Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 83: August 1 ​ Our Lady of Ransom appeared to Saint Raimund, of the order of Saint Dominic, on this day in the year 1218, and also to King James I of Aragon, and likewise to Saint Peter Nolasco in three separate apparitions, making known to all three that she desired each of them to contribute to establishing an order for redeeming captives. That Order they established is known as the Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives, is also known as The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, the Order of Merced, the Order of Captives, or the Order of Our Lady of Ransom. At that time in history, during the 13th Century, the powerful Islamic Taifa kingdoms in Spain, as well as the Ottoman Empire at the opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea, operated a slave trade the scope of which has not been seen anytime else in history. The Spanish, particularly, were subject to raids in which they would be captured and imprisoned, sold into slavery...

 Day 82: Jul 31 ​ The beginning of the devotion is linked to an episode that occurred in the middle of the fifteenth century; it was an Easter Monday, the day of the so-called ‘Little Easter’, that is the famous out-of-town tour and near Pomigliano d’Arco, some young people were playing in a “mallet” pitch, today we would call it “Boules” ; on the edge of the pitch stood a kiosk on which was depicted an image of the Madonna with the Child Jesus, but more properly was painted under an arch of aqueduct; from these arches come the names of Madonna dell’Arco (Our Lady of the Arch) and Pomigliano d’Arco. As the game unfolded, the ball ended up against an old linden tree, whose branches partly covered the frescoed wall, the player who had missed the shot, in practice lost the game; at the height of anger, the young man took the ball and cursed and threw it violently against the sacred image, hitting it on the cheek that it began to bleed. The news of the miracle spread in the area, reach...

 Day 81: Jul 30 ​ It is the end of July 1473, a little friar named Vinterio, originally from Mainz (Germany), but a longtime resident in the convent of San Francesco di Chiusi, is heading towards the Porziuncola of Santa Maria degli Angeli of Assisi for the solemn recurrence of the Pardon of Assisi. In the bag that hangs on his shoulder, there is a priceless treasure, a chalcedony quartz jewel: The Sacred Wedding Ring of the Virgin Mary. Legend has it that around the year one thousand, a goldsmith from Chiusi named Ainerio received it as a gift from a Jewish merchant of precious stones. The first owner, who in turn had inherited the jewel, longed to cede it because this object gave him a strong spiritual torment. The Virgin appeared to him in a dream and the principles of his jewish religious belief were wavering. The only advice he wanted to give Ainerio was to keep the object among his dearest things, and to render to it the veneration it deserved. Thus, the Holy Ring arrived in ...

Day 80: Jul 29 ​ Devotion to Mary under the title "Our Lady of Deliverance" is one of the most ancient of all Marian devotions. It was the city of Madrid, in Spain, that became the scene of its popularization. During the Spanish wars which occasioned the people to seek refuge in the New World, a looting soldier carried off a statue from one of the shrines in Madrid. The image was a beautiful little statue that depicted Mary cuddling at her breast the Infant Jesus whom she was lovingly nursing. A poor peasant returning from the fields after making a visit to the shrine, recognized the statue in the possession of the drunken soldier. He bought the statue for a small sum of money, and carried it home to enshrine it in his humble cottage. It chanced that this man’s wife was nearing childbirth, so daily the couple knelt before the statue begging the Mother of God to give the expectant mother a safe delivery. As the days passed, it was evident that there were difficulties, and that...

 Day 79: Jul 28 The Sanctuary complex of Our Lady of Sorrows overlooks the rolling countryside west of St. Louis. This peaceful place is home to a bewildering series of different chapels and representations of the Madonna, with an intricate and miraculous history. The first Germans who settled here in 1847 celebrated the liturgy in a barn, in which they placed a statue known as the Lady of Weisse (White Lady). In 1852 the statue was moved to the church of San Martino which was made of trunks and in 1873 to a new stone church. The Franciscans, a few years after taking over the parish in 1877, replaced the statue with a larger one, keeping the old White Lady in an attic. In the autumn of 1887, a new pastor arrived from Germany, bringing his nephew August Mitsch to serve as a sacristan. In May, August discovered the old statue and made for it a sanctuary under a flowering dogwood tree. As more people came to the sanctuary, August and his friends built a wooden hut to protect the statu...

