The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has announced the approval of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Pierina Gilli, an Italian visionary, in 1947 and 1966. Source: CNA.
The apparitions took place in Montichiari and Fontanelle, Italy, located in the country’s northern province of Brescia.
In a letter approved by Pope Francis and sent to the bishop of Brescia on July 5, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández indicated that the “spiritual proposal that emerges from the experiences narrated by Pierina Gilli in relation to María Rosa Mystica does not contain theological or moral elements contrary to the doctrine of the Church.”
The letter includes excerpts from Gilli’s diaries in which the Italian visionary goes into great detail describing the apparitions and insights shared by the Blessed Virgin. Cardinal Fernández said Gilli’s writings “reveal a humble and complete trust in Mary’s maternal action”.
In one of the apparitions, on July 13, 1947, the Blessed Virgin Mary was dressed in white and instead of having three swords in her breast, she had three roses: a white one, a red one, and a yellow one that symbolised the spirits of prayer, sacrifice, and penance. She expressed her wish to Gilli that “the 13th of July be celebrated every year in honour of the Mystical Rose.” Gilli would later translate this term as meaning that “Mary is the master teacher of the innermost mystical life and the mother of the mystical body of Christ – the mother of the Church.”
Shortly following the first apparitions in 1947, and investigations by the diocesan ecclesiastical authorities, Gilli secluded herself at the convent of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Child in Brescia. It was not until years later, in 1966, that the Blessed Virgin appeared again to Gilli, in which she blessed a miraculous spring in Fontanelle, called “Fountain of Grace.”
More apparitions would follow in 1966, and, according to her diaries, others in the years to follow.
Nonetheless, the apparitions did not receive approval from the bishop of Brescia until 2019, when the Marian site was declared as the Diocesan Sanctuary of Mystical Rose, Mother of the Church by Bishop Pierantonio Tremolada, the current bishop of Brescia and recipient of the DDF’s letter.
FULL STORY
‘Mystical Rose’ Marian apparitions in Italy receive Vatican approval (By Gigi Duncan, Catholic News Agency)
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Green light for devotion to Our Lady Mystical Rose (Vatican News)
