OUR LADY OF BOZZOLA

Day 192: November 20

Our Lady of Bozzola, Garlosco, Pavia, Italy



With a decree dated November 20, 1888, Pope Leo XIII granted plenary indulgence to the faithful who celebrated the main feasts in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bozzola in Garlasco, province of Pavia. Garlasco, an important medieval center, was a fief of the powerful Beccaria lords, of which it still retains part of the ancient castle, and fought against the Visconti, masters of Milan. The Beccaria family was succeeded by the Castiglioni marquises who hosted two Savoy kings: Carlo Emanuele III in 1734 and Carlo Alberto in 1836. The most shining glory, however, is the Marian Sanctuary that Garlasco has been able to surround with devotion and art over the centuries.

The Sanctuary, imposing for its size, the result of the devotion to the Madonna of the people of Lomellina, is located about a kilometer from Garlasco. The place was, in ancient times, covered with hawthorn bushes, called boxwood in dialect, or boxwood, or büslon, from which the name cocoon derives. In the middle of this grove stands a small chapel or pylon, with the image of the Madonna seated on a chair, holding the Child Jesus with her left arm, standing on her knees, and with a book in her right hand.

In this locality, a thirteen-year-old girl, Maria Benedetta, usually accompanies the small herd of the family to pasture. Of her childhood she vaguely remembers, like a bad dream, images of soldiers on horseback, of drawn swords; so her first family, her parents and her older brother Ludovico, were destroyed, in one of the many episodes of violence that characterize those ruthless times. That bloody day made the poor child mute. The parish priest of the village, Fr Andrea Guazzoni, takes care of the orphan girl and takes her away from the place of the massacre, entrusting her to a new family.

On an unspecified day in the summer of the year 1462, Maria Benedetta found herself grazing her flock near the chapel, when suddenly the weather darkened and announced the storm was near. More and more frequent lightning breaks the darkness, deafening thunder, real terrifying roars, burst with a sudden noise. The frightened animals disperse in the clearing, and the terrified girl takes refuge under the roof of the aedicule, turning her gaze to the image of the Virgin as if to ask her for protection and help. Shortly after, the weather calms down, the sky returns clear and serene and everything acquires, almost by magic, a radiant appearance. The Image of the Madonna, painted on the wall, comes to life and turns maternally to the girl: "Maria Benedetta, go and tell the people of Garlasco that I want a Sanctuary here to protect the whole of Lomellina".

The emotion and joy of the girl, who feels healed, are at their peak; she runs to fulfill the mission entrusted to her. The prodigious healing immediately aroused the interest of the religious and civil authorities, but above all the enthusiasm of the people of Garlasco and the neighboring villages, who immediately committed themselves to the construction of a temple. The primitive construction, begun a few months after the event, corresponds to the current presbytery and the space below the dome of today's Sanctuary. The main altar was created using the ancient chapel, preserving intact the fresco depicting the Virgin. Over time, further transformations of the building became necessary until it reached the current form of the Sanctuary.

The interior has been patiently and constantly embellished over the years; The decoration of the large vaults, rich in colors, stuccoes and gold, gives great symphony to the architectural lines. Interesting, in the left and right aisles, are two groups of statues, a valuable work from the 1700's. On the left, around the mortal remains of Christ, some figures of Apostles and pious Women weep together with Our Lady of Sorrows. On the right, the scene of the Nativity scene is reproduced with the figures of the Child Jesus, Mary and Joseph, very beautiful and expressive.

Numerous votive offerings testify, sometimes in an almost naïve but moving way, to the gratitude to the Virgin of so many devotees in these 600 years of history.

In 1927 the Sanctuary was aggregated, as a minor Basilica, to the Vatican Basilica, and on September 8, 1931, while the 15th centenary of the Council of Ephesus was celebrated, in which the Divine Motherhood of Mary was defined, the Image of the Madonna and Child were solemnly crowned.

The little Maria Benedetta, after the apparition of Our Lady, having accomplished her mission, silently retires to the Monastery of the Vallombrosian Benedictine Sisters in the area, where she preserves the grateful memory of the benevolence of the Virgin, consecrating her whole life to Her.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Glory to the Most Blessed Trinity in you, O Mary! Glory to you, O Mary, in the Blessed Trinity! Queen of the patriarchs, Queen of the prophets, Queen of all the just, Queen of the apostles, Queen of the evangelists, Queen of the fathers, Queen of the doctors, Queen of the pastors, Queen of virgins."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, pp. 402-403)

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