Blessed Virgin of the Oak - Tuscany, Italy
Blessed Virgin of the Oak
At one time in Viterbo there was a
certain man named Mastro Baptist Magnano Iuzzante, who was a very
God-fearing devotee of the glorious Virgin Mary. He hired a painter
named Monetto in the year 1417 to paint an image on a tile of the most
glorious Virgin Mary holding her Son in her arms.
Mastro Baptist then
lovingly laid the tile on an oak tree that stood at the edge of his
vineyard, near the road leading to Bagnaia & along which robbers often
awaited to attack unwary travelers.
The image remained there for about 50
years under cover of the oak’s branches, & after a while only a few
women who passed by ever stopped to say a prayer & to admire the
beauty of a natural tabernacle that a wild vine, which had embraced the
oak, had created.
During this period a hermit of Siena, Pier Domenico
Alberti, whose hermitage was at the foot of Palanzana decided to take
away the sacred image to his hermitage, but miraculously it had returned
to the oak.
Dominico wasn't alone in this
experience. A devout woman named Bartolomea often walked past the oak
tree & stopped each time to pray to the Blessed Virgin. One day she
also decided to take the tile to her home. After saying her evening
prayers, Bartolomea went to bed, but woke up in the morning to find the
image missing.
She at first thought that her family had taken it to
place it somewhere else, but upon learning that this was not so, she ran
to the oak tree & saw what he'd already guessed: the tile had
miraculously returned to its place amid the tendrils of the vine.
Bartolomea tried again, but always the sacred image returned to the
tree. At first she didn't say anything to anyone to avoid being taken
for being mad.
Then, in 1467, during the month of
August, the whole region was struck by the greatest scourge of those
times: the plague. Everywhere there were the bodies of the dead lying in
the deserted streets, & there was everywhere great weeping &
mourning.
Some then remembered the image painted on the humble tile, &, as if driven by an inexplicable force, went to kneel beneath the
oak. Nicholas of Tuccia, an historian, said that on one day 30,000
people were there to beg for mercy.
A few days later the plague ceased, &
then 40,000 of the faithful came back to thank the Virgin Mary. The
people of Viterbo were headed by their bishop Pietro Gennari, & there
were many from other regions.
It
was decided to build an altar, & then a chapel of planks before Pope
Paul II gave the necessary permission to build a small church in 1467.
Many popes & saints have been devotees of the image, including St
Charles Borromeo, St Paul of the Cross, St Ignatius Loyola, Saint
Crispin of Viterbo, & St Maximilian Kolbe, among many others.
In 1986, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Our
Lady of the Oak, Patroness of the new diocese of Viterbo, formed from
the union of those of Viterbo, Tuscania, Montefiascone, Acquapendente
& Bagnoregio. Even today the Virgin protects her devotees, & the
devotion to the Blessed Virgin of the Oak is very strong.
Every year on
the second Sunday of September, the faithful commemorate the “Benefits
from the Sacred Image of Our Lady of the Oak.” Many cities & towns,
with their brotherhoods, participate in the procession of thanksgiving,
called the “Covenant of Love.”
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