MARY OF THE CROSS

Day 223: December 21

Mary of the Cross (Madonna di Roio), Poggio di Roio, Aquila, Italy



The statue of the Madonna di Roio, in gilded cedar wood, which came from Apulia and which does not seem to be a work of art from Abruzzo, is the work of a fine chisel and is characterized by the general harmonious line that makes it pleasant. It is a work attributed to the fourteenth century. The historian from L'Aquila Angelo Signorini, in his work "The Diocese of Aquila", on p. 314, reports the account of Fr Serafino di Montoro concerning the discovery of the venerated statue.

"A simple shepherd named Felice Calcagno – he says – perhaps a native of the land of Lucoli, brought to winter, as was customary, in the pastures of Puglia in a wood called Ruo, one day had the misfortune of losing the flock entrusted to his care. Fearing a great punishment from his masters, he fervently begged the Virgin to help him in such a difficult situation. Moved by pity, the Queen of Heaven appeared to the pious boy in the form of a very vague lady with Jesus in her arms and courteously pointed out to him the place where her sheep had taken refuge.

At the unusual heavenly favor, the good shepherd remained ecstatic! Recovering from his amazement and finding the flock in the place indicated to him, he joyfully reported the miracle to the other shepherds. Moved by strong curiosity, they went to that place and found a life-size statue with the same shapes and features that the simple shepherd had seen in the unknown Lady."

It was December 1578. Taking it with veneration, they took it to their hut with the firm intention of placing it in some church in Lucoli. In spring, the time when they returned from Apulia to the mountains of Abruzzo, they placed the miraculous statue on a mule, and set off; but when they arrived, after a few days of travel, at the Cross of the Castle of Roio, in front of the church of San Leonardo, the mare (mule) bent its knees, it wanted to continue.

Those good shepherds were more desirous of the portent, and having taken the statue, they carried it on their shoulders to Lucoli and laid it in the abbey of St John. The next morning the holy Simulacrum was no longer there: miraculously it had returned to Roio, to the same place where the mare prostrated itself. And it was then that the inhabitants of Roio, delighted with such a precious treasure, built the graceful artistic Sanctuary in honor of Our Lady.

In the immediate post-war period, the "Santa Maria della Croce" institute was built next to the Sanctuary, which for over twenty years has carried out an educational assistance function for needy children and since 1985 has been transformed into a shelter.

Along the ancient mule track, which now has the name of "Via Mariana" (Marian Trail), 15 chapels have been erected illustrating, in artistic mosaics, the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and on the hill of Monteluco the "Via Crucis", crowning the three vows publicly expressed in 1942, in the midst of the storm, by the Archbishop of L'Aquila Mons Carlo Confalonieri, later Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"O Queen, O Teacher, O Mother Mary! Do not reject me as I deserve, for I want to be totally and forever your lowly servant, disciple and loving son."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 77)

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