OUR LADY OF THE ROSES

Day 237: January 04

Our Lady of the Roses, Albano Sant'Alessandro, Bergamo, Italy



A few kilometers from Bergamo, on the road to Trescore Balneario, in a pleasant plain, lies Albano Sant'Alessandro, a town illustrious for its Roman origins, for many historical events and for bloody battles between Guelphs and Ghibellines. Today it is renowned for the beautiful Sanctuary of the Our Lady of the Roses.

On the night between 3 and 4 January 1417, two merchants from Romagna, on their way from Brescia to Bergamo, found themselves lost in a bush near the village called Albano. Bergamo is only eight kilometers away, but there was no escape for them: in the dark, among brambles and swamps covered by snow, they felt like they were dying of cold and fear. They then turned fervently to the Lord, invoked Our Lady and made a vow to build a chapel, if they managed to free themselves from that desperate situation. Suddenly from the sky, rays of light broke the darkness and a strip of luminous dew showed them the way. With a relieved and grateful heart they followed that path which seemed to them to say: "This is the way, walk along it!"

Until its outlet in the main road found, then, accompanied by a friend Chiarore, in a very short time they reached the city of Bergamo. Their desire was to thank the Virgin Mary immediately, entering the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, but this church, given the time of night, was still closed. They found shelter in the nearby ruined tower, ruined by wars, which had remained abandoned and open. They entered it fearful and uncertain because of the thick darkness that reigned there, with the desire to gather in prayer, but immediately a great glow blocked and enveloped them: somewhat elevated from the ground, seated on a wreath of roses that completely surrounded her, the Immaculate Virgin appeared with the Child Jesus clutched to her chest who also held a small bouquet of white roses in one hand, in the act of offering it to the Mother. The eyes of Our Lady and those of the Divine Son were turned complacently towards the two merchants, beside themselves from that spectacle of paradise.

The place of the apparition was called, from that night, the Colle di Rosate. When day came, the news spread in a flash, reached the Bishop and the civil authorities; the prodigious fact was judged by all as a sign of benevolence from heaven for the city of Bergamo afflicted by so many problems, for Italy tormented by enmity and discord, for the Church torn apart by the division of schism. St Bernardine of Siena, who was in Bergamo in those days, judged that nocturnal apparition to be a blessing of Our Lady.

The same saint also had an apparition of Our Lady, also in 1417, in Siena. The Blessed Virgin appeared with great splendor to the Franciscan (born Bernardino degli Albizzeschi 1380-1444), promising to help him in his work of converting sinners.

Everyone was intent on building a Chapel in gratitude for so many graces on the part of Our Lady, and informed the new Pope Martin V, elected by the Council of Constance on November 11 of that same year, 1417. It was the Pope himself who authorized its construction.

The bureaucratic paperwork, however, was prolonged; the two fortunate seers returned to Albano, to the place of the first vision, bought the land right at the point where the path of light entered the main road to Bergamo, and built the Chapel that would recall the devotion of the faithful for 438 years. Devotion to Our Lady of the Roses was rekindled in Albano at the beginning of the spread of the cholera epidemic of 1855. The parish priest not only urged his people to have recourse to Our Lady of the Roses, but also to make a vow to her to build a sanctuary in place of the chapel if she would put an end to the contagion. The contagion ceased and on September 20, 1855 the construction of the sanctuary began, which was opened for worship in 1883.

With the 1900's, the apse and the dome of the Temple were adorned with frescoes by Luigi Tagliaferri, the side walls were embellished with paintings of the Nativity of Mary and the Deposition of Jesus from the cross by Vittorio Manini; the central painting of the Apparition and the medallions of the vault were done by Arturo Compagnoni.

The great desire of the faithful would have been to see the Image of Our Lady of the Roses crowned in 1917, the fifth centenary of the Apparition, but the terrible war that afflicted the whole world prevented it, postponing the solemn ceremony to September 14, 1920.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"O Queen, O Teacher, O Mother! I believe, I hope, I love and I desire this ultimate goal of your mission and action in souls: make them, with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus is, through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus; make them Spouses of the Trinity, as you are the Mother of God!"

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 145)

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