OUR LADY OF MERCY

Day 151: October 10

Our Lady of Mercy, Gallivagio, Sondrio, Lombardy, Italy

While Christopher Columbus , after thirty-five days of hard and troubled navigation, was about to touch the shores of the new world, Our Lady deigned to appear in a place called Grualle or Garivalle , in the remote and wild Valle di San Giacomo, now known to tourists as the Valle dello Spluga.

These were very sad times due to widespread poverty, but above all due to the frequent fratricidal conflicts that disrupted the industrious life of the local population. Furthermore, a ferment of new religious ideas (Luther's Reformation was maturing) was invading Europe, and Valchiavenna, which was the obligatory and convenient passage to central Switzerland and Germany, was suffering its evil effects.

Grualle was a wild forest of centuries-old chestnut trees, with trunks twisted and battered by the fury of time and by boulders that often fall from hundreds of meters high, from the cliff overlooking the valley. In this place, on Wednesday, October 10, 1492, early in the morning, two girls from the Buzzetti and Gianotti families were gathering chestnuts; chestnuts were precious to the poor people, and so the girls worked hard to gather as many as they could. After their busy work, they sat down tiredly on a rock near the pond to rest.

Suddenly, they found themselves blinded by an unusual splendor that could not be confused with sunlight, so fascinating and different was it. A young girl appeared to them, growing harmoniously in proportion and becoming a majestic woman. A veil fell from her head to her shoulders, and around her, like butterflies, several angels fluttered in a festive dance; her feet rested on one of the many boulders in the area. The two girls, after a moment of surprise and fear, certain that they were before the Blessed Virgin, knelt and, boldly, asked why she appeared in such a deserted place. The Virgin, after asking them if the chestnut harvest was sufficient, kindly replied: “I go wherever there are sinners who need to be converted. My Son is disgusted by the conduct of men, and I myself have interceded, crying out to Him for mercy… Tell Him that if sinners do not amend their ways, if they do not better observe their festive duties, if they do not perform works of prayer and penance, the wrath of the Son of God will descend to punish humanity in a terrible way… Only in this way will He answer my prayer for your salvation.” With that, the Virgin disappeared.

It's easy to imagine the enthusiasm with which the two girls simply recounted the apparition and related the words they had heard. Some believed their story, but others were skeptical and incredulous. However, when graces and miracles multiplied (even a dead child was resurrected when placed on the rock where the Madonna stood), their enthusiasm turned into effective charitable works. Despite it being winter, construction of a small church began in December, which would be blessed on May 31, 1493, seven months after the apparition. Within a few years, the small church was transformed into a full-fledged church, but it too soon proved inadequate and was demolished. In 1598, construction began on the current grandiose three-nave sanctuary, consecrated in 1615.In 1742, the Chapter of Canons of St Peter's in the Vatican decreed and offered the golden crown to crown the beautiful wooden statue of the Madonna, still highly venerated today.

The account of the apparition is contained in a parchment written in Latin, the original of which has unfortunately been lost, but a copy of which had already been seen and faithfully verified by Giangiacomo Macolino, and printed in his exact history of the apparition, the veracity of which cannot prudently be doubted. All the sanctuary's historians report in Latin and then freely translate into Italian the account of the apparition, along with the account of the first graces contained in the aforementioned writing or parchment.

In the Archives of the Episcopal Curia of Como, in the folder of Bishop Torriani's pastoral visit to Valchiavenna – the Gallivaggio file – there is a seventeenth-century Latin copy of the famous parchment.

The maternal goodness of Our Lady has always invited all her children to penance, to prayer, to amend their lives, sanctifying feast days and fleeing occasions of evil.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"We honor all the mysteries and privileges, all the states and acts, all the sorrows and joys, all the apparitions and visitations, all the perfections and functions of the Blessed Mother, one by one, according to our custom."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, p. 372)