"Help me to mourn" (I)

On May 19, 1853, in Cerreto, Italy (Tuscany), at a place known as "La Casetta," a 12-year-old shepherdess called Veronica Nucci was keeping watch over her flock with her little brother, Giovanni Battista, 7 years old. Suddenly, a storm broke out and forced the children to take the animals for shelter in a hut.

Suddenly, Veronica saw before her a "beautiful lady kneeling, wearing a white dress decorated with small red flowers and a black belt at the waist, a sky-blue coat with red polka dots, and a golden crown surmounted by a cross on her head." The apparition said to her: "Veronica, come closer, you won’t get wet, kneel down here." Then: "Let us pray the Creed to my Son ... Let us pray the Protest (prayer of preparation for death)." And finally: "Help me to mourn."

"Why are you crying?" Veronica asked.

"I cry for sinners. Do you see how hard it is raining? Sinners are more numerous than the raindrops. My Son’s hands and feet are nailed to the Cross, his five wounds are open. If sinners do not convert, my Son will have to allow the end of the world. Would you prefer to live three or four months more, or to live until the end of the world?"

"I would rather die!" Veronica exclaimed.

The apparition asked Veronica to pray every day 7 Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s for the bloodshed, then 5 Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s, and Glory Be’s for the Five Wounds; 7 Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s for herself, Maria Addolorata (Mary most Sorrowful).

Father René Laurentin, French theologian and Marian expert (1917-2017)

Adapted from the Dictionnaire des apparitions (Dictionary of Apparitions)

Fayard 2007