OUR LADY OF THE STAIRS

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 to communicate the good news, that they had found that sacred painting. The people of Massafra carried the sacred icon in a solemn procession to the village church, but, the next day, the image had returned to where they had found it before, thus making it clear that it had to be kept in that place. The people built a small church there and gave the sacred icon the title of Our Lady of the Doe.

On the occasion of the festival, as some legends say, two deer, mother and daughter, spontaneously went to the church. The mother as soon as she arrived burst, and her flesh was cooked and given to the thousands of pilgrims, miraculously multiplying, while the daughter entered the church and knelt before the icon of the Virgin.

On February 20, 1743, at 11 pm, a frightening earthquake occurred. Many cities in the Province of Taranto were hit. Massafra remained unharmed, and popular devotion attributed the escape from danger to the intercession of the Virgin. A memorial festival was thus established, to be held every year on that day and at that time the bells had to ring.

In 1776 with the Bull of Pope Pius VI, Our Lady of the Stairs was named patron saint and protector of Massafra, and her first solemn feast was celebrated on October 20 of that same year. Then the bishop of Mottola, Cesare Ortiz-Cortez, pontificated that there were two feasts in honor of the Madonna: a religious one on February 20, and a civil one on the first Sunday of May, the Marian month par excellence.

In the spring of 1899 the Blessed Virgin helped the population of Massafre, who on April 5 poured into the sanctuary to ask for intercession against the drought.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Even though you were above all law, as Queen-Mother of Jesus Christ, out of reverence for God's Will, revealed in His Holy Law, you embraced the greatest humiliation of your life, appearing as one in need of purification, in this Mystery, you who are the Immaculate and most Perfect."

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

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