OUR LADY OF OLMO

Day 304: March 12

Our Lady of Olmo, Thiene, Vicenza and Diocese of Padua, Italy



In 1530, the Blessed Virgin appeared to three shepherdesses among the branches of an elm tree in a solitary place on the outskirts of Thiene. On the site of the apparition a chapel was built with the image of the "Madonna dell'Olmo", which immediately became the object of popular veneration.

The devotion increased a lot, about eighty years later, with the arrival of the Capuchins who established a friary and a church, in which the primitive chapel of the Madonna was also incorporated.

The church – consecrated on September 22, 1613 – measured just 32 x 21 meters, had bare beams and had a choir for community prayer for the religious. Behind the choir there was a humble cloister (the oldest part of today's friary), surrounded by a quadrangular portico, whose sloping sides were supported by wooden architraves resting on bare brick pillars. Above the canopy ran the friars' cells, with windows so small that they looked like loopholes.

With the passage of time, devotion to the Blessed Virgin of the Elm spread throughout the district, despite the fact that the Capuchin friars were forcibly absent due to the various suppressions: from 1769 to 1798, from 1810 to 1843, and finally from 1866 to 1900.

After their last return, the Capuchins continued to engage in the service of the sanctuary. In the two-year period 1909-1910, in memory of the third centenary of their arrival in Thiene, they built the current façade (designed by the architect Pasinati). In 1922, for the seventh anniversary of the foundation of the Secular Franciscan Order (OFS), they built a chapel in honor of St Francis. Finally, coinciding with the fourth centenary of the apparitions of the Madonna dell'Olmo, in 1930 they raised an elegant and slender bell tower. However, the current appearance of the sanctuary is due to the radical restorations that became necessary after the Second World War. Between 1945 and 1960, among other things, the ancient chapel of the apparition – now dilapidated – was demolished to rebuild it larger and more welcoming.

The church and chapel of St Francis were also partly demolished and enlarged. The main altar, worked in bas-relief by the artist Danilo Andreose, was equipped with a marble tabernacle in the shape of a circular temple.

The large mosaic of 165 square meters that shines in the basin of the apse and celebrates the triumph of the Blessed Virgin is the work of Angelo Cat.

Finally, we recall that the Capuchin friary of Thiene – whose restoration was completed in 1974 – was on several occasions, over the years, the seat of philosophical and humanistic studies; and that in its vicinity the new minor seminary was inaugurated on November 29, 1957.

In 2003, following the closure of the seminary and the internal Middle School, various initiatives of vocation animation and reception were launched, aimed in particular at adolescents and young people. The parish has a summer house for school camps in Villaggio Fiorentini.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"All the celestial dawnings smile at you, all the supernatural eyes glow around you; all the Angels court you, all the Saints offer you their crowns, O Mother of Divine Love, O Queen of All Saints, O Mediatrix of All Graces."

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Hot Picks

OUR LADY OF MELIAPORE

Image
Day 47: June 26 This is the shrine in the East Indies, where Saint Francis Xavier often retired to pray during his eleven years with the people of India. The Blessed Virgin Mary was Francis’ constant source of strength and inspiration. The image before which Saint Francis used to pray is called Mylai Matha in Tamil, or Our Lady of Mylapore in English. It is an ancient statue about three feet tall, Our Lady of Meliapore can still be venerated at the church. The church of Saint Thomas of Mylapore – spelled somewhat differently from the above – contains Mary’s shrine. According to tradition, the Apostle Saint Thomas came to India in 52 AD. Due to his success making converts to the True Faith, he was persecuted and finally martyred in the year 72 AD. Saint Thomas is buried at the shrine of Our Lady of Meliapore, and there are relics of Saint Francis Xavier. There was a church known to be in Mylapore going back to the 1st century, and built by St Thomas. According to tradition, there was a ...
Read more

Marian Year 2025-26

Image
  MARIAN YEAR The year 2026 marks the first centenary of the apparition of Our Lady to St Justin Russolillo, the Founder of the Vocationists. As the feast of Our Lady of Divine Vocations falls on May 11, the year preceding to that year (May 11 2025 – May 11 2026) has been declared to be celebrated as Marian Year by the Vocationists. The reason behind this year-long celebration is, as Pope Pius XII decreed prior to the Marian Year in 1953 on the occasion of the first centenary of the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother, “that the faith of the people may be increased and their devotion to the Virgin Mother of God become daily more inflamed.” As Rev. Fr. Louis Caputo SDV rightly points out, “the life of Fr. Justin here on earth began with the…apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary…, it developed in the shadow of Mary and ended in union with Mary.” The birth of Justin was preceded by an announcement by the Blessed Virgin Mary to Fr. Sa...
Read more

OUR LADY OF DIVINE VOCATIONS

Image
The Devotion to Our Lady of Divine Vocations The devotion to Our Lady of Divine Vocations has its foundation on the Marian Apparition that St Justin Russolillo had on May 10, 1926. He was praying breviary near a hut made of straws called pagliarella. St. Justin describes it in his diary (Book of the Soul) "May 10, 1926, first day of the Rogations. It was given to me the certainty that the Blessed Trinity has given the Blessed Lady the Office of the Immediate Superior of the Society of Divine Vocations and therefore of all the offices, mansions, studies, works, spheres and everything. She is the authority of the Society. Glory and thanks to God and Mary. Therefore, the established practice of having one person always present and on guard in the room dedicated to Our Lady to honor and venerate her perpetually." After the Marian Apparition, St Justin rushed to the rectory of St George's parish in Pianura where he used to be the parish priest. He asked Fr Luigi Diodato to pre...
Read more