July 13
Rosa Mistica, Montichiari, Brescia, Lombardy, Italy
Early on Sunday, July 13, 1947, at the hospital where she worked as a nurse aide, Pierina Gilli, 35, saw a woman with white, red, and yellow roses on her breast, who said, "I am the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of you. ... I wish that July 13 be celebrated each year in honor of the Rosa Mystica." There were several such apparitions, some critical of the clergy, some requesting special observances, some promising blessings through a holy spring, where devotees of the Rosa Mystica constructed an open-air shrine in the locality of Fontanelle, three miles south of Montichiari.
The title "Mystical Rose" first appeared in the Litany of Loreto, probably written in the 1500s. The new devotion given through Pierina Gilli was aimed primarily at consecrated religious—sisters, brothers, and priests. The seer had wanted to join an order, but ill health prevented her. Devotion to Our Lady as Rosa Mystica has spread around the world, fueled partly by reports of weeping statues modeled on Pierina Gilli's description.
Decades of official Church disapproval ended in 2019, when the Bishop of Brescia designated the shrine of Montichiari a diocesan sanctuary.
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Also celebrated this date:
 | Madonna delle Lacrime, Milan, Italy (Madonna of the Tears). Fresco wept during plague epidemic, 1620. |
| Beata Vergine del Carmine, Sorbara, Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Church blessed, 1865. |
| Madonna del Soccorso, Castellammare del Golfo, Trapani, Sicily, Italy. As the entire town prayed to the Madonna of Help, her apparition scared off an attacking English fleet, July 13, 1718; annual reenactment. Festa August 21. |