MARIAN APPARITION AT POGGIO

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 on which they depend.

The rumors of war and the continuous passage of armies that demand free lodging and food, and destroy everything, heavily aggravate the condition of poverty and misery in which the population finds itself. The peasants are forced to provide food in the city where the lords who have their fiefs and their villas in the countryside live, while their poverty overwhelms them; The chronicles of the time report that many inhabitants of the countryside, forced by hunger, seek refuge in the cities where they hope to find some means of survival.

In this period, the Protestant Reformation also broke out, making its influence felt in Italy as well. Luther, who died in 1546, contested the Catholic devotion of Our Lady, which he considered excessive and paganistic; he denied that Mary had the power to intercede on behalf of her faithful. The reaction of our populations, profoundly Christian and devoted to Our Lady, is therefore easy to imagine! "Nor will it fail you!"

In this historical and religious context, of poverty and contestation, the apparition of Our Lady in Poggio di Castel San Pietro took place on February 22, 1550. It is documented by a small, but precious painting, of good workmanship that can still be admired today hanging on the right wall in the presbytery of the Sanctuary. It was carried out by the bishop of Bologna, Monsignor Giovanni Campeggi, on a pastoral visit to Castel San Pietro on 15 October 1554, only four years after the event. The painting portrays the façade of the Sanctuary, in its original form, not very different from the current one; in the center, on the road, Our Lady speaks to a poor old woman leaning on her stick and holding the rosary in her hand.

Below the image a caption, in Latin, says: "In the year of the Lord 1550, on February 22nd, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the form that appears here, showed herself to Antonia Bedini who was begging for some bread. The Blessed Mother said to her: enter the house, and in the cupboard, you will find what you need and go in search; nor as long as you live, it will fail you."

Entering the house, the woman found the bread she needed, which would not be lacking until the day of her death, which took place on January 1, 1551; she also noted that she was cured of her blindness. The news of the event spread very quickly and devotion to Our Lady grew more and more every day, so much so that in March 1551 the construction of a small church was immediately begun and gradually expanded.

The Sanctuary has its devotional center in a beautiful and devout image that came out, in all likelihood, from the school of France; it could be attributed to Francesco's son, Giacomo, remembered by contemporaries as a well-known "painter of Madonnas." The soft and natural sweetness of the Renaissance style gives us one of the most beautiful Madonnas of the 1500's: the sweet gaze of the Virgin is fixed on the observer, and the hands delicately support the Child, as if to indicate that He is the cause of our salvation and the reason for all our hope.

Every year, on the occasion of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin of Poggio, after the solemn Eucharistic celebration, "the bread of the poor" is blessed and distributed as a sign of fraternity and protection for all: it seems that we can still taste the taste of that miraculous bread that fed poor Antonia back in 1550.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Offer Jesus for us, for our purification and sanctification and make us worthy to be offered, with Jesus, to the Blessed Trinity, in the Temple of His Glory, through the spirit of humility and a life of obedience."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 158)