Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 306: March 14 Our Lady of the Column, Savona, Italy The story concerning the image of Our Lady of the Column dates back to the time when the construction of the current Cathedral began.  In the church of San Francesco (where the Cathedral had taken place by virtue of the papal bull of Pope Paul IV of 9 September 1556) there was an image of the Virgin Mary painted on the curved surface of a column: an image very dear to the people of Savona, in front of which they loved to stop in prayer, with great devotion.  The image was known by the people as the "Virgin of the Column." When it was decided to demolish the church of San Francesco to make room for the new Cathedral (the current one), the big problem arose of not mortifying the devotional sensitivity of the people by destroying that frescoed image; various ways were studied to remove it without damaging it but the solutions proposed by craftsmen and technicians of the time were not able to guarantee the success of the ope...

Day 308: March 16 Translation of the image of Our Lady of Clemency, Rome The Translation of the Image of Our Lady of Clemency takes place in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. This image is among the oldest ones in Rome: it dates back to the eighth century. Mary is represented in her royal majesty as Mother of the Lord. Even the Basilica, which contains it, the oldest Church in Rome dedicated to Mary, in Fonte Olei (Fount of the oil that would have flowed on the night of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem) is one of the most famous monuments in the world. It contains the most famous Marian mosaics. After that, the icon has always remained in Santa Maria in Trastevere (first in the early Christian Basilica then in the building rebuilt in the twelfth century by Innocent II), in the chapel built by Cardinal Altemps in the sixteenth century. This Madonna is a Basilissa or Queen, she wears the same robes that the Empress Theodora wears in the mosaics of Ravenna. It is probable that this ...

Day 305: March 13 Our Lady of the Rose, San Vito al Tagliamento, Pordenone, Italy On February 2, 1655, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, most of the Giacomuzzi family was in church for religious services. Mariute, an eight-and-a-half-year-old daughter, suffering from epileptic disease, had stayed at home with her aunts. Suddenly the aunts saw Mariute's face staring at the image of the Virgin and, as the girl approached the Madonna painted on the wall, her face lit up happily, as if in ecstasy. The aunts, surprised by what was happening before their eyes, waited for the girl to recover from that state of kidnapping and then immediately overwhelmed her with questions: who? How? Why? What did you see? Mariute, with unusual language, for her who was suffering from a transient disease, reported the words of the apparition, with great serenity and sweetness:  "I am not well in this place where people blaspheme against my Son. Tell your father to repent and have m...

Day 304: March 12 Our Lady of Olmo, Thiene, Vicenza and Diocese of Padua, Italy In 1530, the Blessed Virgin appeared to three shepherdesses among the branches of an elm tree in a solitary place on the outskirts of Thiene. On the site of the apparition a chapel was built with the image of the "Madonna dell'Olmo", which immediately became the object of popular veneration. The devotion increased a lot, about eighty years later, with the arrival of the Capuchins who established a friary and a church, in which the primitive chapel of the Madonna was also incorporated. The church – consecrated on September 22, 1613 – measured just 32 x 21 meters, had bare beams and had a choir for community prayer for the religious. Behind the choir there was a humble cloister (the oldest part of today's friary), surrounded by a quadrangular portico, whose sloping sides were supported by wooden architraves resting on bare brick pillars. Above the canopy ran the friars' cells, with windo...

Day 303: March 11 Immaculate Heart of Mary, Taggia, Imperia, Italy On March 11, 1855, during the solemn celebrations in Taggia for the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, all the people saw the holy image come to life, move its pupils looking at the surroundings. This miracle occurred at intervals for over three months, and the dear Image was called the Miraculous Lady. In 1851 the sculptor Salvatore Revelli from Tabia donated the plaster statue of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart or the Immaculate Heart of Mary to his hometown. The Miracle began on March 11, 1855 at the conclusion of the octave of prayer, desired by the Bishop of Ventimiglia, Monsignor Lorenzo Biale, to solemnize throughout the Diocese the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (December 8, 1854). There is great resonance in the Church for this event that recognizes what for centuries in the reflection of theologians, in the writings of the saints and in the sensus fidelium was an a...

Day 302: March 10 Our Lady of Miracles, Andria, Bari, Italy On Saturday, March 10, 1576, the Basilian Laura of Santa Margherita in Lama was rediscovered, following the research conducted after the apparition of Our Lady in a dream to a local boy. A Byzantine icon with the image of Our Lady and Child was discovered in the laura, in front of which a lamp was placed that the three discoverers undertook to keep lit in turn. After some time, one of the three forgot to replenish the lamp with oil, which was found equally burning and full of oil. The event, considered miraculous, was reported to the bishop of Andria, Luca Fieschi. On June 6 of the same year of the discovery, a Mass was celebrated in which the image of the Virgin was called "Santa Maria dei Miracoli d'Andria" (Holy Mary of Miracles of Andria). The bishop entrusted the image to the Cassinese Benedictine Fathers of the church of Saints Severino and Sossio in Naples, who built a first church, called "of the Cru...