The Mystery of the Madonna of Bra (I)

A miraculous rescue happened in Bra, a small town in the diocese of Turin, Italy, on the evening of December 29, 1336: a young woman named Egidia Mathis, several months pregnant, was walking by a votive column dedicated to the Madonna on the outskirts of the town, when two vagrant men came out of nowhere and surprised her with the intention of raping her—despite her condition. Egidia gripped the column in despair and cried out to the Madonna to help her.

Immediately, a flash of light bolted out of the column, temporarily blinding the two men who, fled, terrified. Then the Madonna herself appeared, comforting Egidia for a few minutes, reassuring her that all danger had passed. The vision disappeared, but due to the shock she had had, the woman delivered her baby right there, at the foot of the column. She wrapped up the newborn in her shawl and managed to reach the nearest house.

The news of the prodigious event spread throughout the city: despite the late hour, crowds of people rushed to the place of the attack and the apparition. Thick blackthorn bushes, which had inexplicably bloomed with white flowers despite the harsh weather at the end of December, surrounded the column. Since then, the flowering has repeated on the same day every year.

Vittorio Messori

Italian writer (b. 1941). Excerpt from Ipotesi su Maria (Hypotheses on Mary)