OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION

Day 339: April 16

Our Lady of Consolation, Paternopoli, Avellino, Italy



The parish church of St Nicolas of Bari of 1522, preserves, inside, in the chapel dedicated to Santa Maria della Consolazione (Our Lady of Consolation), a much venerated painting by F. Fiorentino, which represents Mary seated on the throne of glory with Jesus in her arms, an angel holding the canopy, while, at the feet, there is St Augustine and his mother St Monica.

In the sacristy there are numerous sculptures and wooden reliquaries from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The devotion to Mary in Paternopoli is very ancient. There are documents that date back to 1142 the devotion to Mary officiated by the monks of Montevergine in a small church.

The resumption of the Marian devotion dates back to 1751, originating from a miraculous event which was followed by others. On April 16, 1751, among the carpenters who worked in the parish church of St Nicolas of Bari, in which a canvas depicting Our Lady was kept in a chapel, there was a certain Giambattista D'Amato, a man of genius, but who had become mute five years earlier due to a stroke.

Two priests, Don Peccarini and Don Cubelli, who entered the church to see the progress of the work, invited D'Amato to pray to St Nicholas to heal him; but the mute, instead, turned towards the painting of Our Lady lighting candles and prostrating himself in prayer. The others also joined in the prayer and sang the litanies to the Virgin.

At the end of the prayers, D'Amato regained his voice by intoning the Magnificat. When the word of the miracle spread, Gustavo, brother of Don Cubelli who had witnessed the miracle and was suffering from consumption and who was almost at the end, went to the church. Everyone resumed praying with the utmost intensity and conviction and Gustavo also recovered from his illness.

In the days following the miracle, all the sick and suffering who came to Paternopoli benefited from the complete healing through the intercession of Our Lady of Consolation.

The veneration for Mary grew more and more and on May 12, 1774, the day of Pentecost, Mons G. Martinez crowned the head of the Virgin of Consolation. This act of coronation was renewed on 25 May 1806 and again on 14 May 1815.

Having obtained the recognition of the Miracle from the Papal Tribunal, the community of Paternopoli, represented by the elect of the people, took a solemn oath (1776) to honor the benevolence of the Sweetest Mother of Consolation by celebrating her on the day of Pentecost until the end of the world. Wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences followed, but the people of Paternopoli never failed in their oath of fidelity to the Virgin.

The feast is celebrated on the Tuesday after Pentecost and on April 16 to commemorate the first miracle.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"I see your powerful and sweet willingness to go to souls, to those that are troubled, in danger and under the influence of the enemy in order to save them and to those that are already alive in your love and must progress incessantly in goodness."

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

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