Day 78: Jul 27 The Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Oak ( Madonna della Rovere ) occupies the remains of an ancient oak grove sacred to Diana. The Church was dedicated to the Annunciation on July 27, 1505, replacing a previous church. Her wooden statue of the Madonna and the Child, which is said to have been found in an oak tree, was dated to 1300. The old devotion received new life after the miracles of April 1671. On the night of April 3, after having worked all day in the fields, Giacinto Perato di Rollo, 50, told his wife that there was something strange in his arm left, that it was numb and paralyzed. After doctors failed to cure him, on April 18, with his arm in a sling, he led his young donkey to pasture. Here are his words, “A few hours before noon, a few meters from me, I saw a woman dressed in intense blue, shining like the sun … she told me to entrust myself to Our Lady, who would help me”. The next day, he went with his wife and a friend to Mass at the Shrine. At the consecrati...

 Day 77; July 26 The story goes that in 1672 the Blessed Virgin told a shepherd boy that she wished to be venerated at a certain place in the beech woods near Castelluccio in central Italy, whereupon the child discovered a terracotta Madonna affixed to one of the trees there. The 7 inch Madonna of the Beech was moved to a wayside shrine, and then, in 1722, to its own mountain sanctuary. Until 1964 a caretaker lived in the hermitage there. Since then a volunteer opens the chapel only in summer on Sundays. In 1975 the sacred image was stolen and replaced with a copy. Since 1756, an annual pilgrimage on Ascension Day brings the image to the town and back again, and on St. Anne’s day, July 26, a procession goes to the site of the beech tree, recently fallen. St Justin Russolillo Writes... "Take into your hands the governing and teaching force of our intellects, the key to our hearts, the direction of our lives and affairs, forever." ( Spirit of Prayer , trans. Louis Caputo, Newar...

Day 76: Jul 25 St. John Damascene, a devout Christian, was head chancellor to the Caliph of Damascus in 726 when the Byzantine Emperor Leo issued his first iconoclastic edict forbidding the veneration of images. Over the next few years, as iconoclasm became stricter, John wrote a series of widely circulated letters defending the use of images in Christian worship. Meanwhile, Caliph Hisham’s forces conducted frequent attacks against the Byzantine Empire. In 730 the Caliph received a letter in John’s handwriting, addressed to Emperor Leo, offering to betray Damascus to him. Hisham decreed that the hand that wrote the letter should be severed at the wrist. According to John’s biographer, John of Jerusalem, writing two centuries later, the saint’s hand was restored after he prayed before an icon of the Virgin and Child painted by St. Luke. In thanks, John of Damascus added to the image a third hand of silver on the lower left. The miracle made the Caliph realize the incriminating letter wa...

Day 75: Jul 24 The image was very revered and carried the strange name “of the Standard” because the standards of weights and measures were kept close by. In 1718 the appellative “Help of Christians” was added to the original name. Until 1753 the Tuderti (people of Todi) adored the original fresco placed in a semicircular niche: the work was however very ruined and faded and this was replaced by a copy on canvas, always representing the Holy Family of Bethlehem. The devotion to Our Lady of the Standard became even more compelling when the prodigy of the Virgin Mary opening and closing Her eyes happened on July 24, 1796. The prodigy lasted for about twenty days, quoting the words of Bishop Giovanni Lotrecchi; “It is now the 20th days, not considering some intervals, and Mary continues to console the people of Todi, who know not how to be satisfied with seeing and venerating those open amiable lights (of Her eyes)”. Unfortunately, in 1837 thieves stole the canvas of our Lady along with a...

