OUR LADY OF THE CROSS

Day 326: April 03

Our Lady of the Cross, Crema, Cremona, Italy



There is a shrine of Our Lady on the road to Bergamo, about a mile away from the city of Crema, Italy. The structure is circular in shape, with four cross-shaped additions, which gave rise to the name: Our Lady of the Cross (Santa Maria della Croce). The sanctuary is located in a place where, in past years, there was a dense forest called "Il Novelletto".

At the end of the fifteenth century a young woman named Caterina Uberti lived with her brother in the city of Crema. When she reached marriageable age, her brother induced her to marry Bartolomew Petrobelli; it was an unfortunate arrangement – Catherine was good and devoted; Bartholomew was exactly the opposite, tending towards the wicked and the corrupt. The marriage was unhappy for Catherine and uncomfortable for Bartolomolew—his rather rough and brutal manner satiated her, while her refined and holy life was a silent reproach to his scandalous way of life. So, after a year of turmoil, Bartholomew decided to kill Catherine. Having made up his mind, he wasted no time in carrying out his evil design.

He suggested that she go to Bergamo and visit her parents; she accepted and in the late afternoon of April 3, 1490 they mounted their horses and left the city. When they came to the wood, about a mile from Crema, Bartolomew left the main road and rode into the forest; Catherine was perplexed, but she didn't know what else to do, she followed him. When they reached the center of the wood, Bartolomew dismounted and made Caterina get off her horse. Then, without warning, he drew his sword, raised it, and lowered it fiercely, intending to divide the head with a clean cut. Instinctively he pulled up one arm to repel the savage blow, saved her head, but lost her right hand – the poor severed hand hung from her arm by a strip of skin, and Bartholomew brutally tore it off and threw it on its side. Then he struck her like a madman until she fell to the ground in a pool of blood; thinking she was dead, he jumped on his horse and fled. Catherine was not dead, nor was she afraid of dying, although she felt that her time was short.

With all her dying heart she longed for the Last Sacraments; so she prayed to the Mother of God, who heard her prayer. A flash of light pushed back the gathering darkness, and a beautiful lady approached her. Lowering herself, the Lady took her by the arm and helped her up: the blood stopped flowing and new life passed through her mutilated body. The Lady ordered Catherine to follow her, but Catherine asked her if she could look for her lost hand. The Lady promised that it would be returned to her in due course. Taking Catherine to a hut, she told her that those people would help her and then vanish.

The gentle peasants did all they could for Catherine, and the next morning they put her on a rough stretcher and tenderly carried her back to Crema. As they crossed the woods, one of the men found the severed hand and returned it to Catherine. They took her to the church of St Benedict, where the parish priest, after listening to the story, anointed Catherine who died there. The story spread rapidly; some believed, others doubted that the Blessed Virgin had worked such wonders. An eleven-year-old boy, who lived in Crema afflicted by an unbearable abscess on one foot, begged to be taken into the woods to put his foot in the place where the Lady appeared. His mother and a group of relatives took him there, and he was immediately healed, all traces of the abscess gone.

Many other sick and infirm also came and were healed. The people built a small chapel on the spot and placed a plaster image of Our Lady there. More favors followed; many offerings were made by the faithful and in a few years a perfect sanctuary of Our Lady was completed in 1500. Later a beautiful new statue of Mary was kept in the Sanctuary and in 1873 she was crowned with a golden crown by order of the Vatican.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"You are very much present, O Mary, in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, in our communion with the Blessed Sacrament, in our administration of the treasures of Redemption, in all our personal relations with the holy Church, with the Holy Family, with the Divine Trinity."

(Justin Russolillo, Devotional, Vocationist Editions, Pianura, 2009, p. 122)

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