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OUR LADY OF THE CASTLE

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Day 273: February 9 Our Lady of the Castle, Fiorano, Modena, Italy The Sanctuary is located 18 kilometers from Modena, on the top of the Fiorano hill where, until 1510, there was an ancient and famous castle. The Sanctuary houses the prodigious image of the Madonna, which, painted on the external door of the castle since 1460, remained intact for many years, despite the bad weather and the vicissitudes of the times. In 1558, after the castle was destroyed, the image remained miraculously unscathed. Other miracles took place when, in 1630 and 1855, the people of Fiorano were unharmed first by the plague and then by cholera. In 1631, a first oratory was built, later a church. On October 12, 1659, the image of the Blessed Virgin of the Castle was transferred to the Sanctuary, built to a design by Bartolomeo Luigi Avanzino. The main façade of the Sanctuary is in Baroque style, inaugurated on September 8, 1889 and has details in common with the church of the Trinità dei Monti in Rome, w...
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OUR LADY OF HELP

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Day 272: February 8 Our Lady of Help, Minucciano, Lucca, Italy This shrine started as a small oratory at the end of the 1400's, dedicated to the Our Lady of Help (Madonna del Soccorso) , depicted by the Virgin who, with a serene face and a stick in her hand, defends a child who was about to be kidnapped by the devil. In 1550 the bishop of the diocese of Luni , to which Minucciano territorially belonged, approved a lay confraternity dedicated to the Madonna del Soccorso . The priors chose a suitable person to guard this oratory as a hermit. The hermits who have lived from then until today in the Hermitage of Soccorso amount to twelve: today three live there, one of whom is a priest. All of them have been buried there, with the exception of the last, Marco Cortesi . The Hermitage of the Blessed Virgin of Help in Minucciano is one of the sixteen hermitages that existed in the Garfagnana . It is about two kilometers from the village and, like many other Garfagnana hermitages, is lo...
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OUR LADY OF THE DOOR

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Day 271: February 7 Our Lady of the Door, Guastalla, Reggio Emilia, Italy In 1646 on the inner wall of the Porta di S. Francesco (Door of St Francis), near the guard post, the painter Damiano Padovani from Guastalla , commissioned by two officers and with the contribution of the same soldiers who were stationed there, painted a fresco depicting a Madonna and Child with St Francis and St Charles Borromeo at her feet. In front of this image, fires were often lit to warm up during guard shifts. The smoke progressively blackened the fresco. In 1689-90 the walls were demolished, but the gate was spared. The neighborhood was abandoned and the painting over the decades was lost in oblivion and damaged by the neglect of time. However, not everyone lost memory of the fresco. Among them was an ex-soldier who had often served there, Giovanni Battista Zagni of about 60 years old and suffering from severe blindness. The first miracle consisted in the complete recovery of Zagni's sight which ...
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MOTHER OF MERCY

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Day 270: February 6 Mother of Mercy (Mater Pietatis, Oratory of Fr Caravita, Rome, Italy By 1631, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) had established itself next to the Roman College, and sought to expand nearby to accommodate the active Sodalites and lay congregations that met regularly in the College. The Jesuits bought the property from the Camaldolese in exchange for a site near Piazza Venezia. The Camaldolese moved to San Romualdo, and the Jesuits set about demolishing the old church and monastery in favor of a new oratory. The current oratory was built by the Jesuit Pietro Gravita SJ, from 1631 to 1633, with the financial support of a number of noble families who resided in the neighborhood near the Pantheon. The building was inaugurated on 8 September 1631 with the blessing of Bishop Emilio Altieri, a student of the Roman College and bishop of Camerino , in the Marche region, from 1627 to 1666. Created cardinal in 1669, Bishop Altieri was elected Pope Clement X in 1670. The orator...
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OUR LADY OF GRACE

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Day 269: February 5 Our Lady of Grace, Este, Padua, Italy The people of Este have always had a lively devotion to Our Lady of Grace; a tangible sign of this is the grandiose Church, a true Basilica, worthy of a great city. The main feast is celebrated on the day of the Nativity of Mary; today (5 February) we commemorate the solemn transfer of the venerated Icon from the ancient seat of St Martin to the current Sanctuary. The painting of the icon, in the world of Byzantine sacred art, was not only an exercise of art, but it responded to precise canons that served the artist as indications to create an image of the mother of God or of the saints that could inspire the faithful who contemplated the painting to bring their soul closer to God and be guided in prayer. The painter himself prepared a path that was not only technical but also spiritual, as he was aware that the icon, well painted, could be considered a work of God Himself, who expressed His perfection through the hands of the i...
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OUR LADY OF FIRE

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Day 268: February 4 Our Lady of Fire, Forl ì , Romagna, Italy The devotion to Our Lady of Fire ( Madonna del Fuoco )   began many years ago, in 1428, when the miracle that many Forlì people witnessed it happening. On the night between 4 and 5 February a fire broke out that destroyed a school, which was located in what is now Via Cobelli , where the church of the Miracle is located today. Lombardino da Riopetroso had been teaching in that school for a few weeks. Not much is known about this teacher: he had arrived in Forlì at the beginning of that year from his village of Valbona , between Bagno di Romagna and Santa Sofia and had taught his students not only to read and write but also to pray in front of the image of Our Lady that was in the school. It was a drawing, more precisely a woodcut, that is, a printed drawing depicting the Madonna surrounded by many saints. Those students are also remembered in the famous hymn to Our Lady of Fire composed in 1928 by two important priests...
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MADONNETTA OF GENOA

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Day 267: February 3 Madonetta of Genoa, Italy The church was built on a stretch of land above the religious house of St Nicholas, donated to the religious by the Senate of the Republic (1641). In that area there was an ancient chapel, dedicated to St James, which Fr Carlo Giacinto had restored in 1689, placing a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary with the Child in her arms, a gift from the noblewoman Isabella Moneglia , wife of Senator Paride Salvago . The Image, carved in finely decorated alabaster, is the work of Giovanni Romano (Trapani, XVII century); she was affectionately called the Madonnetta . She was crowned four times (14 August 1692,  14 August 1693, 25 December 1700 and 27 June 1920). Numerous faithful soon flocked to the modest chapel from the city and its surroundings, so the Founder decided to hasten the construction of the Sanctuary. Many years earlier (1674-75), he had a surprising vision in the inner chapel of the novitiate: "One day, according to the meditati...
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