Day 74: Jul 23 The origins of the Sanctuary of Altino date back to a prodigious event that occurred on a torrid day on July 23, 1496. An inhabitant of Vall’Alta, named Quinto Foglia, was in the company of his two sons on the slopes of Mount Altino (hence the Sanctuary takes its name) intent on working in the woods. The day was muggy, the earth parched by the prolonged drought of that year; frustrated by the labors and the torrid heat, Quinto Foglia and his two little children were seized with great thirst. Not knowing what to do, with the children who risked dying in those woods, Quinto Foglia turned with great confidence to the Mother of Heaven so that she could help him in that very serious difficulty. The prayer was answered, Our Lady appeared and told Quinto Foglia to beat the rock in front of him with a sickle. Miraculously a gush of spring water burst out. The prodigious event first attracted the faithful of the surroundings and then gradually spread to all neighboring countries ...

 Day 73: Jul 22 The Sanctuary, located in Monte Martello, was built in 1495, following the apparition of Our Lady on 22 July 1494, by the Municipality of Cagli who also provided the Sanctuary with the necessary annuities for its maintenance. In 1854 the Municipality ceded it to the Diocesan Seminary. The Sanctuary presents itself to the visitor in its grandeur and majesty, in white stone ashlars mixed with pink stone. The main front of the church is an example of Renaissance architecture. The bell tower has undergone considerable alterations, so much so that the lead-paved dome was unfortunately demolished in 1712. Inside the sanctuary, with a cross plan with a dome of which only the drum remains, we find the high barrel vaults, and the ancient Celletta or Maestadella which following the miracle of 1494 was incorporated into the Sanctuary. The fully frescoed chapel depicts the Virgin on the throne with the Infant Jesus, known as the “Our Lady of the Stars”, and the heraldic emblem ...

 Day 72: July 21 The first consecration of the Sanctuary dates back to Pentecost Monday in June 1491. It was Monsignor Francesco Patrizi, bishop of Gaeta, who consecrated the place of worship, dedicated for some time to the Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, where the faithful came to pray to the Holy Mother of God. The close relationship of this sanctuary with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is subsequently confirmed by historical facts of great importance for this place. The visit to the Shrine of the Civita of Pope Pius IX, exiled to Gaeta, is dated 10 February 1849, which according to historians was the occasion to confirm his intention to proclaim the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which took place in 1854. Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. After 140 years, on June 29, 1989, Pope John Paul II, today a saint, visited the Sanctuary of the Civita, on the occasion of his pastoral ministry at the Archdiocese of Gaeta, to meet the sick...

 Day 71: Jul 20 It is assumed that the image of Our Lady of Zocueca has been moved from its original location. Its cult is connected to the large and powerful city of Oreto, during the Visigoth domination, between 320-330 AD. With the invasion of Spain by Muslims in 713, the entire Hispano-Visigothic organization disappeared and, with it, the Bishop of Oreto. Some of the inhabitants of Oreto flee, while others decided to remain under Muslim rule, which respects their language, customs and religion in exchange for certain taxes. These “Mozarabes” Christians continue to venerate the Virgin Mary during the Muslim period. What remained of the old and illustrious city was given the Arabic name “Zuqueca”, which means “place of ruins”, a term that for centuries will remain bound with the name of Mary. The Mozarabic Christians, with great sacrifices since they were poor people, and thanks to the donations collected with the indulgences issued by Pope Sixtus IV, were able to build up the pr...

 Day 70: Jul 19 The Franciscan friars who accompanied the conquest in Peru hung an image of the Immaculate Conception on the door of their first church in Lima. During their missionary trips to the region, the friars would bring the image, “La Misionera” – (The Lady Missionary), with them. They were in Cusco, the capital of the Inca, on May 23, 1536 when, during the Manco Inca rebellion against the two-year Spanish regime, the natives trapped many Spaniards in a hut and set fire to the thatched roof. The Misionera was seen by everyone leaving its place inside and appearing above the burning building together with Santiago (Saint James the Greater). The fire stopped and everyone was saved. In honor of this event, the Spaniards built the Church of the Triumph, an addition to the cathedral of Cusco. Back in Lima, after the Franciscans surrounded the small chapel with a large monastic complex, the image above the door was gradually forgotten. Her popularity declined, but some privilege...

