OUR LADY OF THE COLUMN

Day 306: March 14

Our Lady of the Column, Savona, Italy



The story concerning the image of Our Lady of the Column dates back to the time when the construction of the current Cathedral began. In the church of San Francesco (where the Cathedral had taken place by virtue of the papal bull of Pope Paul IV of 9 September 1556) there was an image of the Virgin Mary painted on the curved surface of a column: an image very dear to the people of Savona, in front of which they loved to stop in prayer, with great devotion. The image was known by the people as the "Virgin of the Column."

When it was decided to demolish the church of San Francesco to make room for the new Cathedral (the current one), the big problem arose of not mortifying the devotional sensitivity of the people by destroying that frescoed image; various ways were studied to remove it without damaging it but the solutions proposed by craftsmen and technicians of the time were not able to guarantee the success of the operation.

The chronicles and testimonies of the time (March 14, 1601, about 12 noon) refer to a prodigious event, which many are not reluctant to define as miraculous.

While some artisans were discussing how to remove the image, the parish priest of the Cathedral (Don Giovanni Maria Lamberto), looking at the image of the Madonna, realized that it was slowly sliding downwards, following the surface of the column on which it was frescoed. Instinctively he rushed towards the image to hold it so that, touching the ground, it would not break.

He immediately asked those present for help him protect the image. It was taken, immediately placed in the chapel of Sixtus IV, where it was placed at the foot of the altar and later it was carried over a confessional of the church, where many people went to pray.

The event was certainly mysterious and providential: if on the one hand it could have struck the Conventual Franciscans in seeing in it a sign of appreciation for that choice they so bitterly contested, on the other hand it seemed to encourage the work on the new Cathedral.

It is disfigured by an insistent "tapping" that has mutilated the pedestal and the mantle of the Virgin in some parts, highlighting a layer of plaster underneath, from which some words written in fifteenth-century Gothic can be seen.

As difficult as it is to read, given the scarcity of syllables and the impediment posed by the support bracket, Farris proposes a hypothesis: "[di]vine aque [ductus]" "[ve]ritas domi[ni]". These words would indicate a series of titles given to the Virgin and therefore would be the indicator of an image that is probably below the current one.

If this supposition proves to be true, it would not only be found a very long tradition of Our Lady of the Column in the piety of the Savonese, but would also offer us the symbolic key to the painting we know.

In fact, if the bird indicates the soul purified by grace that rises to heaven, Mary would be exalted as a mediatrix of grace, "divine aqueductus".

The book (from the position of the clasps one can infer a parchment codex) in turn would indicate to everyone that Word (veritas Domini) that Mary deeply interiorized and made familiar throughout her existence.

In short, we would find ourselves in front of symbols that synthesize a Mariology well rooted in Franciscanism, for which the Virgin becomes the very icon of their theological convictions (so according to sac. Giovanni Farris, canon of the Cathedral of Savona).


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Heaven possesses you now, but earth has not lost you. You carry in your heart the whole world and its inhabitants and you will be fully blessed only when you will see everyone in God's Glory and Grace forever. Grant that this blessed day which opens the gates of Paradise for us may fittingly come for us. Blessed are you, O Mary."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 160)

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