OUR LADY OF VETRANA (PLAGUE)

Day 244: January 11

Our Lady of Vetrana, Castellana Grotte, Bari, Italy



The people of Castellano, to thank Our Lady for the liberation from the plague of 1690, renovated the church that housed the fourteenth-century icon of the Blessed Virgin, venerated under the title of "Our Lady of Vetrana", a dialect term for the plague.

At the end of 1690 the church of Castellana was almost in ruins, when a terrible disease came to disturb the city and the surrounding area. Most likely it was due to an infected cargo of goods docked in the port of Monopoli, a terrible epidemic of plague spread in the territory south-east of Bari, thanks to the poor hygienic conditions, the population was decimated.

The plague arrived in Castellana on December 23, 1690. The situation changed during the night between 11 and 12 January 1691, when two priests, Don Giuseppe Gaetano Lanera and Don Giosafat Pinto, prayed incessantly to free the population from the plague. Our Lady of Vetrana (a name that, according to some sources, derives from "veterana", that is, "ancient"; according to popular tradition, however, "vetrana" would come from the dialect term of the same name, with which the plague was indicated) was portrayed in a painting dating back to the fourteenth century (about 1300) and located in a stone church not far from the town of Castellana.

The two priests both had the same inspiration: to anoint the buboes of the sick with the oil of the lamp that burned perpetually next to that same painting, to heal the plague.

By doing so and setting fire to everything that had been in contact with the disease, since January 12 in Castellana no one has died of the plague. Everyone immediately attributed the miraculous intercession of the Virgin of Vetrana, and her veneration grew, until all the sacred and secular authorities of Castellana, as a sign of gratitude, decided to celebrate the grandiose event every year.

In 1691 the mayor undertook to solemnize the memory of the miracle at the end of April, but the people remembered the day of the revelation, or January 11, with the feast of the Fanove, or bonfires. During the night the region is transformed thanks to the heat and lights of the many bonfires that are lit by the dozens through well-arranged piles of wood, in the shape of a cone and burned until the morning of the 12th. A mixture of devotion and folklore, reminiscent of the miraculous event that took place in 1691.

From that moment, in fact, the patron saint of Castellana has been Our Lady of Vetrana. Almost jealous of that preference, the Castellana Chapter in 1752 "canonically" established that the co-patron saint of Castellana was Our Lady of Consolation. But the people had made their choice; and, after all, it was always Our Lady: only the adjectival name changed, from Consoler to Vetrana!


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Accept, O Most August Queen, the homage of our loving submission; ratify it in heaven before the Blessed Trinity. Accept us and make us your most faithful ones in everything."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 153)

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