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| Our Lady of Good Counsel |
Our Lady of Good Counsel:
She inspired the Albanians
to resist the
Turks
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.
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| Apparition of Our Lady of Good Counsel |
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 Counsoler 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.
With unbounded confidence, Giorgio and De Sclavis walk on
the waves of the Adriatic Sea.
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| Giorgio & De Sclavis following Our Lady of Good Counsel |
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.
***
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| Our Lady of Good Counsel, Genazzano |
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. 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.
The city of Genazzano
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.”
The miraculous image of
Our Lady of Good Counsel of
Genazzano
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| Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano |
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. 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.
Article from TradCatKnight website
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