Our Lady of the Woods

https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/our-lady-of-the-woods.html

September 5: Our Lady of the Woods, Galloro (1621)

The little tiled picture of Our Lady of the Woods, found in 1621 at Galloro, marked site of an older church built there in her honor & long since ruined, probably by one of periodic invasions by foreign troops.

The tile was discovered by a small boy named Santi Bevilacqua, who was an orphan & lived with his uncle at L’Ariccia.
Santi had been sent to watch sheep, & was in nearby brambles picking berries when he saw a low stone wall half-hidden in brush & decided to investigate.

He followed wall & at one point fell into brambles.
When he picked himself up, he saw a picture of Madonna painted on wall.
Being a pious child, he knelt & said a prayer; then, following day he returned with a bouquet of flowers.

Soon a number of his friends were coming with him to Madonna in woods.
They brought flowers & sang hymns as they went along.
This didn't impress neighbors, who feared for their fruit with so many children passing by.

Finally, children set about making a path that would let them into brambles by an easier way, & in course of their construction unwisely set fire to brush.
Quite a fire ensued & they were forbidden to go into brush or into woods to play.

Sometime after this Santi was playing in his carpenter shop & fell asleep in a corner near a pile of lumber. The lumber fell on him as he slept & he awoke only in time to cry out to Madonna of the Woods to save him.
His frightened uncle, unpiling lumber, discovered boy unhurt & demanded to know who'd saved him. The boy told him again about Madonna at Galloro.

The uncle made inquiries, & found that there was indeed a wall there which had once formed part of a church.
There was an attractive little tile on one side of it, showing the Madonna.
He set about rebuilding the church.

Research revealed that tile had been painted by a monk of Grotto Ferrata & that church had been a pious venture of a good woman.
There had been a dispute of ownership of land, & church was abandoned.
The years had converted site into a wilderness again.

Santi’s uncle with great perseverance & with help of the Madonna, got funds together & started rebuilding church.
Others helped, & in time a chapel was built to Our Lady of the Woods, & also a home for priests.

Santi went there to live, so that he could serve Masses at shrine.
By 1633, there were 15 Masses said daily, & pilgrims were coming in such droves to see Our Lady of the Woods that a fine new church had to be built.

The site was nearby but it required moving of picture, which was set into stone wall.
It took much skill & prayer to move picture without damage, but it was finally accomplished by a devout group of workmen, chanting litanies as they worked.

Plague & cholera both passed by Galloro when people prayed at shrine of Our Lady.
These & other miracles endeared her to people, & it is still a place of pilgrimage, Our Lady of the Woods.