Mary stops the plague at Monte Berico (II)

Two years later, Our Lady appeared again to Vincenza Parisi, on August 1, 1428. The city was at the peak of the plague and Our Lady repeated her earlier request and promises to the old woman.

Vicenza went back to the city, and this time the population listened to her: the prominent citizens, the Council of the Hundred and the Council of the Five Hundred, gathered in the great hall of Reason, and decided to build the church on Monte Berico in a very short time. Construction actually began 24 days later. Our Lady had told Vincenza about a spring of water that would gush out of the bedrock on the site where the sanctuary would be built, and this is exactly what happened. In the course of the work, "a marvelous and incredible quantity of water sprang up... to the point of overflowing in this place like a river that descended with great noise along the mountain". And, in keeping with the second promise of the Virgin, money flowed in.

Finally, "the construction having begun on August 25, the great plague mostly ceased and, the church having been completed in three months, the whole province was totally freed from this great calamity, so that from that day on, with God's help, it no longer suffered from this disease."

The very popular shrine of Our Lady of Monte Berico has become one of the most important places of Marian devotion in Europe. The Servants of Mary, who have been managing this beautiful site with its magnificent panorama since 1435, say: "On the first Sunday of the month we have an average of 22,000 confessions. Sometimes we stay until ten o'clock in the evening in the confessional,"

Pina Baglioni, from an article in the magazine 30 days

The quotations are taken from the Codice n°1430, of the Bertoliana library of Vicenza