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OUR LADY OF CHAPELLES

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Day 327: April 04 Our Lady of Chapelles, Switzerland The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the twenty-one-year-old Marie-Françoise Décotterd who had been seriously ill since birth, asking her to accept her illness and not to ask for healing, in exchange for happiness and blissful eternity in heaven. Marie-Françoise Décotterd, daughter of poor peasants from Chapelles near Lausanne in Switzerland, received for the first time in her infirmary, on April 4, 1871, the visit of a beautiful lady who introduced herself as the Mother of Jesus. It was about 11 pm when her room was filled with light and Marie-Françoise was just 21 years old.  "I am the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as Mary, the Mother of Jesus." The Blessed Virgin exhorted the sick woman to dedicate her life of sacrifice and expiation to the service of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the souls of the world. She asked her not to pray for her healing, but to be patient. Death would not be long in coming, but the reward would ...
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OUR LADY OF THE CROSS

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Day 326: April 03 Our Lady of the Cross, Crema, Cremona, Italy There is a shrine of Our Lady on the road to Bergamo, about a mile away from the city of Crema, Italy. The structure is circular in shape, with four cross-shaped additions, which gave rise to the name: Our Lady of the Cross ( Santa Maria della Croce ). The sanctuary is located in a place where, in past years, there was a dense forest called "Il Novelletto". At the end of the fifteenth century a young woman named Caterina Uberti lived with her brother in the city of Crema. When she reached marriageable age, her brother induced her to marry Bartolomew Petrobelli; it was an unfortunate arrangement – Catherine was good and devoted; Bartholomew was exactly the opposite, tending towards the wicked and the corrupt. The marriage was unhappy for Catherine and uncomfortable for Bartolomolew—his rather rough and brutal manner satiated her, while her refined and holy life was a silent reproach to his scandalous way of life. S...
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OUR LADY OF ZEITOUN

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Day 325: April 02 Our Lady of Zeitoun, Cairo, Egypt One of the lesser-known Marian apparitions is that of Zeitoun, in which Mary showed herself, without leaving any message, to both Christians and Muslims. In Arabic, Zeitoun means "olives" and for this reason the apparition is associated with peace. The city of Zeitoun is located in the Matruh region, near Cairo, the capital of Egypt. According to tradition, Jesus, Mary and Joseph took refuge in this place to escape the persecution of King Herod. In Zeitoun is the Coptic Orthodox Church of St Mark. On the night of April 2, 1968, on the roof of this church, a luminous image appeared with the profile of a woman, identified as the Virgin Mary. This event was observed by several witnesses, whose accounts agreed in the description of the details. However, the apparitions date back to 1920 when Tawfiq Khalil Bey, a Coptic owner, decided to build a building in Zeitoun. The Virgin appeared to him promising him that if he built a chur...
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OUR LADY OF SUASIA

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Day 324: April 01 Our Lady of Suasia in Civitella, Romagna, Forli', Italy The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Suasia is the most venerated place by the people of Civitella and is considered a center of meeting and Marian devotion of extraordinary importance for having managed over the centuries to involve and keep an entire community together. On June 4, the collection of offerings for the construction of the sanctuary began, of which the first stone was laid in July of the same year. The laying of the first stone took place on July 27, 1556 in the place where there was a cell called the "Majesty of Suasia" and where, in April of the same year, the Madonna had appeared five times to the little Pasquino da Vignale to whom she had delivered a double message: to build a church on the site of the apparition and to exhort all the faithful to penance, to prayer, to atonement for the salvation of the world. However, it took 39 years to see the construction completed, which was consecra...
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MOTHER OF GOD SEMISTRELNAYA

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Day 323: March 31 Mother of God Semistrelnaya (the Softening of Evil Hearts) Forty days after the birth of the God-Child, He was taken to the Temple of Jerusalem, the center of the nation's religious life. The mother went to the temple with the Child, to offer a young lamb or a dove to the Lord as a sacrifice of purification. The All-Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, was in no need of purification, since she had given birth to the source of purity and holiness without defilement. However, she humbly complied with the commands of the law. On this day, the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Semistrelnaya" known as "The Softening of the Evil Heart" or "The Prophecy of Simeon" is also commemorated. The Mother of God is depicted without her child, with seven swords piercing her heart: three from the left side, three from the right, and one from below. Among the copies of the famous and miraculous icon of the Mother of God "Softening of Evil Hearts", t...
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OUE LADY OF THE ROCCA

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Day 322: March 30 Our Lady of Rocca, Alessandria della Rocca, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy The story goes that in 1620, Our Lady appeared to a young blind woman from Alexandria, giving her back her sight in exchange for a church in the place of the discovery of a statue of her hidden in the rock of a hill. The citizens of Alessandria della Rocca, after seeing the miraculous healing of the blind woman, believed her words and dug in the spot indicated by Our Lady, finding a beautiful statue of 60 cm high, in Parian marble that seems to date back to the Byzantine era and depicts the Virgin Mary wrapped in a decorated and draped mantle with the baby Jesus in her arms, who has his gaze turned towards his mother. Probably the small statue was hidden on the "rocca ncravaccata" to preserve it from the destructive fury of the Saracens and then found there. The episode of the discovery is not attested by historical sources but is testified by oral tradition: " A poor widow, known to t...
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OUR LADY OF ARACOELI

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Day 321: March 29 Our Lady of Aracoeli, Rome, Italy The Virgin Mary appeared with the Child in the arms of Octavian Augustus saying "This is the altar of the son of God". Hence the birth of this church that contained the famous wooden "Holy Child" of Gethsemane. The Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli is a church in Rome, Italy. It stands on the hill of the Capitoline Hill. The original name was Santa Maria in Capitolio; The church was part of the complex of buildings of the monastery that had settled on the Capitoline Hill while the rest of the ancient Roman buildings were in ruins. In this place stood one of the residences of the emperor who summoned the Tiburtine Sibyl to ask for advice since the Senate intended to pay him divine honors. The Sibyl responded to Augustus' appeal with these words:  "There are indications that soon the King of the ages to come will descend from the sun and true justice will be done" while this prophecy was being pronoun...
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