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Welcome to our blog, Genzano it story
and to our post, The Madonna story
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This is the statue of the Madonna that Genzano,' people take around town when they have a procession
Madonna story of Genzano
This is part one of the Madonna story of
Genzano di Lucania.
Here under are two or three links that are
a must see for those that come from Genzano town and also everyone else: I hope
they work, as they also brink up more interesting links to see.
Dear readers, in our last article called,
The heritage chapter, we have explained and accepted that indeed in Genzano di
Lucania a long time ago there lived some Greek people in one of the chasms, well
this might seem strange today that people used to live in caves dug in the
walls of a chasm, but we think it is strange just because we don’t live in
caves any more. Anyhow, I would like to go back to talk about the Greek people;
because, there are reasons to believe that before the Greek people left their
caves in the chasm for the last time, here we are saying the last time because,
they seemed to have been forced to run away, so, they hid their Madonna effigy
at the lower end of the chasm; as you can see this is another very important
story to tell about the Greek community that lived in Genzano territory a very
long time ago, at the beginning of the Christian Era. Here we have to admit
that what we are telling here is only folklore stories and some logic human
explanations when we try to put all what is known together.
We have also to admit that what follows
here is mostly guess work, because nobody knows for sure what happened to the
Greek people, it is known that they were there and then they were not there
anymore, but the facts are not really known and perhaps it is not important to
know exactly what happened to them, because here we want only to tell you the
story of the Madonna that is going to follow here-under. But for sure there must
have been an upheaval of some sort early in the Christian era because; because,
they (the Greek people) seem to have been persecuted and had to run away, and
when they left they had to hide away their most precious religious things. So
they left behind buried in a secret spot in a little known cave, an effigy of a
Madonna, which was to be found much later by the people of Genzano.
How they came about to find this Madonna
icon later on just about everybody in Genzano knows the story, and they could
tell you their own version easily. So, I had only to find a few names and a few
dates to write my own version down, which I would like to tell you here and
now.
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The Madonna story as we know it begins
One day in the year of our Lord 1619 there was this fourteen years old
youth, whose parents were of a good and honourable family, his name was; Pietro
di Giovan Filippo, and he happened to mind some oxen in the fields at that
time, he was in the zone that we call Strippara which is near Genzano town
where this event took place, in fact it seems to me that he was at the very
beginning of the chasm called ‘Del Monte’. So, while he was browsing his oxen
there; a Lady all dressed in white appeared to him; and she told him that he
should go and tell the people of Genzano that, they should go into the chasm
near the fountain of Capo d’aqua, and dig in the cave that was once known to
have been in the vineyard of ‘Don Fabio’ and they would find her image there.
The youth went to town and told the people and the priest of the apparition of
this great Lady, but they were not sure whether to believe him or not; so
nothing was done about it at that point of time. But after a few days or a week
or two, the Lady in white appeared to the youth again; But this time she asked
the youth to open his hand, and she wrote in his hand a message to the priest,
she closed the youth hand and told him to go to the priest and show him that
writing. The youth now with his closed fist that he could not or would not open
for fear ran into the town and found the priest, and told him about the second
apparition of the Lady in white, and that the Lady had written on his hand in
his closed fist something; the priest took his hand to see and there in front
of the priest he could open his hand again; and in his hand the priest could
see the message which read (I am Maria Santissima Delle Grazie, and come to
find me).
So, now the priest had no doubt in his mind from where that message was
coming, and he assembled the people of Genzano and told them the facts. A
search was organized, and they dug in and around the said cave for a very long
time, and not knowing exactly where else to dig, they also dug farther up the
mountain, where they found some human remains and other object as evidence that
there once lived eremites. The search went on for about two long years and
therefore they became tired of it. And it seemed to them at that time, that
there was not a real Madonna image to be found, because the only image of a Madonna
that they had found there was a Madonna traced over the sand which was slowly
disappearing. And thinking that this would be all that they could find, they
decided to give up the search, but at the same time they would build a small
chapel in honour of this Madonna. But while they were digging the foundation
for this chapel, a whole heap of very hard rock fell from the chasm’s wall
above, which showed them that there was a smaller cave near the old cave higher
up in the chasm’s wall, and in this small cave they found a few religious
items, including a small image of St. Peter on a brick, but there was no
Madonna.
I believe that we have said enough in this post, one of the reasons we
are saying this it is because, today most of the readers like short stories, as
they have several things to look about; anyhow we will continue to write about
this Madonna story in our next post, The Madonna is found. See you soon.
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Genzano it story
Madonna story
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, The Madonna is found
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Some useful links
Some hub links
