OUR LADY OF BASELLA

Day 331: April 08

Our Lady of Basella, Urgnano, Bergamo, Italy



On 8 and 17 April 1356 the Blessed Virgin appeared to Marina Cassone, a fifteen-year-old peasant girl. On the night between 7 and 8 April, a strong frost had fallen that had devastated the countryside; the following morning the girl ran to her father's field, called the Basella, to see the damage caused. Seeing the destruction of the crops, she burst into tears. Just then a Lady appeared to her, with a Child who gave her hand, who encouraged her, telling her also that in nine days she would have to return to that same place and that she would tell her who she was and what she wanted from her.

On April 17 Marina saw the Lady again, still with the Child, who told her that she was the "Queen of Heaven", asking her to make a vow of perpetual virginity and adding that she had appeared to her for her consolation and that of the inhabitants of Urgnano. She also asked her to have her dig in the place where she placed her feet because: "Under these stones they will find an altar dedicated to me. You will say that, as soon as my church is rebuilt, a new priest will celebrate his first Mass here for the souls of the dead buried here. Know that, if they knew the devotion of this church, even the crippled would be brought here. You will then say that they make you a red and light blue robe, which you will wear every Sunday when you come to this church. You will also choose nine virgins, with whom you will stay in the church of Urgnano from the next Palm Sunday until the hour of the Resurrection of Christ. Later you will come every Sunday with these girls to this church and you will also visit all the churches in the territory of Urgnano."

At first the girl did not believe, but later she dug herself out and found what had been announced. On May 1 of the same year, Bishop Lanfranco laid the first stone of the sanctuary which was built in just three months and enlarged a century later.

In the following century, the leader Bartolomeo Colleoni had the sanctuary enlarged and a friary built, entrusting it to the Dominican friars to celebrate the sacred rites and spiritually assist the pilgrims. Everything continued until 1784, when the friary was suppressed by the Venetian Republic. A hundred years later, the parish priest of Urgnano regained possession of the church and friary and began restoration; in 1920 the friary was entrusted to the Passionist Fathers. In 1921 there was the coronation ceremony of the statuary group of the sanctuary. Now it, with its ancient frescoes, has returned to being a center of devotion and pilgrimage.

The feast of the Angel (close to the date of the apparition) and the Sunday closest to September 8 (in memory of the coronation) are celebrated. In 1956, on the occasion of the sixth centenary of the apparition, there was a solemn feast with the presence of the then Cardinal Angelo Roncalli.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"In His mercy and in His justice, in His omnipotence and wisdom, in His longanimity and fidelity, in His holiness and charity the Lord wanted to reveal and glorify in our salvation and sanctification: Magnificat anima mea Dominum!"

(Justin Russolillo, Devotional, Vocationist Editions, Pianura, 2009, p. 123)

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