OUR LADY OF BOCCIOLA

Day 320: March 28

Our Lady of Bocciola, Vacciago, Novara, Italy



The origin of the Sanctuary of the Wild Hazel in the municipality of Ameno, a hamlet of Vacciago, in the province of Novara, can be traced back to an episode of the first half of the sixteenth century, in an era that also saw the rise of the Marian Sanctuaries of the Madonna di Re in Vigezzo (1494) and of the Boden near Ornavasso (1528), as well as of the vast Sacro Monte di Varallo in the nearby Val Sesia (1481).

According to what we read in the diary of a notary from Ortensia, Elia Olina, on Monday, May 28 (or March according to tradition) of 1543, "the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a girl who guarded the beasts." Subsequent news specifies the miraculous circumstances of the episode. Giulia Manfredi, as the girl was called, was mute from birth and lived in Vacciago, in a house that still stands along a path just before the Sanctuary. That day she was grazing the cattle not far away, near a chapel where the Madonna was enthroned with the Child in her arms.

Suddenly she saw Our Lady and Child blazing among the branches of a wild plum tree (bud in the local dialect; or on a boxwood tree). She spoke to her and said that she liked her prayers very much; that she would soon welcome her into Heaven, but that first she entrusted her with a message to take to all the inhabitants of the place: Our Lady asked them to solemnize in her honor, beyond Sunday, Saturday afternoon; in return they would have had special protection from her.

When she told her fellow villagers what had happened to her and what she had been commanded, her disbelief was overcome by another miracle: suddenly the bells of the church of Vacciago began to ring in celebration without being touched by anyone. Once the custom of Saturday rest was introduced, just as quickly it was thought of the building of a devotional church where even today a plaque placed in 1852 on the side of the road that leads from Vacciago to Miasino, commemorates the descent of the Queen of Heaven.

The flock of the faithful and the fame of the place required shortly after, starting in 1628, the establishment of a larger sanctuary, in which to incorporate the image of Our Lady and Child in front of which the shepherdess paused in prayer at the time of the apparition. There were also preserved in a shrine some fragments of the plum tree on which Our Lady had appeared.

The sanctuary grew further in size and beauty during the following centuries, gradually taking on its current appearance during the eighteenth century.

The annals of the sanctuary record copious miracles attributed to the devotion and protection of Our Lady of Bocciola (Madonna della Bocciola): not only of thunderstorms foiled or vice versa of beneficial rains, in relation to the deference of the Vacciaghesi to the precepts given by Mary during her apparition, but also benefits granted to the families of Vacciago, in particular to the Lorella family, custodians of the sanctuary in past centuries: healings of seriously ill patients (1720, 1722, 1724, 1726, 1731), salvation in the course of accidents (1731), etc... The solemn commemoration of the Blossom takes place every year in the sanctuary on March 28 to coincide with the traditional date of the miracle, and then on the first Sunday of September to coincide with the feast of the Nativity of Mary, recently brought forward to the last Sunday of August.

The church was decorated in 1844 by Pope Gregory XVI with the official title of "Sanctuary", as recalled by a marble plaque placed fifteen years later, on 8 September 1859, when the bishop of Novara mons. Gentile solemnly crowned the image of Our Lady and Child.

The structure is in neoclassical style and in the interiors you can admire the white marble altar and the frescoes by Agostino Comerio. From the square of the Sanctuary of Bocciola you can enjoy a unique panorama, which embraces the lake, the Island of San Giulio, Madonna del Sasso and further on Monte Rosa.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"May your heart receive and keep in love all the words of God. May your mind receive and irradiate the splendor of divine truth, the ardor of divine charity in us who speak and in those who speak to us."

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

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