Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 288: February 24 Our Lady of Steccata, Parma, Italy On the site of the current church of the Steccata there was an oratory built since 1392 to house a venerated image of St John the Baptist painted in fresco on the external wall of a house in St Barnabas Street (today Via Garibaldi): the building then became the seat of a Confraternity dedicated to the Virgin Annunciation and aimed at distributing marriage dowries for poor, unmarried girls without paternal protection. Towards the end of the fourteenth century on the façade of the oratory was painted the picture of Our Lady, which soon became the object of particular devotion by the people of Parma; from the fact that the area of the building was protected by a fence, perhaps built precisely to regulate the influx of numerous pilgrims, that Virgin began to be invoked with the title of Our Lady of Steccata. To better preserve the precious image, in 1521 the members decided to have a grandiose sanctuary built. On 4 April 1521 the bish...

Day 287: February 23 Our Lady of Grace or of St Christopher Pennabili, Pesaro, Marche, Italy The devotion to Our Lady of Grace, venerated in the ancient parish church of St Christopher, is linked to highly reported interventions in favor of the city. On February 23, 1517, the venerated Image appeared surrounded by light on the city walls, to put to flight the Florentine militias who wanted to devastate the city. The same prodigy was renewed on February 23, five years later, in 1522. It was March 20, the third Friday of the month, in 1489, when the image of Our Lady of Grace was seen shedding tears from her right eye, in the presence of all the people. Word of the prodigy spread in a flash. Everyone ran to see, everyone shouted a miracle. In memory of the fact, the Confraternity of Our Lady of Graces was established that same year, whose acts begin with the authentic account of the prodigy, drawn up by order of Monsignor Celso Mellini, bishop of Montefeltro, and signed by fourteen eyewi...

Day 286: February 22 Marian Apparition, Poggio di Castle of St Petre, Bologna Mary's maternal goodness has never failed in the moments of need of the Christian people, indeed precisely when the difficulties are greater, Mary's presence becomes more alive in many ways and in different circumstances, as the many Shrines scattered everywhere testify to us. The Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin in Poggio di Castel San Pietro, in the province of Bologna, stands on the site of the Marian apparition to a poor old woman, beggar and blind, on February 22, 1550. It stands in the Bolognese plain, halfway along the road that connects Castel San Pietro to Medicina, at an equal distance from the town of Castel Guelfo, to the east. The territory, in 1500, depended on the city of Bologna, and its numerous "castles" or "fortified villages" formed its defensive walls. The powerful families that dominate Bologna are in continuous revolt, for power, against the papal government o...

Day 285: February 21 Our Lady of Grace of Anderlecht, Scheut area, Belgium In 1443, Pierre Van Assche, an old peasant planted a lime tree and two hawthorn on a hill in the Scheut area (now a district of Anderlecht) on the way to Brussels. In one of these trees (which tradition sometimes transforms into an oak) he inserted a wooden statuette of the Virgin and Child. In 1449, the night before Pentecost, some villagers saw a glow coming from the place where the statuette was located, so pilgrimages to Our Lady of Grace (the Madonna delle Grazie) began. On February 21, 1450, Charles the Bold, then Count of Charolais, laid the foundation stone for a chapel to celebrate the first Mass. The Gothic church of Our Lady of Graces was consecrated in 1531. Due to the Wars of Religion it was abandoned in 1578. Damaged and then rebuilt during the 1580's during the Reformation, the chapel was sold under the French Republic around 1795, while the monastery was moved to Brussels. The surrounding are...

Day 284: February 20 Our Lady of the Stairs of Massafra, Taranto, Puglia, Italy Our Lady of the Stairs (the Madonna della Scala) venerated in Massafra is the main protector of the Ionian town. St Mark and St Peter evangelized Puglia. They also went to Massafra, where they built a crypt dedicated to the Virgin Mother of Christ in the Rosarum Valley. In the year 102, the people of Massafra had an image of Our Lady painted in this crypt, which was called the Prisca. In the year 324 there was a strong earthquake that struck the villages of Massafra, Petruscio, Turio and Pasifo, and caused the crypts of the ravine to collapse. Among these, that of the Madonna Prisca was destroyed. About a century later, hunters came across a beautiful doe. They tried to capture it, but in vain. They chased it until the doe suddenly stopped and knelt on a large boulder. Those men cleaned the boulder and found the painting of the Madonna and Child there. After contemplating it, two of them went to the village...

