OUR LADY OF SORROWS

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 Eucharistic Jesus, and with the Blessed Trinity dwelling within us through that grace of which Mary is Mother!"

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, p. 379)

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