A few miles from the city of Rome, lies Genazzano — a city rich in
history and blessed with the presence of a miraculous painting of the
Blessed Virgin that has an amazing story.
The origins of Genazzano date back to the times of the Roman emperors.
Because of its proximity to Rome, the city was chosen by many patricians
and imperial courtiers as a site for their country villas. The vast
gardens surrounding these villas often served as the stage for perverse
feasts, pagan games and heathen rituals in honor of the gods to whom the
Romans attributed the fertility of their fields.
One of these celebrations was held every April 25 in honor of the
goddess Flora or Venus. For this event, people of all social classes —
freemen and slaves, patricians and plebeians — gathered together for a
great feast. This practice gradually dissolved and the temples fell into
ruins as the life-giving breath of Christianity regenerated the peoples
of Europe.
In the third century, an order was given to build a shrine dedicated to
the Mother of God under the tender invocation of Mother of Good Counsel
on the ruins of the Roman temples.
As the years went by, the city became more populous and the shrine grew
in fame. During the Middle Ages, the Franciscans and the Augustinians
founded monasteries nearby. With the passing of years, the primitive
temple erected in honor of the Mother of Good Counsel began to show
signs of disrepair. Moreover, as the shrine was small, the faithful
built larger and richer churches for their solemn functions.
In 1356, about a century before the appearance of the miraculous
painting that would introduce Genazzano into the annals of marvels in
the Church, Prince Pietro Giordan Colonna, whose family had acquired
lordship of the city, assigned the most ancient church of the city and
its parish to the care of the Hermits of St. Augustine. The faithful
would thereby have the necessary pastoral assistance, and repairs could
be made on the old church.
Although the prayers of the faithful intensified, financial
difficulties prevented the necessary and urgent restoration of the
ancient temple. But the Mother who gives wise counsel in every
circumstance and attentively provides for the necessities of men chose a
Third Order Augustinian, Petruccia de Nocera, to carry out a
supernatural prodigy that would bring about the much-desired
restoration.
Petruccia had been left a modest fortune following the death of her
husband in 1436. Living alone, she dedicated most of her time to prayer
and services in the church of the Mother of Good Counsel. It grieved her
to see the deplorable state of the sacred premises, and she prayed
fervently that they would be restored. Finally, she resolved to take the
initiative. After obtaining permission from the friars, she donated her
goods to initiate the restoration in the hope that others would help
complete it once it was commenced.
A plan was drawn up for the building of a magnificent church. However,
once that arduous undertaking had begun, Petruccia, who was already
eighty years old, found that her generous offering was scarcely enough
to complete the first phase of the new construction. To make matters
worse, no one came forth to help.
To her dismay, the building had hardly risen three feet when
construction came to a halt due to lack of resources. Her friends and
neighbors began to ridicule her, and detractors accused her of
imprudence. Others severely reprimanded her in public. To all of them
she would say: "My dear children, do not put too much importance on this
apparent misfortune. I assure you that before my death the Blessed
Virgin and our holy father Augustine will finish the church begun by
me."
On April 25, 1467, the feast day of the city's patron, Saint Mark, a
solemn celebration began with Mass. It was Saturday, and the crowd began
to gather in front of the church of the Mother of Good Counsel. The
only discrepant note in the celebration was the unfinished work of
Petruccia.
At about four in the afternoon, everyone heard the chords of a
beautiful melody that seemed to come from heaven. The people looked up
toward the towers of the churches and saw a white cloud that shone with a
thousand luminous rays; it gradually neared the stupefied crowd to the
sound of an exceptionally beautiful melody. The cloud descended on the
church of the Mother of Good Counsel and poised over the wall of the
unfinished chapel of Saint Biagio, which Petruccia had started.
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The miraculous fresco of Our Lady of Good Counsel. |
Suddenly, the bells of the old tower began to ring by themselves, and
the other bells of the town rang miraculously in unison. The rays that
emanated from the little cloud faded away, and the cloud itself
gradually vanished, revealing a beautiful object to the enchanted gaze
of the spectators. It was a painting that represented Our Lady tenderly
holding her Divine Son in her arms. Almost immediately, the Virgin Mary
began to cure the sick and grant countless consolations, the memory of
which was recorded for posterity by the local ecclesiastical authority.
The news of the painting and its miracles spread throughout the
province and beyond, attracting multitudes. Some cities formed
enthusiastic processions to see the picture that the people called the
Madonna of Paradise because of its celestial entrance into the city.