Day 283: February 19 Our Lady of Sorrows of Campiveri (L'Addolorata dei Campiveri), Cividate al Piano, Bergamo, Italy Cividate al Piano is located on the edge of the right escarpment of the Oglio, 22 km from Bergamo. The ancient village preserves the remains of a medieval castle that dates back to the thirteenth century, now reduced to an imposing ruin, which however testifies to the struggles that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also bloodied these localities. The parish church is ancient in origin, but as it is today, it dates back to the eighteenth century. The approximately 5,000 inhabitants, at the last census, are dedicated to work in industry and agriculture. In 1630, to commemorate the inhabitants of the town who died from the plague, a country oratory was built in Campiveri, where Our Lady of Sorrows is painted next to the Crucifix with Saints Rocco and Sebastian. There is no trace of this chapel because it is incorporated into the new sanctuary built between 189...

Day 282: February 18 Our Lady of the Rosary of Rota, Cadiz, Spain The city of Rota is a municipality of Almería province, located in the province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It borders the towns of Chipiona, Sanlucar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. It is located 36 kilometers from the provincial capital, Cadiz. Located near the Bay of Cádiz on the Atlantic coast, halfway between Portugal and Gibraltar, it is a tourist city par excellence. Although we are not able to document the origins of devotion to the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in the city of Rota, we can say that the image dates back to the 1500's. The oldest document that refers to this devotion is dated 1671 and speaks of a Brotherhood established by Doña Juana for the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary. The church was built under the patronage of Duke Rodrigo Ponce de Leon and Ponce de Leon, 1st Duke of Arcos and Mr Rota, in the first third of the sixteenth century in the Elizabet...

Day 281: February 17 Our Lady of the Emigrants (Nossa Senhora do Desterro), Florianópolis, Brazil Florianópolis is the capital city of the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil, founded in 1726 under the name of Nossa Senhora do Desterro (Our Lady of the Emigrants/ of exile). The city was renamed in 1894 in honor of Floriano Peixoto, head of the government that put an end to the Federalist Revolution. The city is commonly known by the nickname of Floripa, boasts the statistical recognition of Brazilian capital with the best quality of life and human development index. A local hunter named Francisco Dias Velho from São Paulo founded the city of Nossa Senhora do Desterro on the island of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil on February 17, 1673. Francisco settled in this land together with his family, two Jesuits, a few other Portuguese Brazilians and hundreds of Indian workers. From their settlement the current city of Florianópolis was born, and from its chapel the Cathedral dedicated to the ...

Day 280: February 16 Our Lady of Light of Ugento, Lecca, Salento, Puglia, Italy This sanctuary stands on an ancient Marian chapel, destroyed during the Saracen raids in 1537. It is here that a blind priest, Don Didaco di Vittorio di Afragola, on pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Leuca in 1563, stopped to seek shelter during a storm. Here, praying to Mary Most Holy, he regained his sight, first of all seeing a Byzantine fresco of the Madonna, discovered by chance by his dog who brought out a part of it with its paws. The slab is certainly from the Byzantine period and there are good reasons to think that it was buried to protect it from iconoclasts. The Bishop of the time, Monsignor Antonio Minturno, had the image, that is still venerated, in the church preserved, calling it Our Lady of Light. The current building was rebuilt in 1576 by Bishop Desiderio Mezzapica. The façade, bordered by two powerful corner pilasters, is decorated with an entrance portal in Lecce stone from 158...

Day 279: February 15 Our Lady of Comfort, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy In the second half of the 1700's there were numerous earthquakes almost everywhere: in Spain, Persia and even in Italy. On June 3, 1781, a tremendous earthquake devastated several towns in the Marche, Umbria, Romagna and Tuscany, causing hundreds of victims; in 1783 another earthquake struck Messina. It is therefore explainable the atmosphere of fear and terror that was created in Arezzo and throughout Tuscany, when on February 1, 1796, in full euphoria for the carnival, the first tremors were felt that were repeated insistently, although with different intensity, in the following days: from February 1st to 10th over 30 tremors were recorded. In addition, according to Abbot Angelucci's report, other telluric and terrestrial phenomena occurred: frightening rumbles, flashes of fire in the night, threatening clouds, turbidity of the waters of the Arno. All these portended serious disasters and created a tormenting st...

