Mary Stopped the Plague in Monte Berico (I)

A precious manuscript, kept in the Bertoliana Vicenza Library of Veneto (#1430), tells in great detail the events that occurred in this city of northern Italy, "shaken and decimated" by a terrible plague between 1426 and 1430. On March 7, 1426, Vincenza Parisi, 70 years of age, saw a "lady" on the hill of Monte Berico, who had the appearance of a beautiful queen, wearing clothes more resplendent than the sun and surrounded by a thousand perfumes. Faced with so much beauty, she felt weak and fell to the ground. Then, the beautiful lady lifted her up and said, "I am the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ who died on the Cross for the salvation of mankind. I ask you on my behalf to go to the people of Vicenza and ask them to build a church here in my honor, if they want to recover their health. Otherwise the plague will not cease." Vincenza asked, "But the people will not believe me. And where shall I find, O glorious Mother, the money to do these things?" "You must insist that the people execute my will," said the Virgin. "Otherwise they will never be freed from the plague and if the people do not obey, they will see my Son angry with them." And she continued: "As proof of what I am saying, let the people dig here and from the hard, dry rock, water will flow, and construction will barely have begun when the money to pay for everything will not fail to arrive." She drew the location where the church should be built on the ground with an olive branch. This spot is now the exact location of the shrine's main altar. "All those who visit the church with devotion," she added, "on the occasion of my feast days and on the first Sunday of each month will receive the gift of abundant graces and God's mercy and the blessing of my maternal hand." Vincenza went down to the city and told her story but nobody believed her; even the bishop, Pietro Emiliani, dismissed her by saying that she had lost her mind.