Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 265: February 1 Immaculate Conception of Copacabana,  Bolivia Among the passengers of a ship lost in a storm near Rio de Janeiro, were some Brazilian pilgrims who returned from a visit to the shrine of the Virgin of Copacabana in Bolivia. They invoked the Virgin to intercede for them and they were disembarked safely on the Brazilian coast. In gratitude, they named the spot Copacabana — and it has since become one of the world's favorite resorts in Brazil. In Bolivia, however, a wonderful story of faith and love is being enchanted. Enclosed by beautiful sloping mountains overlooking the azure Lake Titicaca, lies the small cove called Sepa -cabana or Copacabana. The name means "the one who looks at the precious stone", because in the distance, extends the majestic ice necklace of the Andes Cordillera. In this place, at the time of the Inca Empire, lived good Indians whose only task was to prepare for the journeys of the faithful to the Island of the Sun, a few miles on ...

Day 264: January 31 Our Lady of Grondici, Tavernelle di Panicale , Perugia, Umbria The sanctuary that houses it was erected following the resurrection of a child, hence the name " Grondici " which derives from " suggrunda ": eaves or canopy that the Romans indicated as the tomb of children under 40 days of life. Children who died without baptism were taken here. The  Grondici , which gave its name to the Sanctuary, is a locality a few kilometers from Tavernelle , in the municipality of Panicale (Perugia) and takes its name from the Latin term sub grunda , under the eaves (of the roof), a place chosen to lay infants who died before baptism, and here to call them in a temporary resurrection in order to administer the sacrament of baptism and have a worthy burial. According to medieval theology, children who died without baptism were destined for limbo and had no right to be buried in a consecrated place, but their little bodies were placed next to the house where th...

Day 263: January 30 Our Lady of the Help, Busto Arsizio, Varese, Italy The devotion of the people of Busto Arsizio to Our Lady of the Help (Madonna dell'Aiuto) dates back to the Middle Ages. In the primitive church of Santa Maria di Piazza, on the remains of which the current grandiose Sanctuary was built in 1517, an image representing the Virgin was venerated, which had miraculously manifested itself on January 30, 1346. The characteristics of this image are recognizable in a fresco from the late fifteenth century that was located in the courtyard of a house in the area.  The painting, transported on canvas, was destroyed in 1943 during a bombing of Milan, while it was in the restorer's studio. Fortunately, it has remained an excellent and faithful photograph. The Madonna, seated on a throne, holds the Child in her lap, wrapped in a flap of the Mother's cloak, holding a round object, perhaps an apple, as in the delicate Madonnas of the Roses by Luca della Robbia , or a ...

Day 262: January 29 Our Lady of the Impossible ( Nossa Senhora dos Impossíveis ), Serra do Lima, Patú , Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil On January 29, 1758, Colonel Antonio de Abreu Lima Pereira and his wife Paula Moreira Braga, residents of Apodi and owners of the mountain, built a chapel and brought the statue of Our Lady of the Impossible directly from Portugal. About 30 years later, the same Colonel then donated the chapel to the Bishopric. We do not have any certain data that tells us what miracle or grace Colonel Antonio de Lima obtained to undertake such an endeavor, but oral tradition tells us of a hunting party right near the place where the sanctuary stands today. As the hours passed, the Colonel lost track of time and suddenly found himself in the dark in the woods. No longer able to orient himself, frightened, he made the famous vow to Our Lady of the Impossible: if he returned home safe and sound, he would build a sanctuary in her honor in that very place. By-and-by he found...

Day 261: January 28 The Green Scapular, Sr Giustina Bisqueyburu , Paris Ten years after the apparitions to St Catherine Labouré to whom the Blessed Virgin gave the precious Miraculous Medal. Our Lady appeared to another Daughter of Charity, Sister Giustina Bisqueyburu for another great gift: the Green Scapular in honor of Her Immaculate Heart. The daughter of a merchant and a noblewoman, Giustina was born in Mauléon (Lower Pyrénées ) on November 11, 1817 for the feast of St Martin. She was raised with love by her maternal aunt who, together with her husband, for the strong emotional bond that had united them, left her their entire patrimony at death. At the age of 22 she asked permission to leave for the hospital in Pau, where she made her postulancy under the guidance of Fr Aladel , Director of the Daughters of Charity, who was already following the spiritual path of St Catherine Labouré. At the end of the novitiate she was sent to Blangy (Seine-Lower) with the charge of the schoo...

