Bologna cardinal invokes Mary's
protection for earthquake victims
City draws strength from its patroness and
the Madonna di San Luca icon attributed to St. Luke
Translated from the Italian service of
May 21, 2012
The Madonna di Luca of Bologna - the icon was covered with a silver frame in 1625 to protect it, showing only the faces of Mary and Jesus. A photo of the full icon is reproduced in a panel at the bottom of this post. Below, the Basilica.
On Ascension Sunday yesterday, Cardinal Carlo Cafarra, Archbishop of Bologna, invoked the help of the Mother of God for the communities, mostly rural villages north of Bologna, struck by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the dawn hours.
He asked that the Madonna di San Luca - an icon said to have been painted by St. Luke - protect the people of the region from her shrine on the Colle della Guardia (hill of vigilance) overlooking the city of Bologna and that "she may be a living fountain of hope for those who are suffering on account of the earthquake, with churches that have been destroyed, and for homes which have become uninhabitable. May she obtain eternal rest for those who died and give the stricken communities the strength to rise again".
Cardinal Cafarra prayed "for our young people so that their ability to think and plan for their future may never be extinguished in their hearts; for married couples and their families so that they may not fail to appreciate the tenderness of true love, the serenity that comes with dignified work, the generosity of giving themselves for others; for the unemployed and those in risk of losing their jobs; for those who are alone and emarginated, humiliated and desperate; and for those who may think that life is becoming an unbearable burden; for those who administer our city so that they may never lack the courage to make wise decisions, courage for the common good".
In the afternoon, the venerated icon which had been brought down earlier to Bologna's Cathedral of St. Peter for the SolemNity of the Ascension, was borne in procession in the rain from the cathedral back to her hilltop shrine.
The icon venerated in Bologna, dated to the 12th-13th century (with a supposed painting underneath as early as the 9th-11th century, is said to have been brought to Bologna by a Greek pilgrim who received it from the priests of Santa Sophia in Constantinople to be brought to the 'Monte della Guardia' as inscribed on the icon. The Greek went to Rome where he learned that there was a Monte della Guardia right outside the historic center of Bologna. He brought it there around 1160 where a chapel was built to house it. In 1723, the present Basilica was built over earlier churches on the site. Before that, devout families in Bologna started building a series of about 700 arches that were roofed over to make a 3.5-km procession route from the center of Bologna to the church perched 300 meters above on its forested hill. The unique procession route is still used today.
The list of Madonna icons purporting to have been painted by St. Luke is more than you might expect (a complete list with illustrations may be found on this site - www.wherewewalked.info/Luke/lukeicons.htm
The best-known of these icons - all objectively dating back to the Middle Ages - are found (from left in the panel): in Bologna, Rome (the icon venerated as 'Salus Popoli Romani' in Santa Maria Maggiore), Czestochowa (Poland's Black Madonna), Russia (the Theotokos of Vladimir), and India (icon said to have been carried by St. Thomas when he evangelized India).
St. Luke painting the Virgin was itself the subject of some important paintings from the Renaissance era. Because Luke far more about events in the life of Mary than any of the other evangelists, it was believed that he got most of his information from speaking to Mary herself.
Of course, any sacred image that has been venerated by the faithful for centuries is no less powerful and worthy of veneration just because it was not painted by St. Luke, as local tradition would have it.
And now, more about the earthquake:
Damage in central Italy earthquake
more extensive than previously thought
Translated from the 3/21-3/22/12 issue of
For a change, an appropriate photo from the OR.
ROME, May 21 - Efforts continue to help the victims of the magnitude 5.9 (earlier reported as 6.0) earthquake that struck north of Bologna before dawn Sunday, and left at least seven dead, dozens wounded, and some 4,000 rural families homeless.
Four of the dead were night shift workers in two factories that collapsed in the villages of Sant'Agostino and Bondeno.
Italy, which was already struck Saturday by the merciless bomb attack on a girls' school in Brindisi, woke up Sunday to news of the earthquake.
Meanwhile, reports from Emilia-Romagna [the region of which Bologna is the capital] paint an increasingly dire situation. New tremors, the settling down of shaken ground, and heavy rain marked all of Sunday and the first night for those left homeless.
Hundreds of structures - including churches, towers, belfries, houses, industrial plants, municipal buildings and rural homes - are in ruins.
President Napolitano expressed the grief of the nation, the solidarity of the Italian people with the affected communities and mourning with the victims' families.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/05/2012 00:06]