148. The Last Farewell: I Shall Leave You a Sign

The Pilgrimage of the statue arrives in
Cappella Maggiore and is carried
by the Alpines of that village
to their parish church, Saint Magdalene.

Among the wheat there is the chaff; alongside the good, walk the bad.  But in real life nothing is black or white, there are so many shades of greys in between.  So, as described in one of my blogs, 139. The Silence of the Hills, you get people saying such processions in honour of Our Lady takes civilization back hundreds of years or that is akin to superstition or even idolatry and putting God in second place.  

A few moments of reflection in the
village church that dates back to the 6^th Century.

This, of course is nothing new.  In the past you had your head chopped off for doing things like that; and even in this our brand new millennium in some places of the world, the best that can happen to you for such religious ardour is getting locked up behind bars and the key thrown away.  

The statue is carried on foot to the neighbouring
 village of Sarmede where it will be handed over
 to the Alpines of that village waiting on the bridge,
 the border between the two villages.

To outsiders, it would seem here in Italy, we go overboard with processions in honour of Our Lady, but Italians are expressive and sociable which makes life much more affable.  To outsiders it may seem idolatry but all it is, is a means of preserving what is important and significant before it is snuffed away by the mass media, advertising, cheap thrills that magazines, books, films, together with the rest of night life, replacing the concept of womanhood with a symbol of pornography. 

This is the other side of the bridge where
the local children
wait with a large Margherita (daisy) in their hands.

In the midst of all this we hang on to Mary tightly and we honour Mary because of who she is and love her for her own sake which does not mean loving God or Christ less, but more, because of her.

Children in church hidden among the
white and blue balloons they are holding.

I think all those moaners who complain because we make too much fuss of Our Lady should remember at Christmas time to get rid of the statue of Our Lady from their cribs and nativity scenes and let Joseph foster father the son of God on his own as a single parent.  

The events of the apparition of  Our Lady to Giovanni Cigana
 while praying in front of a niche
 was enacted in the Parish Church
 of Cappella Maggiore.

But as this is going to be my final blog on the pilgrimage of the statue of Our Lady I’d like to go back to how it all started 500 years ago, with a certain aged farmer called Giovanni Cigana who sees a gracious maiden sitting on the grass near the niche where he had stopped to say his prayers and who greeted him with equal graciousness bidding him a good morning.  

The statue is carried to the parish church
of Sarmede by the village Alpines.

Cigana realized the gracious maiden was no other than the mother of God who instructed he should fast, and invite others to join him and asked for a church be erected on this spot for people to gather in order to obtain the mercy of God.  At this point the farmer feared that the people would not believe him and therefore would not be able to carry out the instructions.  But Our Lady assured him that very evening she would leave a sign.  Look in the sky, she said.  

The people from Anzano accompany the statue to their church.

That very evening the people gathered and looked upwards and saw that the sun was red as if blood was pouring from it.   All these events were later written down from sworn statements made by witnesses and placed in the Town’s archives center.

From Anzano the statue was taken to the hills of Fregona,
but the people did not come out in the streets,
the statue was taken to them, first in the home
for senior citizens and then to the nursery.

I followed the statue of Our Lady on her pilgrimage around the parishes in my area and although I did not set out to look for any signs, it eventually dawned on me that if I looked closely enough Our Lady left a sign for me on some of her departures.  I did not notice a sign on every departure nor were any of them spectacular, nothing like the one left after her apparition on 9 March 1510.  

AFrom Fregona the statue was taken across the hills
to the neighbouring village of Montaner

At any rate, here are the signs, there were three that I noticed, there may have been others, make of them what you wish as I did.  And just in case you think I’m cheating, the exact moment the photo was taken is recorded on the original ones.  Besides, in a village full of people, I wasn’t the only witness, now was I?

And from Montaner it was taken down the hill to the
next village, Rugolo, by night.

First sign: On leaving Sarmede

As the bicycles set off I looked up in the  direction to where the statue was travelling and the sky was completely white while in the opposite direction a plane left its trail in a blue sky with a shining white light beneath.

Second Sign: On leaving Anzano

Just as the children released the balloons the sky had never been so deeply azure before.  And this is not something you can do with Photoshop either, otherwise the church would be blue too.

Third Sign: On leaving Fregona

As the statue was leaving, from over the rooftop of the institute, rays of light suddenly pierced the sky.  Actually, it was not only the brilliance of the sun that almost blinded me, in so much the sheer radiance of the smiles on the people’s faces that transformed them, which captured me. 

And I recall the words the Maiden said.... Look up, look into the sky, I shall leave a sign.

The Custodian of the statue, Padre Mario