Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 173: November 01 Our Lady of the Palm, Cadiz, Spain The Church of Our Lady of the Palm should have some story behind it, but there is no exact record of why it was named that way. The miracle for which it is best known took place during an earthquake and a tidal wave on the first of November 1755.  Cadiz is a seaport of Spain exposed to the Atlantic Ocean and was directly in the path of the tidal wave said to be more than 90 feet high.  The townspeople were in terror and were on the point of abandoning the town when two unidentified men – thought later to be the patron saints of the city – closed the water gates and urged the people to go to the Capuchin Church of Our Lady of the Palms.  Here a Mass was in progress.  The priest finished the Mass, seized a banner with a picture of Our Lady on it, and went out into the street where the wall of water was already advancing upon them.  He planted the banner in the street and called out, “Thus far, my Mother.” The...

Day 172: October 31 Our Lady of Mercy, Banchette di Bioglio, Biella, Italy The Sanctuary of the "Madonna della Misericordia" (Our Lady of Mercy) of Banchette in Bioglio, in the province of Vercelli, stands in a pleasant position, on the slopes of Mount Rovella, surrounded by green woods, 700 meters above sea level.  The history of the Sanctuary, made up of faith and love for the Madonna, dates back to 1400, although the precise date of its construction is not known. In a document, preserved in the archives of the parish house of Pettinengo, there is the testamentary deed, dated August 14, 1514, made by Bernardino Bellia, who, "struck by the plague, had himself taken to the public road in the canton of Villa in Pettinengo and, in the presence of some witnesses, dictated his will to the assistant curate D. Antonio Azario, since it had not been possible, because of the plague, find a notary. The first of his testamentary will concerns the church of St Maria of Banchette, to...

Day 171: October 30 Our Lady of Bruna, Matera, Basilicata, Italy Our Lady of Bruna is the Protector of the city of Matera. According to an ancient tradition, a young lady asked a farmer to let her get on his cart to accompany her to Matera. After accompanying her to the gates of the city, near the church of Piccianello, he saw her transform into a statue. The Virgin then greeted the incredulous peasant by whispering these words: "That's it, on a decorated wagon, I want to enter my city every year." She asked the farmer to bring a message of her to the Bishop, in which she said that she was the Mother of Christ. The Bishop together with the clergy and the people immediately rushed to welcome the Virgin and they found the statue there; so the statue of the Madonna was brought into the city on a decorated triumphal chariot. Several hypotheses are attributed to the name 'Bruna': the first is that it derives from the early medieval Lombard term "brùnja" which...

Day 170: October 29 Our Lady of Oropa, Biella, Italy The Sanctuary of Oropa is the most important Marian Sanctuary in the Alps. Black Madonna of the Shrine came down to us through the devotion of St Eusebius of Vercelli. The sanctuary of Oropa is a Marian sanctuary – dedicated to the Black Madonna – located a dozen kilometers north of the city of Biella, at about 1,159 meters above sea level, in a natural amphitheater of mountains that surround the city below and are part of the Biella Pre-Alps. The sanctuary includes in addition to a sacred mountain (the Sacred Mount of Oropa, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003), the original church built on the basis of an ancient chapel and the current sanctuary itself equipped with various structures intended for the hospitality of the faithful and tourists. In March 1957 Pope Pius XII elevated it to the dignity of a minor basilica. According to tradition, the sanctuary of Oropa was founded by St Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli in the fourt...

Day 169: October 28 Our Lady of the Rosary of Paraute, Lagunillas, Zulia, Venezuela Lake Maracaibo, a giant lake in the form of a teardrop suspended from the Gulf of Venezuela in the northwest of the country, was home to several native communities built on stilts. The Pueblo Viejo River, formerly called Paraute, enters the lake in the town of Lagunillas de Agua. On October 28, 1651, an Indian sitting in a house on stilts recovered a piece of wood that continued to float on the water. An image was found that Catholics identified as the Virgin of the Rosary. Displayed in the church, it has become an object of pilgrimage and celebration every year on October 28. Despite its watery location, the town of Lagunillas have burned repeatedly. However, the image was always saved and now resides in the church of the district of Morochas. St Justin Russolillo Writes... "Hail Mary, ever Virgin, temple of the Lord, vessel of the Holy Spirit, you alone, without equal, have pleased Our Lord Jesus...

Day 168: October 27 Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Oucun, Cuba Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre is the patron saint of Cuba. Its sanctuary is located 27 km from Santiago de Cuba, in the village of El Cobre, where copper has been mined for more than four centuries. There are even three legends here and all different, yet whites, mestizos, indigenous, mulattos and Afro-Cubans, all come to implore the intervention of the Virgin who promptly rushes to her. Under the communist regime of Fidel Castro (which began in 1959), the Church experienced bloody persecution during the early years. Our Lady then became a silent refuge of faith (especially in Camagüey). According to tradition, Alonso de Oljeda, a Spanish commander, was in danger in the Caribbean Sea. He carried a statue of the Virgin and Child and made a vow to build a chapel if he escaped the shipwreck. He landed in Cuba and fulfilled his vow in El Cobre.  But, according to another tradition, there were three men, two natives and ...

