OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION

Day 224: December 22

Our Lady of Consolation, Nereto, Teramo, Abruzzo, Italy


In 1798, in late December, some citizens of Nerete, following a violence carried out by a handful of French soldiers on some women of the town, reacted by killing those who had carried out the insane gesture.

The consequence was the decision by the Napoleonic officers to retaliate with the aim of sacking and destroying Nereto. The news of the imminent attack threw the country into total despair, the heads of families gathered in the square but perhaps more to gain strength by being together than for the development of a strategic plan, which seemed objectively impossible in the face of an organized army like that. The only defensive move that was prepared was the cutting of some large trees to be placed sideways on the access roads to the town in an attempt to hinder the advancement of the artillery. More could not be done: someone left the village, most of the population stayed back.

On the night of December 22nd, the French army was now at the gates: from the village you could hear and see its advancement in the distance, now they expected only the worst and then it was spontaneous to gather around the Mother Church and invoke Our Lady of Consolation. She seemed to be the last foothold to cling to before the end. There were those who prayed, those who cried and despaired, while others urged to go to the tower to call those from the neighboring villages to help: its inhabitants would be the first to rush. Meanwhile, the soldiers, as they arrived, piled up in what is now Piazza Marconi and prepared to attack. Nicolina de Maccuritt (Nicolina Tonelli), old and moreover lame, climbed up the stairs of the tower and with great enthusiasm began to ring the bell.

Shortly thereafter the French troops, unexpectedly, began to leave the square without firing a shot: it would later be known that a large army of angels with shining armor had appeared to the soldiers and, completely stunned and frightened, they were forced to retreat; in Nereto there was a cry of a miracle.

The Catholic Church has recognized this event as a miracle performed by Our Lady of Consolation to whom the mother church of the town is named.

The engravings on the bell are a reminder of that event held on the occasion of the celebration of the bicentenary of the Miracle – every year on December 22 the bells in Nereto ring in celebration; In 1998, on the occasion of the bicentenary, a big party was organized and the bell was moved today in front of the church, which recalls the event not only in the engravings but in its very nature (the bell with which the old Tonelli called the army of angels).


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Truly, I want to live completely and always according to your intentions, dispositions and inspirations. Let me grow for God in your heart; carry me to God in your arms!"

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

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