June 22
Madonna Ta' Pinu, Gharb, Gozo, Malta
"Ta'
Pinu" means "Philip's," a reference to Pinu Gauchi, who financed restoration of the
country chapel and in 1619 commissioned its altarpiece, a painting of the
Assumption by Amadeo Perugino. The chapel was again in disrepair by June 22, 1883, when Karmela Grima, 40, heard a woman's voice coming from it on
her way home from the nearby fields: "Come, because it will be another year before you
will be able to return." After Karmela knelt to pray in the chapel,
the voice said, "Recite three Hail Marys in honor of the three days
my body remained in the tomb" (before being assumed into heaven).
Very soon the pious woman fell ill, remaining bedridden over a year
without telling anyone about the voice. In 1885, she told a friend,
Francesco Pinelli, who revealed that about the same time he also had heard
a woman's voice, asking for devotion to the "hidden wound" of
her Son from carrying the cross. When Francesco's mother was
miraculously healed after praying to Our Lady of Ta' Pinu, the isolated
chapel began attracting pilgrims. Soon a better building was needed. A new
church, begun in 1920, was finally consecrated in 1932. Still a place of
pilgrimage, its major festival is the Assumption, August 15.
Also celebrated this date:
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