Day 167: October 26 Our Lady of Victory, San Vito dei Normanni, Bari, Italy Santa Maria della Vittoria, simply called the "Mother Church" in the city, is the most important sacred building in the city. Inside you can find paintings such as the icon of Nikopeia (which means "bringer of victory"), depicting the Virgin announcing to Pope Pius V the victory over the Turks, and a silver statue representing St. Vitus. It is said that a group of San Vito took part in the historic battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571. Returning unharmed, they gave a propulsive push to the construction of the new church that was rising and which, at the time, was stopped just above the foundations. Initially this church was supposed to be dedicated to the patron saint but, the enthusiasm for not having fallen in this battle changed the original project and so it was decided to dedicate this building to the Holy Virgin as protector of the city of Venice. In 1595, after the completion of the cu...

Day 166: October 25 Mary Queen of Palestine, Deir Rafat, Palestine (Holy Land), Israel Patroness of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, she is located in the Sanctuary located in the city of Dier Rafat, one of the most beautiful places in Israel and about 30 km west of Jerusalem. Catholics in the Holy Land go on pilgrimage every year, at the end of October, for the liturgical feast dedicated to Mary Queen of Palestine; not only from the parishes of Jaffa, Ramle and Jerusalem, but also from the distant ones of the Galilee and until he was prevented by the Intifada, even from those of the Palestinian territories, especially from Bethlehem and Ramallah In that valley, in the first half of the 19th century, a small Christian community was established on the large estate purchased by the first Patriarch, after the restoration, Giuseppe Valerga, on which his fourth successor, Patriarch Luigi Barlassina, would begin an extraordinary religious history. On July 15, 1920, during his solemn entry ...

Day 165: October 24 Notre-Dame de Pitié, Saint Martin d’Heuille, Nièvre, Burgundy, France On October 24, 1879, in the Nevers area of central France, people brought a lifeless child to St Martin’s Church. They set the little corpse at the foot of the altar of Our Lady of Sorrow (the Pietà), where the words “AFFLICTIS SPES UNICA REBUS” (the only hope in all afflictions) were carved below a pietà statue from the 1500's. Falling to their knees, they sang the Salve Regina : “Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope…” Suddenly the child came to life. Color returned to his face; he opened his eyes. He stayed alive long enough to receive the sacrament of baptism, assuring his family that his soul would go to heaven rather than limbo. This miracle is commemorated with an annual pilgrimage on the third Sunday of September. St Justin Russolillo Writes... "Even though we are unable to define it, we believe in a special presence of union of Mary and the Eucharis...

Day 164: October 23 MADONNA DEL FRASSINO, PESCHIERA DEL GARDA, VERONA, ITALY The sanctuary of the Madonna del Frassino was built following a prodigious Marian apparition dating back to 1510. It is said that on May 11 of that year a local farmer invoked the help of the Madonna to escape the aggression of a snake; raising his eyes to the sky he saw on an ash tree a statuette depicting the Virgin Mary wrapped in light. Immensely grateful for the providential intervention, the farmer took the statuette and took it home to keep it in a sturdy chest of drawers, telling only his family what had happened to him. Soon the news spread to the nearby districts and everyone asked the farmer to be able to admire the precious "Madonnina" that had saved him; the farmer went to open the chest of drawers, but the statuette was no longer there... she had returned to the prodigy's ash tree! The ecclesiastical authorities went to Frassino to verify the origin of the religious phenomenon and ...

Day 163: October 22 Our Lady of the Snows, Torre Annunziata, Naples, Italy In the fourteenth century, at the time when the nascent town began to populate, some fishermen from Torrese saw a chest floating on the waves of the sea near the rock of Rovigliano. It was on 5th of August 1354. They picked it up and to their surprise found the image of Mary in it. The image was made of terracotta, of the Greek type, with a bust: the Madonna held the Child Jesus with her left arm. After a heated quarrel with the fishermen of Stabia, the image was transported to the church of the Holy Annunciation. Since there was no sign or writing indicating her name, she was called "MARIA SS. AD NIVES" (Holy Mary of the Snows) in memory of the snow that fell on Rome on August 5, 352, on the Esquiline Hill. According to Ilardi, in the fourteenth century, the religious orders migrated from the East to these coasts, saving the sacred images from the fury of the iconoclasts. This image might have been th...

