OUR LADY OF THE HELP

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 ball that could signify the globe of the world. On the left is depicted the Archangel St Michael, and on the right St John the Baptist, according to the topographical arrangement of the three main churches of Busto: "To the east is St John, to the west the archangel St Michael and in the middle of the square the Blessed Virgin."

The "little church" was very dear to the villagers to whom it reminded of the continuous protection of Our Lady, such as the end of the siege placed on Busto by Francesco Sforza in December 1448. But time and above all the sad historical events reduced it to a crumbling ruin, so it was necessary to rebuild it started in 1517.

Thanks to the work of talented architects of the Bramante school, in just five years, the majestic sanctuary that we admire, the pride of Busto Arsizio, was built. On the western portal the joy of reconstruction is reported with the poet's verses: "O Virgin, grant that this people may flourish with all its posterity, who have raised the splendid church to you."

The ancient statue of Our Lady of the Help that is venerated in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Piazza has some variations compared to the depiction of the primitive fresco. The Child no longer supports the ball on the palm of her hand, facing upwards, but holds it and lowers it towards the mantle of the Mother.

The Madonna raises her right hand, previously resting on her lap, in the characteristic gesture of those who want to stop something. Tradition, passed from generation to generation, has it that the Image of the Madonna, carried in procession through the streets of the village during the terrible plague of San Carlo in 1576, suddenly stopped the contagion by raising her right hand. In memory of the miracle, the faithful of Busto Arsizio would have had the statue of the Madonna sculpted with her right hand raised.

Likewise, in the ancient image, the Madonna and Child did not wear the crown. After the protection experienced during the terrible plague of 1630, the plague described by Manzoni in "The Betrothed", the inhabitants of Busto thought of crowning the Virgin and Child.

On the evening of the feast of the Ascension, May 9, 1632, as the chronicler of the time writes, "Vespers were sung solemnly and musically, when it was over, our Blessed Lady was carried around the whole square in procession singing the hymn Misterium Ecclesiae, and then she was placed in her former place, having crowned her with her son with two very magnificent Silver Crowns, having zoiellata (jeweled) the Most Holy Virgin..."

A second coronation, authorized by the Vatican Chapter, took place on July 14, 1895 by the hands of Cardinal Blessed Andrea Carlo Ferrari, Archbishop of Milan.

But in 1921 a sacrilegious hand stripped the Virgin and Child of their crowns and jewels, so on October 19 of the same year, a third coronation, carried out by Cardinal Achille Ratti, who a few months later would become Pope Pius XI, girded the head of the Virgin and Child with new precious crowns.

In 1943 there was a new theft, and after the war, on May 18, 1947, at the end of the Marian Congress that attracted more than half a million people to Busto Arsizio, in a setting of festive solemnity, Blessed Cardinal Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, surrounded by numerous Bishops and Priests, placed the new crowns on the heads of the Virgin and Child, made by the Milanese goldsmith Ambrogio Piccolini, a sign of the imperishable devotion and love of the faithful of Busto Arsizio to Our Lady of the Help.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Likewise, grant that we may enter, remain and grow in the grace of Divine Union, for the greater glory of God the Holy Spirit, effecting your union with the fidelity, docility and generosity of loving obedience to holy inspirations."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 155)

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