marian anniversaries     july

July 26

Madonna del Faggio, Alto Reno Terme, Bologna, Emilia Romagna, Italy, Castelluccio district

One story goes that in 1672, in the Appenines of central Italy, a shepherd boy found a terracotta plaque of the Virgin affixed to a beech tree. There she appeared to him, asking him to tell the priest that she wished to be honored in that place. The boy started walking, but turned to ask the Virgin if the priest would believe him. "Go," she said, "and don't be afraid." With his neck still twisted backward, the child found the priest and told his story. As he did so, his neck returned to normal, which convinced the prelate of the story's truth.

Another story relates that a shepherd girl found the image in the beechwoods, took it home, and hung it by her bed without telling anyone. Finding it gone in the morning, she sobbed to her family that she had been robbed, but they assured her there had been no break-in. Returning to the woods, she found the plaque on the same tree, which seemed to mean that the Virgin wanted devotion at that spot.

Soon the 7" Madonna of the Beech was moved to a wayside-type shrine built for it nearby, and then, in 1722, to its own mountain sanctuary. The image was solemnly crowned on July 17, 1895. 

Until 1964 a caretaker lived in the hermitage there. Since then a volunteer opens the chapel only in summer on Sundays. The beech tree fell in 1970. The sacred image was stolen in 1975 and replaced with an exact plaster copy made previously. A copy of that one, stolen in 1988, is now on display at the shrine. 

Since 1756, an annual pilgrimage on Ascension Day brings the image to the village of Castelluccio and back again, and on St. Anne's day, July 26, a procession goes to the site of the beech tree.

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