marian anniversaries     may

Fourth Sunday after Easter

Madonna delle Grotte, Antrodoco, Rieti, Latium, Italy

The town of Antrodoco lies in a region of mountains and gorges, where in 1601, 9-year-old Bernardina Boccacci was herding sheep near some caves when she saw two faces looking back at her through the brambles: a fresco of the Virgin and Child then centuries old, painted on the rock, a relic of a medieval hermitage or shelter (right).[1][2] The girl's father was dismissive, but visited the site after much pleading, and in turn told the parish priest about the discovery. Soon, townspeople were crisscrossing the three miles between the town and the site to pray before the Virgin of the Caves.[3] The bishop said mass there and indulgenced the devotions in 1602. The church was completed in 1604.[4] In addition to the holy fresco it houses a statue used in the annual festa and processions. 

On the fourth Sunday after Easter, after an early mass at the shrine, the faithful conduct the statue in procession to the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta in Antrodoco for a solemn mass. In the evening, another procession takes the statue through the streets of town. Festivities continue for three more weeks. On Pentecost Sunday, after solemn mass, the statue processes once more through the town streets, carpeted for the occasion with bold designs made of petals (left).[5] The next day, a final pilgrimage procession returns the image to the shrine.[6]

Also commemorated this date: