Walk with Mary throughout the Year

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...

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...

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...