Day 69: Jul 18 In 1656, a serious plague infested the kingdom of Naples and the cities of Puglia were not spared. Even the charming town of Corato (currently in the province of Bari) counted numerous victims: in vain science appealed to human remedies. The people, disheartened and terrified, resorted instead to their patron saints, and especially to Mary Most Holy. Meanwhile, the elders knew, by ancient tradition, that in the basement of one of the 25 towers that crowned the town, the one facing south-west, the so-called Greek Tower, there must have been a prodigious image of the Madonna. Many thought that if, in such a calamity, that icon had been exposed to public worship, the country would have been freed from the terrible scourge. Many then ran to the Tower, made a hole in it, but only a dark and damp cavern was visible. A pious and learned Priest, Don Francesco Loiodice or Lo Jodice, nicknamed “Saccone”, passing by, seeing so many people gathered, to avoid the spread of the contag...

 Day 68: Jul 17 Nestled at the foot of a rocky cliff not far from Monte Fumaiolo (1,408 meters above sea level) and the sources of the Tiber, the town of Balze (1,091 meters above sea level) enjoys a particularly favorable geographical situation. Located in the far south of Romagna, the country lies on the border of three regions: Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Marche, and not far from the northern tip of Umbria. The origin of the town of Balze is uncertain. The place was certainly frequented in Roman times, and during the Middle Ages the hermits Saint Alberic of Ocri and Saint Romuald settled there and the monasteries of the Pieve di Vignola, Ocri and Cella were erected, but the first indications of community buildings date back to no earlier than the 15th century, when small groups of shepherds and charcoal burners began to live in the area, rich in woods and pastures. It seems that two girls, probably sisters, after witnessing the apparition of the Virgin on a large boulder, recove...

Day 67: Jul 16 Tradition says that Our Lady gave it, herself, about the year 1251, to the blessed Simon Stock, an Englishman; this devotion has since spread all over the world. The popes John XXII, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, Gregory XIV, and Clement VIII, have granted indulgences to those who are of this confraternity. Nine centuries before Christ the great prophet Elias went to the heights of Carmel to beg God to send rain after three and a half years of drought. In answer to his prayers Elias saw a small cloud rise out of the sea, a promise of the Immaculate Virgin mother whose Son would save mankind from the scourge of sin. At the time of the Crusades there were hermits living on Mt. Carmel in imitation of Elias. In their midst was a chapel dedicated to Our Lady. To the medieval members of the Order, Mary was the Gracious Lady who protected them from danger, who won for them the favor of Christ, her Son. The one gift that unites all Catholics to Our Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel is her ...

 Day 66: Jul 15 The heavenly apparition of our Lady took place on July 15, 1480, to two little shepherds from Baragazza, Donato Nuttini and Cornelia Evangelisti. Our Lady told the children that she was much pleased by their kindness and prayers and invited them to consecrate themselves to the Lord, Donato as a priest and Cornelia as a nun in a monastery in Tuscany. The children followed the voice of Mary: Donato became a priest in the Diocese of Pistoia and was a holy and zealous parish priest in Ciriano; Cornelia became an exemplary religious and prioress in the Mantellate monastery of Prato, respected even for her sanctity by the soldiers who had occupied the monastery. The Sanctuary is therefore called Sanctuary of the Vocation. St Justin Russolillo Writes... "Queen, not only on account of the shared rights of Your Son, but because of the intrinsic sovereignty of every merit; on account of the voluntary dedication to You of all the Elect; Queen, because you are the sole Mediatr...

 Day 65: Jul 14 This image was seen in the middle of a burning bush, by a shepherd; Vasquez Perdigon, Bishop of Evora, caused to be built in this place, in the year 1403, a church and monastery, which was given to the monks of Saint Jerome. The shrine of Our Lady at Evora, like so many others of the peninsula, concerns the statues hidden away at the time of the Moorish invasion. During the years of the reconquest, a shepherd was pasturing his flocks on the site of a camp where Christians had stayed for a time in the earlier wars. He heard a sweet voice calling him and was attracted to a burning bush where amid the flames he saw a statue of Our Lady. Our Lady of the Bush gave him two messages, one for himself and one for the bishop. The shepherd took the image down into the town to tell the Bishop. Then he returned to the field and set up for himself a small hermitage. He sold everything he had and built a tiny shrine for the statue there, and began public prayers to Mary as she had...