Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 320: March 28 Our Lady of Bocciola, Vacciago, Novara, Italy The origin of the Sanctuary of the Wild Hazel in the municipality of Ameno, a hamlet of Vacciago, in the province of Novara, can be traced back to an episode of the first half of the sixteenth century, in an era that also saw the rise of the Marian Sanctuaries of the Madonna di Re in Vigezzo (1494) and of the Boden near Ornavasso (1528), as well as of the vast Sacro Monte di Varallo in the nearby Val Sesia (1481). According to what we read in the diary of a notary from Ortensia, Elia Olina, on Monday, May 28 (or March according to tradition) of 1543, "the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a girl who guarded the beasts."  Subsequent news specifies the miraculous circumstances of the episode. Giulia Manfredi, as the girl was called, was mute from birth and lived in Vacciago, in a house that still stands along a path just before the Sanctuary.  That day she was grazing the cattle not far away, near a chapel where the ...

Day 319: March 27 Our Lady of Piratello (Madonna del Piratello), Imola, Bologna, Italy A pious pilgrim, named Stefano Mangelli, travelled alone along the "royal road", which led from Bologna to the cities of Romagna. He came from Cremona and was headed for Loreto, to venerate the Holy House of Nazareth, where the Word became flesh. As he advanced, the pilgrim did not fail to pay homage to the many images of the Madonna he met on the way and to light a candle in front of each of them. Holy Thursday of 1483, that year fell on March 27, and it was still a very cold winter day; the pilgrim arrived three miles from Imola, where he saw, at the intersection with a secondary road, a rough pillar, flanked by a small pear tree "un Piradel", which kept, in a small window, an image of Mary with the Child, sweet and maternal. The locality, because of that small pear tree "a Piradel", is called "il Piradello" or "Piratello." The pilgrim approached to...

Day 318: March 26 Our Lady of the Floor (Madonna del Piano), Apparition of Bianzone, Sondrio The sanctuary, located in the middle of Valtellina, among apple orchards and terraced vineyards, can be reached by train, bus or private vehicle and is open on holidays for Holy Mass. It probably has medieval origins due to popular devotion, but it was built as a sanctuary in 1675 following the apparition of Our Lady (on March 26) to a local man. He reported that the Virgin asked to:  "to raise an altar and reduce to a more honorable state, my temple situated there on this floor." The work of reconstruction and embellishment lasted several years because it was not continuous and continued even into the eighteenth century. On the eve of the feast of the Assumption in 1870, the sanctuary, which had always been threatened by the Valle stream, was invaded by water and debris: the doors were broken down and mud, boulders and trees ended up outside and inside the church. The statue of Our L...

Day 317: March 25 The Annunciation of Our Lord The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the most important in the Church calendar. First, it celebrates the actual Incarnation of Our Savior -- the Word made flesh in the womb of His mother, Mary. Second, it is a principal Marian feast. Two other feasts honoring Our Lord's mother, the Assumption (August 15), and the Immaculate Conception (December 8), are celebrated as Holy Days of Obligation in the United States. New Year's Day, January 1, is observed as a Solemnity of Mary. Many Catholics who are deeply concerned with the defense of the life of unborn children believe that it would be most fitting if the Feast of the Annunciation were also to be accorded this status. Although it seems unlikely that the American bishops will add another obligatory feast to the Church calendar, we can certainly take on the 'obligation' ourselves to attend Mass, if at all possible. In any case, it is most appropriate that we encourage specia...

Day 316: March 24 Our Lady of the Thorn, Champagne-Ardenne, France The sanctuary of Our Lady of the Thorn (Madonna della Spina) is located on the poor plateau overlooking the Vesle river, which has always been a place of pilgrimage, thanks to the discovery of the famous stone statue of the Virgin in a bramble. On this uncultivated land, the herds grazed in the middle of the hawthorn bushes in the shade of a chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist as early as 1230. According to the oral tradition handed down and then written in 1721 by Abbot Baugier, the origin of the construction of the sanctuary was due to the discovery of a miraculous statue of the Virgin, on the eve of the Annunciation in 1400. On March 24, 1400, some shepherds were attracted by a mysterious light that appeared on a bush of brambles, inside which they found a stone statue of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus in her arms. It was a Gothic statue, probably dating back to 1300 and considering that there was alread...

Day 315: March 23 Our Lady of the Rain, Bologna A chronicle of 1851 speaks of the discovery of the Marian image that was at the origin of the construction of the church: the fire of a house along the walls had caused the fall of wood and rubble, which were not removed until 1367, when excavations were carried out in the area to create the new Reno Canal, now buried, and bring water to the mills. During the work, a painting of the Madonna and Child emerged intact from the rubble. The image was placed in the oratory of San Bartolomeo di Reno, built in 1204 and owned by the Compagnia dei Mercanti. Attached to this church there were rooms, initially used as a shelter for pilgrims heading to Rome, then in 1330 they were used as a hospital for the poor and in 1527 intended for the reception of orphans. The image also took the name of Madonna dei Putti di San Bartolomeo, and became the object of great veneration following the episode of the miraculous healing of a blind man. In 1561, a year o...