Mary stops the plague epidemic at Mount Berico

Since 1404, the town of Vicenza in north-eastern Italy was being devastated by the plague. Twenty years later, the depopulation was frightening, and the despair of the survivors was tangible. It would take a miracle to save them. On 7 March 1426, as 70-year-old Vincenza Pasini climbed Mount Berico, overlooking the town, "a woman of royal appearance, dressed in garments more resplendent than the sun and enveloped in a thousand perfumes" appeared to her and promised to stop the epidemic if the people would build a church dedicated to her on the mountain. The civil and ecclesiastical authorities initially ignored Vincenza's request, but eventually built her a shrine on 24 August 1428, after a second apparition of the Virgin Mary.

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Les raisons d'y croire :

Among the manuscripts in the Bertoliana Library in Vicenza is a document of rare value and absolutely irrefutable called the Trial of the apparitions, the work of the lawyer Giovanni da Porto, who chaired the commission of jurists appointed by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities to investigate the events of 1426 and 1428. Known as Codice (or Codex) 1430, for the year in which it was written (November 1430), just a few months after the events it relates, this manuscript is a serious and well-documented work of investigation designed to explain the building of the shrine on the summit of Berico by providing proof of the reality of Our Lady's apparitions to Vincenza Pasini. It is entitled: "To present the splendid and marvellous construction of the church of the Glorious Mother of God on the Sacred Mount, its miracles and wonders". Its authenticity is indisputable and the verification work is equivalent to the current methods of recognising a mariophany.

We also have a municipal resolution dated 10 January 1529, which mentions the apparitions as an established historical fact.

Vincenza Pasini was a septuagenarian of modest origins, recently settled in Vicenza. She was known only for her charity, her great piety, the time she spent in church every day and her devotion to Mary. She didn't have the reputation of being a crazy person.

She was illiterate, yet she used terms reminiscent of the Woman of the Apocalypse "clothed with the sun" to describe the apparition.

Despite public incredulity, the refusal of the authorities to listen to Vincenza and the harsh reaction of the bishop, who threw her out and called her mad, Vincenza remained faithful to the Lady's requests for more than two years, returning to the site of the apparition every day.

All the words of Mary that Vincenza repeated to the authorities, recorded in her first statement, are aline with Catholic teaching and in many ways foreshadowed the messages and requests of other apparitions in the future: building a shrine, prayers, penances and sacrifices to appease the anger of Christ, of which the plague is a manifestation (as are revolution and persecutions in the revelations to Catherine Labouré in 1830, famine at La Salette in 1846, defeat and invasion in 1870 at Pontmain, world wars and the Russian revolution at Fatima in 1917).

Mary promised three signs that would help Vincenza convince the people of Vicenza: an end to the plague as soon as work would begin on the church she had asked for; the gushing forth of an abundant spring "from the dry rock" and a promise that the builders would never run out of money. These three promises all came to pass.

From the moment the first stone of the shrine was laid on 24 August 1428, the plague ceased to affect Vicenza. It had been decimating the city for more than twenty years, and nothing could stop it.

At the first blow of a pickaxe, water gushed out of the arid rock "in such incredible quantities that it overflowed like a river rushing down from the top of the mountain".

Money was never an issue when it came to building the magnificent shrine, whether it was for the original church, its many extensions and adornments, or for the monastery, the guesthouse, etc.

Mary added new promises to take place once the shrine was built, for "all those who will visit it with devotion on its feasts or on the first Sunday of each month and will receive as a gift the abundance of God's graces and mercy, as well as the blessing of my motherly hand." Even today, the shrine of Our Lady of Monte Berico attracts crowds of pilgrims on the feast of the Assumption (15 August), the Nativity of Mary (8 September) and the first Sundays of the month: an average of 30,000 pilgrims and 22,000 confessions, which is a miracle in itself in our post-Christian age. This makes Monte Berico one of the most important Marian shrines in Europe.

Synthèse :

At the beginning of the 15th century, the city of Vicenza in north-eastern Italy placed itself under the protection of the Republic of Venice to escape the conflicts between local podestates and tyrants, which regularly plagued the city. This choice had a dramatic consequence: in commercial contact with the East, where the plague was endemic, the Serenissima (the Most Serene Republic of Venice) was subject to regular epidemics. The disease reached Vicenza via rats, or rather their fleas, which carried the bacillus. From 1404 onwards and for more than twenty years, the city was devastated by this disease, which seemed impossible to eradicate.

On 7 March 1426, Vincenza Pasini, the septuagenarian wife of a carpenter who had recently moved to Vicenza, was climbing Mount Berico to bring a meal to her husband, who was working in his vineyard. At around nine o'clock in the morning, she suddenly stopped, dazzled by the sight of "a woman of royal appearance, dressed in garments more resplendent than the sun and enveloped in a thousand perfumes" who had appeared before her. Frightened and aware that she was looking at a heavenly apparition, the old woman "fell flat on her face" before the being of light in front of her, and remained prostrate. The most astonishing thing was that, despite her age, she didn't hurt herself in her fall and the basket containing her husband's meal, which had escaped her, hadn't opened, so the food, which was hard to get and so expensive in these times of scarcity, was intact.

The Lady helped her to her feet by "taking her by the shoulder". Then she said: "I am the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ who died on the cross for the salvation of mankind. I beg you to go and tell my people on my behalf, that if they want to recover their health, they should build a church here in my honour, otherwise the plague will continue." Despite her initial fright, Vincenza remained clear-headed, countering the Lady's demands with common-sense objections: "But the people won't believe me, glorious Mother, and where are we going to find the money for all this?" Mary replied: "You will insist that my people carry out my will, otherwise the plague will never cease, for as long as they do not obey, my Son will be angry with them. As proof, let them dig the dry rock here and water will spring up. Once construction has begun, there will never be a shortage of money. All those who visit this church with devotion on my feasts or on the first Sunday of each month will receive as a gift the abundance of God's graces and mercy as well as the blessing of my maternal hand." Then, with an olive branch, recalling the episode of Noah's ark and the renewal of the covenant between God and man, Mary marked the site of the future church, which corresponds to the main altar of the present shrine.

As she had planned, Vincenza met with the incredulity of the authorities, who refused to listen to her. The bishop, Pietro Emiliani, threw her out, calling her mad. Nothing was done, and the plague continued to devastate the town. Vincenza resumed her ordinary life of prayer and continued to climb the Berico.

On 1 August 1428, Our Lady appeared to her again and renewed her requests. Vincenza returned to see the authorities who, faced with the scale of the disaster, decided to listen to her and on the 25th of that same month, began building the church. At the first blow of the pickaxe, water gushed out of the arid rock "in incredible quantities, to the point of overflowing with great noise like a river rushing down from the top of the mountain". The epidemic ceased and, despite its proximity to Venice, whose lagoon could be seen from the Berico, never returned to the diocese. The necessary funds were also plentiful.

A canonical and civil enquiry, carried out in 1429, led to the apparitions being recognised at the end of 1430. The shrine was entrusted to the Servites of Mary, a congregation that still manages it today.

Anne Bernet is a Church History specialist, postulator of a cause for beatification, and journalist for a number of Catholic media. She has written over forty books, most of them devoted to sanctity.

Aller plus loin :

Giovanni da Porto, Trial of the apparitions or Codex 1430, 1911 (first edition).

En savoir plus :

Giocando Maria Todescato, Origini del Santuario della Madona di Monte Berico, Edizioni Servi di Maria, 1982.
On line, visit the shrine's official website.
Patrick Sbalchiero and René Laurentin, in Dictionnaire des apparitions de la Vierge Marie, 2010, p. 528.