Our Lady of Good Counsel

On April 25, 1467 a mysterious icon of Virgin and Child appeared in a small unfinished and roofless church in the town of Genazzano, near Rome. As the story goes, the entire town had turned out for the annual feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist.

At about four o’clock in the afternoon, a multitude of witnesses saw a mysterious cloud descend upon the church. The church bells rang of their own accord, and the cloud parted revealing the portrait, resting on a ledge in the church. The painting was a fresco, painted on a layer of thin layer of fragile plaster.

Two refugees from Albania arrived several weeks later. They claimed that the very same image was in a church in the Albanian town of Scutari only a few weeks earlier. When Scutari was on the verge of being overrun by the Turks, the image miraculously relocated for its own protection. A Papal commission later verified that there was indeed an empty space in the plaster wall of the church at Scutari the exact size of the portrait.

Even today, it is virtually impossible to remove a fresco this way without destroying the image.

The building of the church in Genazzano was soon finished, and it became a place of pilgrimage. Within the first six months alone, over 170 healings and miracles were recorded.

Here’s the thing about miracles; they really do happen all the time. We have been trained all our lives to ignore them or discount them. Just think of how many times you’ve said in your life, “well, there must be a perfectly rational explanation for that”.

Sometimes the perfectly rational explanation is that it’s a miracle.

If you want a miracle, pray for a miracle.

During the Second World War, a bomb fell on the church, destroying the sanctuary. The fragile image of Our Lady of Good Counsel remained miraculously undamaged.

A Prayer to Mary Most Holy of Good Counsel to Implore Her Protection (1796)

O Mary of Good Counsel,
inflame the hearts of all who are devoted to you,
so that all of them have shelter in you,
O great Mother of God.

O most worthy Lady,
let everyone choose you as teacher and wise counselor of their souls,
since you are, as Saint Augustine says,
the counsel of the Apostles and counsel of all peoples.

Amen.