IMMACULATE QUEEN OF VICTORIES

Day 336: April 13

Immaculate Queen of Victories, Liveri di Nola, Naples, Italy



The sanctuary of Our Lady at Parete is dedicated to the Immaculate Queen of Victories and owes its origins to the apparitions of the Mother of God to a young shepherdess from Liveri named Autilia Scala. These apparitions, handed down by a venerable and indisputable tradition, are proven by the following inscription that was once read here: D.O.M. DEIPARAE VIRGINI CUIUS OLIM IMAGO SUB TERRA SEPTA VEPRIBUS AUTILIA SCALA DIVINO MONTI INDICANTE, MIRACULIS LATE CLARUIT ET A PARETE, IN QUO PICTA EST NOMEN HABUIT ANNO AB EILSDEM VIRGINIS PARTU MDXIV PIDIE IDUS APRILIS. 

It means, "To the Virgin Mother of God, whose image, once covered with thorns, was unearthed following a divine revelation made to Autilia Scala, shone widely with miracles and took the name of the wall on which it is painted, on April 12 in the year of the Christian Era 1514."

According to what is handed down, Autilia Scala, daughter of peasants, was taking her cows to pasture when at some point she saw Our Lady. She would have said: "Autilia, I have chosen you for one of the highest deeds that you will perform in my name, brought by Count Enrico Orsini, in Nola, and tell him, that under that bush to the right of my hand, an image of me has been buried there, for many centuries; I want the earth to be dug up and a Temple built in my honor."

Going to the Count, Autilia was not believed. The next day (April 13) there was a second apparition in the same place, and this time the young woman's face was marked by a ray of light.

Returning to the Count, this time she was taken seriously, and with the collaboration of the bishop Monsignor Bruno, excavations were undertaken in the place indicated by the Madonna. Here a painting was found depicting the Virgin between two angels, who was identified as the Immaculate Queen of Victories.

At the foot of the icon was found the famous "CAMPANELLA DELLA MADONNA" (Bell of Our Lady), weighing about forty kilos, to the sound of which the faith of the devout people associates a continuous flow of graces for the serious and urgent cases of life. The almost daily requests for the ringing of the bell are joined by the solidarity and fervent prayer of those who listen to it.

On the bell the inscription: "SS. NICOLAS, CONFESSOR CHRISTI, MARIA VIRGO ORA PRONOBIS, KAROLUS DEI GRATIA REX SICILIAE". According to some sources, the Charles mentioned in the inscription would be Charles II of Anjou, who, following some victories in battle, would have built a chapel dedicated to St Nicholas of Bari and Our Lady in that place. The painting and bell would therefore belong to this ancient building of the thirteenth century.

The events of those days remained an important event in the history of Liveri, which since then begins a path from a Marian city that extends to the present day. The Virgin soon made her devotees feel her maternal protection with an abundant shower of graces for which devotion to the Queen of Victories of Liveri spread rapidly. About three months after the apparitions, Autilia died. The square adjacent to the Sanctuary in her native Liveri is now dedicated to the shepherdess.

The sacred image consists of a fresco of the Italo-Byzantine school, datable to the ninth century and depicts the Mother of the Lord with her hands joined in an attitude of prayer, dressed in a royal manner, with her head covered and crowned. On either side two Angels, in expression of service and profound veneration, offer the Queen of Victories the world, the palm and the scepter, evident signs of the effectiveness and universality of her maternal mediation.

The image of the Queen of Victories was set in a magnificent shrine covered inside and outside with paintings of inestimable value. The pilgrim who enters it immediately feels, in an atmosphere of spirituality and mysticism, the gentle presence of the heavenly mother and, with trust and filial abandonment, is led to entrust his problems and anxieties to her Immaculate Heart in the intimate certainty of being welcomed and heard.

Aesthetes and art connoisseurs also come to the sanctuary, attracted by the frescoes of seventeenth-century Neapolitan artists. The shrine in turn is surmounted by the harmonious vaults of the Renaissance Basilica.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"O most holy Mary, you have no need of my angel to reveal to you how the Lord has been merciful to me. You know the loving designs that the Lord has planned for my soul, since all the graces, right from their first inspiration, pass through your hands. I thank you and bless you always for your part in my sanctification."

(Justin Russolillo, Devotional, Vocationist Editions, Pianura, 2009, p. 162)

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