OUR LADY OF THE GARDEN OF CHIAVARI

Day 220: December 18

Our Lady of the Garden in Chiavari, Genoa, Italy



At the end of the 1400's, Liguria was struck by a terrible plague and Chiavari, no less than the other cities, was torn apart by the inexorable disease. On this occasion a local woman, a certain Maria Del Guercio nicknamed the Turchina, in gratitude for having been spared from the plague, had Benedetto Borzone paint the Image of the Blessing Mary on the external wall of a vegetable garden, with St Sebastian and St Rocco on either side. Over time the garden became a deposit and a garbage dump, but the painting retained the original freshness of the colors.

Another plague, which broke out in 1528, helped to increase devotion to the Madonnina dell'Orto. On this occasion, temporary altars were erected in the squares and one was placed in front of the Image of the Turkish.

A midwife from Rupinaro, Geronima Turrito, used to go every evening to pray in front of the sacred image. On the night of December 18, 1609, she suddenly woke up from sleep and saw the Virgin, illuminated by a very bright light and with the same features as the venerated painting.

When day came, she ran into the garden and devoutly prayed to Our Lady for the health of her son away from home. After a few days this son returned and told her in detail about his serious illness and sudden recovery. Since then, Hieronymas multiplied her devotions before the sacred Image and every Saturday she lighted a lamp there.

On July 2 of the following year (1610), the day of the feast of the Visitation of Mary to St Elizabeth, the Virgin also appeared to Sebastiano Descalzo, a poor handicapped man.

As he went to the road to Carasco, suddenly a light dazzled him and he saw a Lady of supernatural beauty, dressed in a blue mantle, who, lifted from the ground, walked between two lighted torches that spread a dazzling splendor on her passage. He then saw her advancing towards the wall of the garden, climbing it very nimbly and stopping in front of the niche in which the Image of Our Lady was painted.

Sebastiano also ran, entered the garden and saw the noble Lady gathering in that niche, as in a luminous center that in a short time, wrapped in a cloud, vanished from his eyes. Immediately a sweet fragrance spread in that place and Sebastiano found himself instantly healed.

Other numerous miracles followed one another and devotion to the Madonna dell'Orto grew, but the ecclesiastical authority was uncertain in recognizing her.

While the Vicar General of Genoa was in Chiavari for the canonical process, the painting, which had a deep crack in which the fingers could be comfortably inserted, came together and narrowed by itself, so that only a thin line remained, like a silk thread. The new miracle removed all doubts from the opponents who allowed the construction of a small church and on 1 July 1613 the construction of the Sanctuary began.

The church was completed in 1633 and on 8 September of the following year the Image of Our Lady of the Garden was detached from the wall aedicule and transferred to the main altar.

The care of the Sanctuary was entrusted from 1628 to the Discalced Carmelites, who remained there until 1798, the year in which they had to abandon the nearby convent due to Napoleon's edict.

On March 7, 1643, Our Lady of the Garden was proclaimed the main patroness of the city and district of Chiavari and in 1769 solemnly crowned with gold crowns by the Vatican Chapter. In 1892, the new Diocese of Chiavari was established, the Sanctuary was elevated to Cathedral by Pope Leo XIII and in 1904, the Cathedral Sanctuary received the title of Basilica.

On September 18, 1998, Pope St. John Paul II visited the Shrine and delivered a moving speech in the square in front of it, saying, among other things: "I confess to you that if I feel great joy every time I am allowed to visit the cathedral of a local Church, because I have the impression that I am thus confirming the bonds of communion of that Church with the one holy, catholic, apostolic Church that we profess in the Creed, joy becomes profound emotion when it is a question of a Church expressly dedicated to Our Lady.

In the present case, then, it is a Cathedral, which in dedication to Mary involves the entire diocese of Chiavari, which, moreover, includes within its ambit ten other Marian shrines, among which I am pleased to name at least that of Our Lady of Montallegro, in the territory of nearby Rapallo."


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"O Blessed Virgin Mary, allow your lowly servant to be united to Saint Joseph, to your Religious Orders, to your greatest lovers and to the whole Church."

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

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