Day 260: January 27 Our Lady of the Pillar in Castenaso , Bologna, Italy Castenaso , a town 10.8 kilometers away from Bologna, has its origins before the Christian era. Its name, in fact, derives from the fact that in 186 BC the Roman consul Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica set up camp on the right bank of the Idice stream, in front of the camp of the Gauls . Hence the name "Castrum Nasicae ", camp of Nasica , and then Castenaso . The town's coat of arms from 1852 recalls this page of history: in the center the amphora pouring water denotes the Idice stream, on the right the Roman camp, surrounded by a wooden fence, with the emblems and eagle of the Roman legion; in front of it the Gallic camp with the pike surmounted by the horse's head, the shield or ombron , the cusp (short sword) with a cross handle, the torque or collar formed in the form of two twisted ropes that the Gauls wore around their necks, and the armilla, a large bronze ring that they used to wear on...

Day 259: January 26 Our Lady of Lake Garbagna di Tortona, Alessandria, Italy The village of Garbagna is located on the Tortona hills to the right of the Scrivia stream and is famous, as well as for the variety of cherries La Bella di Garbagna , for the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lake Garbagna . The sanctuary dates back to the fourteenth century and from Garbagna it can be easily reached with a short walk of about 2 km through the village woods. Leaving the town of Garbagna , you can continue in the direction of Borghetto Borbera , until you reach the height of the last houses, after which you turn left into via Madonna del Lago and, climbing for about a kilometer through the woods, you will arrive at the large meadow where the church stands. The history of this sanctuary is linked to the apparition of the Blessed Virgin in 1341, of which there is a trace in the Legé studio in the Castle of Sorli in Val Borbera (AL), which has always been linked to the peace between Guelphs and Gh...

Day 258: January 25 Queen of Peace ( Kraljice Mira), Medjugorje, Citluk , Herzegovina-Neretva, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia Medjugorje is located in Herzegovina, the Croatian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the Republics that formed the former Yugoslavia.  The population of Herzegovina is of Croatian ethnicity and professes the Catholic religion, which has preserved itself during almost four hundred years of Turkish domination, approximately from the first half of the 1400's until the second half of the 1800's. This perseverance was made possible above all thanks to the Franciscans who evangelized those lands and kept the faith alive during the rule of the Turks, at the cost of the life of many friars. Still today most of the parishes are entrusted to the Franciscans. On June 24, 1981, in the late afternoon, two girls first, and then four other companions, just outside the town of Bijakovici , one of the hamlets that make up the town of Medjugorje and which is lo...

Day 257: January 24 Our Lady of Peace of Honolulu, Hawaii Islands, United States The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is the mother church and spiritual center of the Diocese of Honolulu, Hawaii. The history of this island (ancient leper colony) is intertwined with the lives of two important saints: San Damiano de Veuster and Santa Madre Marianne. The first Catholic missionaries arrived in Hawaii from France in 1827 and built a mission on land donated by King Kamameha III. The priests dedicated the new building and their mission to Our Lady of Peace, patroness of the order of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Hawaiians follow an old Spanish tradition that leads them to celebrate Our Lady of Peace on January 24. Initially, in fact, in the city of Toledo in Spain, the day after the feast of San Ildefonso (January 23rd) was celebrated, the apparition of the Virgin of Peace to the saint. It is said that on the night of December 18, 665, St Ildefonso saw Our ...

Day 256: January 23 The Marriage of the Virgin Mary with St Joseph St Luke informs us that the Virgin Mary, at the time of the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel for the great Annunciation of the Incarnation of the Word, was already betrothed to Joseph. We may ask: When did the engagement take place? According to the Jewish custom of the time, young people married at the age of 18, while girls did not marry before 12. It is likely that Mary's marriage took place when she was 14-18 years old. Why did the Virgin agree to get married? It is to be believed that she would have gladly done without it, but marriage was the common custom among the Israelites, and if she had not followed this custom, she would have been regarded by all as a wretch, a strange being, and for years would have been harassed by marriage petitions. We must also believe that she had the assurance that, even united in marriage, she could continue to observe the vow of virginity and that St Joseph willingly consent...

Day 255: January 22 Our Lady of Fortune, Genoa, Italy In some cases, the figureheads of ships are intended to indicate the name of the ship that housed it to people who could not read. For the sailor it is the very soul of the ship to which supernatural powers and a deep mystical meaning were attributed. The sailors, in fact, were convinced that the figurehead, stretched forward to protect the ship, would defend them from storms, natural disasters, fearsome sea currents and they themselves took care of it because they thought that, if this sculpture was damaged for any reason, it would bring bad luck to the whole crew. When it was realized that these figures risked jeopardizing the stability of the ship, the figureheads first became less elaborate and then almost disappeared completely. Our story begins on January 17, 1636 when a storm raged in the sea of Genoa amid the inclement rigors of winter, which would end only the next day in front of the astonished gazes of the Genoese who con...