Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The dry stick that sprouted new leaves by the fountain

Farroupilha (Brazil) (1432 / 1879-1921)

La historia comienza en Italia. Según la tradición católica, el 26 de mayo de 1432, hacia las cinco de la tarde, mientras una campesina llamada Joaneta (Giannetta) de’ Vacchi recogía pasto en un prado de Caravaggio, en Lombardía, se le apareció una señora «como una reina, llena de bondad». Era la Virgen María, que venía a anunciar la paz y a pedir penitencia, ayuno los viernes y oración en la iglesia los sábados por la tarde, además de la construcción de una capilla. A sus pies brotó una fuente de agua que permanece hasta hoy en el santuario italiano de Santa María del Fonte, y a esa agua se atribuyen curaciones.

Among the most beloved anecdotes is that of the staff that sprouts leaves. Tradition tells that, to test the purity of the spring's water, a dry staff was placed in it; upon touching the water, the staff sprouted leaves and flowers. The sanctuary itself refers to it with a cautious "it is said that..." ("it is said that..."), thus acknowledging its status as a pious tradition, not a historical account. In remembrance of that sign, Caravaggio's iconography of Nossa Senhora frequently depicts a flowering bouquet between the Virgin and Joaneta: this detail is indeed fully verifiable in official texts and images.

The devotion crossed the ocean with the emigrants. In 1879, Italian immigrants Antônio Franceschet and Pasqual Pasa built a small oratory in Caravaggio, now Farroupilha, in the Serra Gaúcha region of Rio Grande do Sul. In 1890, a masonry church was inaugurated; on May 26, 1921, the church was officially elevated to a Sanctuary; and in 1959, the Holy See declared Our Lady of Caravaggio patroness of the Diocese of Caxias do Sul. These facts are recorded on the sanctuary's official website and are documented history; however, the biographical details of Joaneta, her dialogue with the Virgin, and the specific healings attributed to the water are a consolidated devotional tradition, not a contemporary canonical process.

Today it is the largest Brazilian shrine dedicated to this Marian devotion and one of the main pilgrimage centers in the south of the country; May 26th is a liturgical feast day and a civil holiday, with a massive pilgrimage of the descendants of those immigrants, who come with votive offerings. It should be noted that Caravaggio's message does not state that the Virgin Mary requested the recitation of the Rosary: penance, fasting, and Saturday prayer are mentioned. The Rosary is prayed there as part of the ordinary Marian spirituality of pilgrimages, not as a specific mandate of this apparition.