“In the year of the Incarnation, 1467, on the feast of St. Mark, at the hour of Vespers, the image of the Mother of God, which you venerate in the marble chapel of this church, appeared from on high.”
This inscription hangs in a church dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel which was originally constructed in Genazzano, Italy in 1356. But over time, it became decrepit and ill-kempt. A widow named Petruccia de Geneo felt called to use whatever meager funds she had to repair it, but her money didn’t go very far and she became the laughing stock of the town. People began to call the project “Petruccia’s Folly.”
However, during a celebration of St. Mark’s Day on April 25, 1467, the festival was interrupted by the strange sound of exquisite music. Silence fell over the crowd as they watched a mysterious cloud descend out of a cloudless sky until it obscured an unfinished wall of the church. The cloud parted to reveal a portrait of Our Lady and the Christ Child which was left perched upon the wall. At the same time, all of the church bells in the city began to ring of their own accord. The whole town, including Petruccia, rushed forward and fell down in tears before the miraculous image.
So great and numerous were the healings that began to occur as a result of prayer before the image, which the villagers at first called the Madonna of Paradise, Pope Paul II initiated an investigation. During this time, two refugees testified that the exact same image had been kept in a church in their country of Albania. When a commission was sent to the church, the painting was indeed missing and the empty space on the wall where it hung was the exact dimension of the portrait that now graced the walls of “Petruccia’s Folly.”
The painting was renamed Our Lady of Good Counsel after the church where it had been miraculously relocated. Petruccia lived to see the church completed and was given the great honor of being buried beneath the chapel of the Madonna.
The church stood for 500 years until World War II when a bomb crashed through the roof of the building and exploded on the floor of the sanctuary. The main altar was completely obliterated but the altar of the Madonna, standing only a few yards away, remained intact. The image was miraculously unaffected.
For Reflection:
Because Our Lady was free from the stain of original sin, she never suffered from any of its effects. No corruption – exteriorly or interiorly – marred the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Ark of the New Covenant, who is the Blessed Virgin. Consider this in light of the miraculous preservation of Our Lady of Good Counsel during the Second World War. Consider it in light of the preservation of Our Lady of Guadalupe from fire and the tilma from the effects of time. Consider it in light of the mysterious transport of the House of Loreto. Journal your insights and reflections.
