The Consolata's shrine is a Marian shrine, and between the many existent is also a sign, within the ancient walls of the city of Turin, of an ecclesial presence and of the maternal mediation of Mary.
Here is venerated an ancient Icon of Mary - which "inspires gentleness" (Cibrario) -, similar to the oriental icons, with which has probably something more than a mere resemblance, it is Mary who looks at the devotee instead of being looked at.
For all what has happened in this shrine, inside and around it, we could say that this shrine is to Mary as a monstrance is to the consecrated Host.
Every shrine has rather a long and complex story - that of the Consolata's begins in 924 - and has also its own destiny.
It will be seen how Giuseppe Allamano will tackle the shrine's "historic" problem. Here it is enough to say that it is complex and mixed up with some legend, and it is this mixture of legend to give to the Consolata's shrine an unmistakable "personality".
How many tears and sufferings reveal those stones and those walls, how many favours sought and received in the occasion of illnesses, misfortunes, famine, pestilence, wars, sieges and hunger. In 1706 Turin is bisieged; in 1799 the French are expelled; in 1852 the powder magazine of Borgo Dora blows up; in 1884-85 Turin with a population of 150.000 inhabitants is menaced by another epidemic; the newspapers record the spreading of the cholera from Telone toward Turin, through Ventimiglia, Cuneo, Mondovì, Saluzzo... This long story, without counting the personal cases of sheer misery, which sees united in the Consolata's shrine the poor and the rich, the aristocracy and even the Royal House, confer to this shrine the so called unmistakable personality.
The shrine became a point of reference for many other initiatives, capable of promoting always many more. At a close look, the Consolata's shrine in Allamano's hands, almost buried between palaces and working class houses, with little space, became pliable and expanding in such a way that it is difficult to say. And if in its physical complex the expansion is rather limited, on the other hand it shows a huge spiritual capacity. In fact, every shrine has a soul, waiting only for someone to take notice of it.

What's the Use of a Shrine?

The starting point of Allamano's whole activity will be, then, the Consolata's shrine.
But what is the use of a Marian shrine?
The question could be expressed in a wider sense: "What is the use of a shrine?" considering that the shrines are very many and not only Marian.
To such a question it isn't easy to answer. Even the Canon Law has always ignored the shrines. All! Nonetheless, for a long time - we can say -, especially starting from the Council of Trent, the shrines in the Catholic Church became an important factor, visible and widespread. But because they were not easily controllable, they were looked at coldly by the bishops, as they also were considered with no much interest by the so called "erudite rigourism" of Jansenistic origin or by certain Illuminism & Scientism nearer to us, which considered them easy receptacles of popular devoutness, not always lacking in superstitions. For all those reasons Paul VI, almost with tenderness, had called them "defenceless powers". Only the 1983 New Canon Law finally takes them into account in four canons: 1230-1234.
The shrines are churches or sacred places, open to worship, brought about for particular reasons of piety, generally tied up to some image believed to be miraculous or to some supernatural happening. They are places favoured by the faithful for a closer contact with the sacred; places, that is, where is possible to express oneself better with words, signs, prayers, pilgrimages tied up to ancient tradition; where the faithful easily expresses religious feelings.
The New Canon Law, in order to reassess the activity of the shrines and make them take better care of the religious needs of the faithful, presents them as "churches or sacred places" in which are offered to the faithful the "means of salvation", which are: the Word of God "properly announced", the liturgy "above all with the celebration of the Eucharist and Penance", and "the right forms of popular piety".
The shrines, in the past as at present, try also to give an answer to the great evils of society, offering more space and time to the precept of love and solidarity with dynamic testimonials. Somebody has defined them: "spiritual clinics" and also "the mysterious capitals of the world".