10 MAR - OUR MOTHER OF THE VINE (ITALY)

 The city of Viterbo is located at the foot of Mount Cimino in the province of Rome. 

    There was a man named Mastro Baptist 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 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. The image remained there for about 50 years under cover of the oak’s branches, 

    and after a while only a few women who passed by ever stopped to say a prayer. Pier Domenico Alberti, whose hermitage was at the foot of Palanzana, 

    went around the countryside and the nearby towns of Viterbo, saying, "Among Bagnaia and Viterbo there is a treasure." Many people, driven by greed, 

    started digging there but found nothing and asked for an explanation from the hermit. Domenico then brought them under the oak tree chosen by the Virgin and pointed 

    to the real treasure, the Madonna. Many Popes and Saints have been devotees of the image, including St Ignatius of Loyola and St Maximilian Kolbe. 

    In 1986, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Our Mother of the Oak Patroness of the new Diocese of Viterbo.




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