marian anniversaries     september

Madonna del Mare, Lampedusa, Sicily, Italy

Photographer Roberto Merlo donated the life-size bronze statue of Our Lady of the Sea to Lampedusa in thanks for help he received after suffering an embolus while diving there. In St. Peter's square in Rome, Pope John Paul II blessed the statue on July 18, 1979. On September 23, it was placed about 50' deep on the sea floor at Lampedusa, in a grotto near Rabbit Island, where it is a favorite attraction of scuba divers. 

Photo source: lampedusainfo.it