Day 278: February 14 Our Lady of Pellevoison, France In 1875 Estelle, due to her serious health conditions, had a letter deposited in the grotto of Lourdes, in which she implored:  "Implore me from your divine Son, for His glory, the salvation of this body of mine. You see the pain of my parents, and you know that they only have me as support. They are on the verge of having to beg for a morsel of bread, and I cannot think of it without being deeply grieved by it. Give me back my health, if it so pleases: but His will be done, and not mine. Grant me at least full resignation to your plans, and let everything serve for my salvation and that of my parents." When she wrote that letter, Estelle was 32 years old and was now considered to be dying due to the consequences of serious diseases that had struck her over a period of thirteen years: gangrenous smallpox, acute peritonitis, pulmonary tuberculosis and a tumor in her left side. On February 14, 1876, the woman was and read, in...

Day 277: February 13 Queen of Apostles, Basilica of St Apollinare, Rome, Italy According to an ancient tradition, St. Apollinaris was the first Bishop of Ravenna, consecrated and sent to evangelize that region directly from St Peter. The first church built in his honor in Rome was completed between the middle of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century, that is, in full Byzantine domination. Probably, the first religious who occupied the church were Basilian monks, who took refuge in Rome because of iconoclastic persecutions: it would be up to them to transfer some martyrs to the basement of the primitive Church. From 1284, however, it is the first evidence of a college of canons that lasted until 1576. The Basilica became a parish in 1562 and remained so until 1824. From 1574 until 1773 it was linked to the Germanic College (later Germanic-Hungarian College) which had as its seat the current University Palace. The original Basilica was demolished and rebuilt on the initiati...

Day 276: February 12 Our Lady of Grouchiv , Ukraine The story of Grouchiv ( Hrushiv or Grushew ) and its apparitions or events concerning the Blessed Virgin originates long before 1970, in fact it begins in the seventeenth century, when the Blessed Mother appeared for the first time, in the lower part of the village. The people, to commemorate the event, planted a willow tree in that place. A century later, a spring gushed out at the foot of the willow tree and people came to collect water. Many healings took place that made the sanctuary famous. In 1806, Stepan Chapowsky painted an image of Our Lady there. The villagers fixed it on the willow tree and the pilgrimages to that place intensified, so much so that the owner of the land, annoyed by the fact that the pilgrims were stepping on it, decided to call an unbeliever, J. Kina, to build a barrier around the willow. In 1856 a cholera epidemic broke out. A woman then saw the Mother of God in a dream  "My daughter, please clean ...

Day 275: February 11 Our Lady of Lourdes, France In 1858, there lived in the village of Lourdes, a small peasant woman, Bernadette Soubirous, 14 years old, ignorant, simple, poor and good. On February 11, she was sent with two other girls to collect wood. They went to the Rock of Massabielle , where the two companions crossed a mountain stream; while Bernadette was taking off her shoes to follow them, she realized a beautiful, enchanting Lady, standing in the hollow of the rock, looking at her. Bernadette fell involuntarily on her knees, looking enchanted at the beautiful Lady, who smiled lovingly at Bernadette and then disappeared. The mysterious Lady of Heaven appeared in all, eighteen times to the little girl and among other things told her to drink water from a mysterious fountain that had not yet been discovered. Bernadette scratched the sand at a point indicated, and the water began to flow through the earth; After a few days, 27,000 gallons of pure, clear spring water was pourin...

Day 274: February 10 Our Lady of Gibilmanna, Cefal ù , Palermo, Italy The sanctuary stands in the middle of oak and chestnut woods, at 800 metres above sea level. The name itself indicates its position (Gebel, mountain) associated with the now disappeared production of manna. The image of Our Lady of oriental origin was venerated in an ancient monastery founded by St Gregory the Great. Feast of Our Lady of Gibilmanna , patron saint of the diocese of Cefalù (PA), is on the first Sunday of September. The celebrations take place at the beautiful Sanctuary of Gibilmanna , attracting pilgrims and devotees from all over the world. In this Sanctuary the Crucifix spoke to a monk saying, "Here my mother reigns... turn to her for graces." Inside the Sanctuary is kept the image of the Madonna under which a lamp burns incessantly. Every year, the oil that feeds the lamp is offered to Our Lady by one of the various municipalities of the Diocese. During the feast days, crowds of pilgrims ...