137. What is All the Fuss About? The Arrival...

Photo: Inside the Parish Church St Mary Magdalane of Cappella Maggiore

A statue? Yet, when Mary walked on the ground of Nazareth, she was not a statue, but flesh and blood and neither was she a statue when she came to visit this land, Motta di Livenza in my province here in Treviso, 500 years ago. 
                

Some people find it hard to believe in apparitions, and I have to admit I am one of them.  But when you are faced with transcripts of the original statements made during the legal investigations certain things just can’t be made up as if writing fiction.  The small details, like the head leaning to one side, the hue of her cheeks, her hands crossed on her lap, the intense whiteness of her clothes cannot be made up by a simple farmer who had well much else on his mind to worry about that morning when he saw Her sitting on the ground and greeting him as if she was one of the local maidens.  

The farmer’s name was Giovanni (John) Cigana, father of six and basically a good soul.  Every morning he would stop at the sanctuary of his village in honour of our Lady and say the rosary.  That morning of March 9^th 1510, he had planned to plough his field but the owner had ordered him the night before to go to Porto Buffolè about 15 kilometres away, to get some boards.  Giovanni reluctantly had to obey although he tried to think how he could do both jobs since his family’s survival depended on getting the ploughing done.  He thought of asking his unfailing friend and neighbour, a certain Luigi, to help him.  In spite of the hurry and the worry on his mind, Giovanni, stopped as usual to say the rosary in front of the image of Mary.  As he gets up to leave he glances to his right unto a field with freshly sown wheat where he sees what he supposes a local maiden sitting on the ground.  He greets her and she answers in the customary way of the area and continues:

             “Good man, where are you going?” and with spontaneity Giovanni answers,

“ I want to go and talk to someone to see if he will come to plough a small plot of land for me.”

“He will come willingly and he will serve you willingly,” the maiden continued, “because you too often help him; and I repeat, he will come willingly and he will serve you willingly.” 

Giovanni was amazed that the maiden should repeat her sentences but he was bursting with joy at the thought of his friend coming to help him.  When he thanks her he realizes that maiden was no ordinary person and falls on his knees while the maid stands and tells him that for three Saturdays he must fast, he must ask his neighbours to join him in the fast for nine days in order to obtain the mercy and forgiveness of God and talk on His behalf to construct a church in wood which will later be converted into stone.

Although he is over the moon with joy, at the same time he feels the responsibility of such orders, that he will be ridiculed and no one will believe him that he saw Our Lady, because that is what he understood the Presence to be.  But the maiden reassured him that she will place a sign in the setting of the sun to authenticate  his words.  That same evening on 9 March 1510 after the sun had been hidden by the clouds for an hour and when it re- appeared it was the colour of red as if it had been placed in a bath of blood.

That was not the only sign as sworn statements of “favours” obtained through this apparition have been preserved and placed in the City Library at Treviso which may serve to strengthen belief in this event.  But that is not the point.  One can well say that this guy Giovanni had probably got up that morning in a mad rush, skipped breakfast, and suddenly getting up from praying sent his head spinning and saw sparks... that happens to all of us but certainly when this happens to us, what happens next does not move crowds of people to get closer to Christ through the intercession of his Mother- that requires well other kind of powers which you and I certainly do not dispense of- unless one is the owner of a multi-national advertising agency- says the cynic.  But even so, mass media advertising does not guarantee to work, otherwise we would all be one faith or the other or none, whatever is the promotion product being offered.

And talking about advertising...  really do you think it would move the hearts of all these people, in this our technological 21^st century to line the streets, pack the churches, adorn their houses in Mary’s colours, make plans and preparations to welcome a statue?  No celebrity icon commands such staying attention as the culmination of such attraction is passing- this Apparition, represented by the statue, has endured culmination attraction for 500 years and the crowds still roll out...

In celebrating the Apparition of Our Lady in Mottta di Liveza 500 years ago, the statue of Mary is making a pilgrimage of all the towns and villages in the Province of Treviso and those places in the vicinity that wish to have this visit.

Meantime, Mary’s long walk on these our hills continues on my blog...