Our Lady of Pompei
Ninth window on the right side of the Church
In the fall of 1872, Bartolo Longo, a businessman, came into the valley of Vesuvius about a mile from the buried city of Pompei. Though raised in Christian schools, Bartolo had practically lost his faith. On Octobers 9th, his life was changed when he heard a voice saying: "If you seek salvation, promulgate the rosary. This is Mary's own promise." Bartolo made his own promise not to leave the valley until he had promulgated Mary's rosary.
To encourage the people to pray the rosary, he tried to purchase a picture for veneration at the end of a three day festival. Failing to raise funds for an oil painting, he was forced to accept the gift of a second- hand painting from a junk shop in Naples rather than disappoint the people. Part of the canvas was missing above Mary's head and there was a large crack in her mantle. Because it was too large to carry, it was wrapped in a sheet and carried by cart from Naples to Pompei. This is the scene depicted in the upper medallion of the window, appropriately entitled "Humble Beginnings".
The central figure of the window depicts Mary as she is characteristically known in her image: Our Lady of Pompeii. Mary and her Son, the Infant Jesus, with golden crowns, both offer the Rosary to the world. It was Modarelli, a famous Neapolitan artist, who considerably improved the original painting to the degree in which it is more familiarly known today. Now it is enshrined in a gold frame encrusted with diamonds and gems which hide all but the faces of the saints and the Holy Child.
In the lower medallion, the two great Dominican saints - Dominic, to whom Our Lady first shared her rosary and its promulgation, and Catherine of Siena, a doctor of the Church (the first woman ever named as a doctor) who so strongly influenced the Church in her day - kneel in veneration before Our Lady, who continues to appeal for the recitation of her Glorious Crown, the Rosary.
Our Lady of Pompei, pray for us |
