OUE LADY OF THE ROCCA

Day 322: March 30

Our Lady of Rocca, Alessandria della Rocca, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy



The story goes that in 1620, Our Lady appeared to a young blind woman from Alexandria, giving her back her sight in exchange for a church in the place of the discovery of a statue of her hidden in the rock of a hill.

The citizens of Alessandria della Rocca, after seeing the miraculous healing of the blind woman, believed her words and dug in the spot indicated by Our Lady, finding a beautiful statue of 60 cm high, in Parian marble that seems to date back to the Byzantine era and depicts the Virgin Mary wrapped in a decorated and draped mantle with the baby Jesus in her arms, who has his gaze turned towards his mother.

Probably the small statue was hidden on the "rocca ncravaccata" to preserve it from the destructive fury of the Saracens and then found there. The episode of the discovery is not attested by historical sources but is testified by oral tradition: "A poor widow, known to the people as Rosa Innominati, in old age one day took her blind daughter Angelina to pick vegetables in the area called "rocca ncravaccata". When they arrived at the place, Rosa made her daughter sit down, recommending her not to move until she returned. An angel appeared to Angelina and told her that the Virgin would come with her Child. As soon as she appeared, the Virgin told her to go to the village and tell the priests and the people to go and dig in that place where they would find a simulacrum, and they would build a sanctuary where they could keep and venerate it. Angelina was upset thinking that the priests and the people would never believe her because she was blind, but she immediately regained her sight. She went to meet her mother and they both returned to the village and told what had happened. Immediately a procession was organized to the cave indicated by the Virgin. They dug but in their haste they bumped, with a work tool, against the simulacrum, breaking the virgin's arm at the wrist and the child's left arm at the elbow."

In 1820, with the agreement of the people, the Hermits began the construction of a beautiful sanctuary. Too bad, however, that the Baron of Resuttana, having learned of the discovery, claimed the simulacrum because the discovery had taken place on his property. He took it to Palermo where it remained until 1873 and sent a copy in its place.

The original was then returned to the Sanctuary on March 30, 1873. From the third Sunday of Lent until Easter afternoon and from Friday of the last week of August until the first Sunday of October, the original statue is placed in the mother church, where the copy sent by the baron can usually be seen. Shortly after its discovery, the Virgin was elected the main protector of the town. The statue returned with a solemn feast to its sanctuary on March 30, 1873.

In 1939, at the end of the Marian Eucharistic Congress, the sacred image was crowned and, in 1956, the new shrine was consecrated.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Truly, we want to be all for you and in you, in order to be all for Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus! Grant us the humility of your mind, O handmaid and daughter of the Lord, the purity of your life, O handmaid and spouse of the Lord."

(Justin Russolillo, Devotional, Vocationist Editions, Pianura, 2009, p. 94)

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