of body and spirit, of tears and redemption.

The exhibition route, open to the public until October 30 , is also part of a sustainable vision of heritage. As the organization explains, Agrigento has activated a network of electric shuttles to connect the historic center with the Valley of the Temples. "Reaching the exhibition with non-polluting means - the promoters emphasize - is part of the message of respect and care for the common good, a gesture consistent with the language of sacred art".

The Fire of Love Mary Magdalene. A Witness of Female Hope Agrigento, Diocesan Museum | July 6 – October 30, 2025 Under the patronage of the Dicastery for Culture of the Holy See

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