OUR LADY OF MIRACLES

Day 302: March 10

Our Lady of Miracles, Andria, Bari, Italy



On Saturday, March 10, 1576, the Basilian Laura of Santa Margherita in Lama was rediscovered, following the research conducted after the apparition of Our Lady in a dream to a local boy. A Byzantine icon with the image of Our Lady and Child was discovered in the laura, in front of which a lamp was placed that the three discoverers undertook to keep lit in turn.

After some time, one of the three forgot to replenish the lamp with oil, which was found equally burning and full of oil. The event, considered miraculous, was reported to the bishop of Andria, Luca Fieschi. On June 6 of the same year of the discovery, a Mass was celebrated in which the image of the Virgin was called "Santa Maria dei Miracoli d'Andria" (Holy Mary of Miracles of Andria).

The bishop entrusted the image to the Cassinese Benedictine Fathers of the church of Saints Severino and Sossio in Naples, who built a first church, called "of the Crucifixion." In the first half of the seventeenth century, to accommodate the numerous faithful who came on pilgrimage to the miraculous image, a second church was built, called "superior", designed by the Bergamo architect Cosimo Fanzago and a large convent, now home to the provincial agricultural technical institute "Umberto I" and the headquarters of the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani.

Following the damage suffered by the city in 1799 by the French troops of the Neapolitan Republic and the troops of the Duke of Andria, Ettore Carafa, and following the suppression of religious orders by Joachim Murat, the church was abandoned.

The bishop of Andria Giuseppe Cosenza took care to restore the devotion to Our Lady of Miracles of Andria and in 1837, with the consent of the King of Naples Ferdinand II, entrusted the sanctuary to the Augustinian Fathers of Naples, who immediately undertook the restoration of the church.

In 1855 Andria was saved both from the cholera epidemic that had struck Puglia, and from the destruction of the vineyards due to a parasitic disease of the plant. This was believed to be a second miracle and two golden crowns were placed on the heads of Our Lady and Child. A golden rose was also placed on the Virgin's chest offered by the king, who was also devoted to the Virgin, in a ceremony held on May 3, 1857. In 1857 Bishop Longobardi believed that Our Lady had saved Andria from an earthquake and Our Lady of Miracles was declared co-patron saint of the city together with St Riccardo d'Andria.

After the confiscation of the convents and ecclesiastical property by the new Kingdom of Italy in 1866, the friary was left by the Augustinians and the church was entrusted to a priest chaplain. The faithful donated a silver statue to the church, stolen in 1983, and reconstituted again. In 1886, the sanctuary was in serious condition, and therefore the Augustinians were called back and immediately built a new friary, now home to the "Villa Santa Monica" reception center. In 1907, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the coronation of the image, the sanctuary was elevated to a minor basilica.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Grat that all discussion of our life be in Heaven, where you are, O Mary, where you are waiting for us, where there is Jesus who has prepared a place for us, where there is the Father who welcomes us to His Bosom."

(Justin Russolillo, Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, Newark, 1996, p. 159)

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