Day 162: October 21 Mater Sanctae Spei – Mother of Holy Hope The historical information regarding the origins of this image takes us to 1750, when a pious Christian had a picture painted of Mary with the Child, (which later became the original with the Passionist Fathers), following the Holy Missions preached by Fr Thomas of the Side of Jesus (later Monsignor Struzzieri, Bishop of Todi and first Bishop of the Passionist congregation) and donated this painting to the aforementioned Fr Thomas, who always took him with him to his sacred missions. From the beginning this image had the title of "Mater Sanctae Spei." It should be remembered that Fr Thomas was originally from Senigallia (Italy); in the cathedral of Senigallia a painting called the "Madonna del Duomo" has been venerated since the beginning of the 1500s, whose real title is "Our Lady of Hope". The Passionist Fathers of the Piety have this image very much at heart and the custom of always carrying i...

Day 161: October 20 Mother Most Admirable Just as the Arc of the Covenant going into the Promised Land, found the waters of the Jordan withdrawing at its approach, so did original sin retreat before the advent of the purest Mary. In the Canticle of Canticles it is said of Mary: “Thou art all fair, O my Love, and there is no spot in thee.” Esther, symbol of Mary, coming into the forbidden presence of the king, was received by these words of her Lord, “What is the matter, Esther?  I am thy brother, fear not.  Thou shalt not die; for this law is not made for thee but for all others.” Mary is the enclosed garden, the sealed fountain.  The Lord gave her the strength of His Right Arm that she be not moved even in that wonderful moment when the devil would have liked most to disturb her, at the moment of Our Lord’s conception. “He loved me,” she says, “in the beginning of His ways” – as is stated in the Book of Proverbs.  He who made her in the Holy Spirit saw and numbered ...

Day 160: October 19 Our Lady of the Way, Valverde, Leon, Spain La Virgen del Camino (Our Lady of the Way) is a town in the municipality of Valverde, in the province of Leon, Spain. It is located on a hill on Virgin Valley Creek, a tributary of the Oncina Creek, which flows into the Esla River, exposed to cold and wind, 920 meters above sea level. It owes its name to an apparition that took place in the year 1505. In this city there is the military airfield with the base of the Air Academy (non-commissioned officer aeronautics training school) and the airport of Leon. On July 2, 1505, a shepherd from Velilla de la Reina, called Alvar Simón Fernández, was gathering his cattle when he saw flashes of light and later the Virgin Mary appeared to him in the place called El Humilladero and heard her say:  "Go to the city and tell the bishop to come to this place and place and honor this image, my son wishes to appear here, for the good of this land."  The shepherd answered:  "Ma...

Day 159: October 18 Mother Queen and Thrice Admirable Conqueror of Schoenstatt In a valley on the banks of the Rhine, there is a small Shrine dedicated to Our Lady that takes its name from the site where it was born: Schoenstatt, which in German means "beautiful place." On October 18, 1914, Father Josef Kentenich, together with a group of young seminarians, decided to consecrate themselves to Our Lady by asking her to transform an abandoned chapel into a place of pilgrimage. In return, they would offer her their sacrifices, their joys and their prayers for the transformation of the world, in short, everything that characterizes the struggle for holiness in daily life. Our Lady accepted this consecration, later called the "Covenant of Love", transforming the chapel into a place of pilgrimage for thousands of people. Later in the 40's, many other similar ones were built scattered in many countries. The small shrine thus became the spiritual source of an internatio...

Day 158: October 17 Our Lady of Charters, France During the Middle Ages a movement was afoot in Europe, known as the Rosary of Churches.  Cities, small towns and even villages vied with one another to rear cathedrals to Mary.  Many of these churches have faded into oblivion; some still stand in all their untouched glory, treasure houses of ancient masterpieces of art, sculpture, glasswork and architecture.  Their erection was entirely voluntary, a labor of love.  Those who had means and riches gave of them; others gave their labor. The oldest of these is Our Lady’s Cathedral at Chartres.  Even before the Apostles arrived, there was a Celtic shrine at Chartres, dedicated to the Virgin who would bear a great King.  A Church was built over this pagan shrine and in the church was enshrined the tunic which the Blessed Virgin supposedly wore while on earth, the gift of the Emperor Constantine.  It was at Chartres, too, that St Bernard pleaded in 1148 for cru...

Day 157: October 16 Our Lady of Purity “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on things on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore, put to death your earthly parts: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. These bring down God's wrath on those who disobey. You too were once like this, when your life was immersed in such things” (Col. 3: 1-7). Purity is "seeking the things that are above." Purity is what makes man truly human; it is the sign that his being is not only his body, but that this (the body) has had the great gift of welcoming the spirit and being governed by the spirit. Man is an "incarnate spirit." Purity is the distinctive sign, ontological (because it is internal an...