OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR

Day 312: March 20

Our Lady of the Pillar, Turin, Italy



It was built in 1645 at the behest of Madama Reale Cristina of France in memory of the miraculous rescue of a little girl from the river, which took place in 1644 by the image of Our Lady of Annunciation affixed to a votive pillar.

The painting became the object of widespread devotion and the church, with a façade crowned by a high semicircular tympanum, was enlarged in 1779 and equipped with a baptistery in 1807. Repeated renovations have almost completely transformed the interior, with a single nave with two side chapels, and of the primitive decoration only the important stuccoes attributed to Giovanni Andrea Casella and the frescoes of the dome by Bartolomeo Guidobono are preserved. On the high altar is the miraculous image of the Annunciation of 1587, almost completely repainted in twentieth-century restorations.

In 1640 on the banks of the longest river in Italy, at a time when Italy did not yet exist politically. Many mills had sprung up along its banks, exploiting the power of its waters. On April 29, 1644, Margherita Mollar went to one of these mills from the village called "contrada nuova". She had a sack of flour with her to grind and her eleven-year-old daughter accompanied her.

The chronicle tells us that the mill, now disappeared, was traditionally called the "chain mill." While her mother waited for the miller to return her flour, her daughter moved away from her to play, without realizing that she was getting dangerously close to the banks of the river. It was already evening and darkness was falling quickly.

Suddenly Margherita heard a scream from her daughter who she no longer saw next to her, turned to look for her and realized that she had fallen into the water where she was floundering in the muddy waves. The mother's first impetus was to kneel desperately in front of a votive pillar, built next to the mill in 1587, which depicted the Annunciation of the Holy Virgin. It was a matter of an instant: a light came down from the sky to illuminate the exact spot where the daughter was at the mercy of the waters. The daughter was saved by some men who threw themselves into the river and were able to bring her back to shore... thanks to the light that allowed her to see her since it was already dark.

Word of the miracle spread immediately and after the primary investigations the miracle was approved and the people built, in 1645, a church that became a parish on March 2, 1807.

That painting of the Madonna is now behind the main altar as a perennial reminder of the event.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"As Jesus is inseparable from the Mother of God, so the soul sought by the Trinity as spouse of God must be inseparably, ineffably and efficaciously joined to Mary."

(Comp. Shiju Chittattukara & Anil Akkara, 365 Days with St Justin Russolillo, Father Justin Vocationary, Florham Park, 2021, p. 118)

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