OUR LADY OF TEARS (SPOLETO, ITALY)

Day 7: May 17

Many believers may be puzzled about Our Lady's tears. Why does she cry? Marian tears are mysterious. Tears originate in her heart and find expression in the eyes. Today we commemorate Our Lady of Tears. The devotion has its origin in the Italian town of Spoleto. Diotelli D'Antonio Santilli has three children. On October 4rd, 1483, Mr. Santilli had an image of the Blessed Virgin with the Divine Child in her arms painted on the north-east wall of his residence. Interestingly, the original painting also depicted Saint Francis at the left of the Blessed Virgin. The painting was completed on the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, but the image of Saint Francis disappeared under the new ornamentation in which the Madonna and her Child was later enclosed in the s17th century.
Two years later, on Friday, August 5, 1485, people saw tears of blood fall from the eyes of the Madonna. The date of the miracle is precisely confirmed by many contemporary documents of the municipal authorities, and there was also a notary of Trevi who recorded all of the miracles he witnessed, and those records can still be found in the archives of the city of Trevi.
News of the miracle caused considerable excitement, for here the image of Our Lady wept. Word of the miraculous event, which continued for some time, spread far and wide. These were years of famine, war, and pestilence, and the extraordinary event gave people a ray of hope and seemed to offset some of their many serious misfortunes.
People came from all over the region to see the bloody tears fall from the eyes of the Madonna, and not all of them were Catholics or believers. There were also those who doubted, but once they had seen for themselves, many believed. Some received the faith, and there were also incidents of miracles of healing before the image of the Madonna of Tears, because it was called that even then.
There was, of course, a great deal of speculation as to why this image of the Blessed Virgin was weeping tears of blood, and it was finally generally accepted that it was out of sympathy for the people who were suffering so much from the pestilence and famine.

Mmany came to witness the prodigy that it was necessary to hurry and build a small chapel on the 17th of August, which was only a few days after the event. On the 21st of the same month the first Mass was offered in the chapel with the permission of the bishop of Spoleto. The new temporary chapel was festively decorated with curtains and veils, donated by the faithful. The altar was covered with a tablecloth of green silk. The walls were covered with cloth of blue silk, and many candles were burning before the altar. Soon, permission was given for a daily Mass there, but because of the great crowds, plans were already underway to build a magnificent church to replace the chapel. Money was soon collected, and work was begun on the basilica on March 27th, 1487. It was completed on March 8th, 1489, and was then confided to the Olivetans.

Prayer to The Virgin Mary

O most holy virgin Mary, allow your slave of love to pray to you! Come to my soul, in our homes, in our work as in the holy Cenacle. Come and remain with us in a perpetual visitation. Come, O holy Mary.

Around you we want to gather in prayer, as Jesus wishes to send us his Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit wishes to find us filled of his gifts and be transformed into apostles of Jesus, into Seraphs of the Trinity.

Come, O holy Mary, make yours our souls, our houses, our perpetual cenacles of the Eucharist, of the priesthood, of the Holy Spirit! Come to us as in the house of John, the beloved disciple of Jesus and yours, your new son, your priest.

O most holy Mary, in most perfect and complete way, we want to be your slaves and sons, your disciples and priests. And you are most present, O Mary, to all our teachers and ministerial priests.

O Mary, be present at all our practices of piety, at all our vocal and mental prayers, in every form of ministry of the word! O Mary, be present in us who speak and in those who hear us.

May your heart receive and keep in love all the words of God. May your mind receive and irradiate the splendor of divine truth, the ardor of divine charity in us who speak and in those who speak to us.

You are most present, O most holy Mary, in all our domestic and external, manual and intellectual work, so that it may be of supernatural value, all glory, love and will of God, all service and benefit to the souls.

Truly, we want to be all for you and in you, in order to be all for Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus! Grant us the humility of your mind, O handmaid and daughter of the Lord, the purity of your life, O handmaid and spouse of the Lord.

Be with us, O Mary, in all the phases of our spiritual struggle with the spirit of darkness, with the spirit of the world and with the human spirit; in all the necessary trials, to which we are subjected in the pursuit of every virtue.

You, O immaculate, you will always be our emblem and bulwark, our defense and victory! O Mary, we beg you, be with us in the last battle, that definitive of our life, decisive of our eternity. Bring us with you in paradise!

(St Justin Russolillo, Devotional, Second English Edition, Kerala, 2009, pp. 93-94)