Our lady of the Letters
Messina, Italy (1693)
The Madonna's intervention saved Messina during the earthquakes that shook most of Sicily in 1693.
On January 9 of that year, when the first tremors began, the Virgin Mary appeared to a sick girl named Paola Alfonsina. Suddenly she saw the window of her little room open unexpectedly, and through it came a beautiful woman dressed in white with a blue mantle who smiled at her and said: “Fear not’.
The Madonna retuned and said that the people should remain joyful and wait in the cathedral before the altar of the Madonna della Lettera.
While the coast was hit by a tsunami and earthquake, Messina suffered damage and flooding but was spared the severities of other areas.
Text and image used with permission
Source: "365 Days with Mary" by Michael O'Neill
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