Numerous alms were donated as an answer to the unwavering confidence
that Our Lady had inspired in Petruccia.
Amidst the general enthusiasm caused by the painting, Our Lady wished
to divulge the true origin of the marvelous fresco to her devotees. Two
foreigners named Giorgio and De Sclavis entered the city among a group
of pilgrims that had come from Rome. They wore strange clothes and spoke
a foreign tongue, saying they had arrived in Rome earlier that year
from Albania. While most people had refused to believe their story, it
had a special significance for the inhabitants of Genazzano.
* * *
January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George
Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he
placed himself at the head of his own people.
Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania.
With Scanderbeg’s death, the Turkish army, finally free from the
Fulminating Lion of War, poured into Albania, occupying all its
fortresses, cities and provinces with the exception of Scutari, in the
north of the country.
However, the city's capacity to resist was limited, and its capture was
expected at any moment. With its fall, Christian Albania would be
defeated. Faced with this prospect, those who wished to practice their
faith in Christian lands began a sad exodus. Giorgio and De Sclavis also
studied the possibility of fleeing, but something kept them in Scutari,
where there was a small church, considered the shrine of the whole
Albanian kingdom. In this church the faithful venerated a picture of Our
Lady which had mysteriously descended from the heavens two hundred
years before.
According to tradition, it had come from the east. Having poured out
innumerable graces over the whole population, its church became the
principal center of pilgrimage in Albania. Scanderbeg himself had
visited this shrine more than once to ardently ask for victory in
battle. Now the shrine was threatened with imminent destruction and
profanation.
The two Albanians were torn by the idea of leaving the great treasure
of Albania in the hands of the enemy in order to flee the Turkish
terror. In their perplexity, they went to the old church to ask their
Blessed Mother for the good counsel they needed.
That night, the Consoler of the Afflicted inspired both of them in
their sleep. She commanded them to prepare to leave their country, which
they would never see again. She added that the miraculous fresco was
also going to leave Scutari for another country to escape profanation at
the hands of the Turks. Finally, she ordered them to follow the
painting wherever it went.
The next morning, the two friends went to the shrine. At a certain
moment they saw the picture detach itself from the wall on which it had
hung for two centuries. Leaving its niche, it hovered for a moment and
was then suddenly wrapped in a white cloud through which the image
continued to be visible.
The pilgrim painting left the church and the environs of Scutari. It
traveled slowly through the air at a considerable altitude and advanced
in the direction of the Adriatic Sea at a speed that allowed the two
walkers to follow; after covering some twenty-four miles, they reached
the coast.
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With unbounded confidence, Giorgio and De Scalvis walked on the waves of the Adriatic Sea. |
Without stopping, the picture left the land and advanced over the
waters while the faithful Giorgio and De Sclavis continued to follow,
walking on the waves much like their Divine Master had done on Lake
Genesareth. When night would fall, the mysterious cloud, which had
protected them with its shade from the heat of the sun during the day,
guided them by night with light, like the column of fire in the desert
that guided the Jews in their exodus from Egypt.
They traveled day and night until they reached the Italian coast.
There, they continued following the miraculous picture, climbing
mountains, fording rivers and passing through valleys. Finally, they
reached the vast plain of Lazio from where they could see the towers and
domes of Rome. Upon reaching the gates of the city, the cloud suddenly
disappeared before their disappointed eyes.
Giorgio and De Sclavis began to search the city, going from church to
church asking if the painting had descended there. All their attempts to
find the painting failed, and the Romans incredulously regarded the two
foreigners and their strange tale.
Shortly thereafter, amazing news came to Rome: a picture of Our Lady
had appeared in the skies of Genazzano to the sound of beautiful music
and had come to rest over the wall of a church that was being rebuilt.
The two Albanians rushed to find their country's beloved treasure
miraculously suspended in the air next to the wall of the chapel where
it remains to this day.
Although some inhabitants found the strangers' story difficult to
believe, careful investigation later proved that the two were telling
the truth and that the image was indeed the same one that graced the
shrine in Scutari.
* * *
Thus Mary Most Holy, with the humble participation of a pious Third
Order Augustinian on one side of the Adriatic and two faithful Albanians
on the other, transported her mysterious fresco from the unhappy and
unfortunate Albania to a little city very close to the heart of
Christendom. Beginning her historic journey from that small Albanian
shrine, which she had not chosen by chance, she traveled across the sea
to pour on the world a new torrent of graces under the invocation of
Mother of Good Counsel.
