OUR LADY OF COMFORT

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 state of fear. The people of Arezzo, recognizing in the earthquake a just punishment from God for their sins and a loving call to a better life, announced penitential processions with the relics of the Patron Saints of the City, crowded the churches and confessionals and, full of faith and hope, starting Lent, intensify penances and fasts.

Near St Clement's Gate (the Porta di S. Clemente) there was a Hospice of the Camaldolese Fathers, called the Ospizio della Grancia, a kind of Camaldoli farm, where, in a cellar, the Fathers sold wine by retail to favor the poor. In that cellar there was also a stove on which the fire was lit at harvest time and on certain winter days to warm up and to cook something. It is easy to imagine how blackened by smoke the walls and ceiling were! Almost perpendicularly above the stove was a small picture of glazed terracotta, representing Our Lady, with the inscription "Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis" (Holy Mary, pray for us) at the bottom. The Image was all blackened by smoke, dust, the damp vapors of the hearth and the dirt left by insects; A small oil lamp, placed on the shelf below, which was devoutly lit every evening, contributed to increasing the smoke.

The image depicted Our Lady of Provenzano (the Madonna di Provenzano), of Sienese origin, so called because it was placed by St Catherine of Jacopo in Benincasa (known as St Catherine of Siena) on the wall of a hut built on the remains of the castle of Provenzano Salvani, lord of Siena, who died in the battle of Colle Val d'Elsa (11 June 1269) and remembered with praise by Dante in Purgatory (Purg. XI, 121-138). It was a Pietà, the Madonna with Jesus taken down from the cross in her lap. In 1552, during the Spanish occupation of Siena, a soldier hit the terracotta with an arquebus: only the upper part of the Madonna, the bust and the face remained intact. The devotion to those poor remains was immense; polychrome images of it spread everywhere and one even reached the Hospice of Arezzo.

On February 15, 1796, the Monday after the first Sunday of Lent, at three in the morning, a new earthquake rekindled fear, so much so that sad omens were made from every part of the city, as if the destruction of Arezzo was imminent.

At dusk, three artisans, Antonio Tanti, Giuseppe Brandini and Antonio Scarpini were in the cellar of the Hospice to buy wine, and, in front of that blackened Image, they conversed about the painful events of the day and the sad omens for the future. Suddenly Tanti came out in this exclamation: "Most Holy Virgin, this is going to be a bad night!"

Scarpini continued: "Most Holy Virgin, I have blasphemed you many times, we have blasphemed you all. We ask your forgiveness for God's sake." Then Domitilla, the cellarwoman, exhorted them to pray and trust in Our Lady. As they prepared to pray, Tanti said: "I want to light the light of the Great Mother of God. I turned it on other nights, I want to turn it on again tonight."

Once the lamp was lit and placed under the Image of Our Lady, everyone knelt and began the recitation of the Litany. Suddenly, at the first invocations, one of them looked up and noticed that the Image was changing color: from the yellow-black with which it was covered, it became white and shiny. Surprised and moved, he shouted: "Look, look, Our Lady changes color!"

Everyone fixed their gaze on the Image, stood up and noted with amazement that Our Lady had become white as snow, and shiny as if she had rubies and diamonds on her chest. They removed the lamp from the shelf to make sure that it was not its reflection, but they noted that the Image was really white and shiny. From that moment on, the tremors of the earthquake were no longer felt. Deeply moved, they wept with gratitude to Our Lady who wanted to comfort all the inhabitants of Arezzo by freeing them from the scourge of the earthquake. The news spread in a flash, and an immense crowd poured into the Hospice, eager to see, to know, to touch; everyone wept, everyone prayed, and the streets of the city echoed no longer with laments and cries of fear, but with songs of praise and thanksgiving.

St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"On behalf of the whole Church, humanity and all creation, we come and sing to the glory of God in the highest and to your glory, His Mother, present among us, in the Mystery of your real and perpetual Virginity and your real and Divine Motherhood."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 157)