OUR LADY OF FIRE (FORLI, ITALY)
Feast Day: February 4
Giuliano Bezzi’s "Il Fuoco Trionfante," printed in
1637 at Forli, between Florence and Ravenna, and he speaks of the incident
remembered as Our Lady of Fire…
“Around the year 1420, in a pleasant house by the cathedral
at Forli, the devout and learned Lombardino Brussi of Ripetrosa imitated Christ
among the disciples at Emmaus by breaking the bread of the fear of the Lord and
of humane letters with school boys. Their household devotion turned to the
Virgin. They ever began and ended their literary exercises by praising and
praying to this great sovereign of the universe. They said their prayers before
an image of Our Lady rudely printed from a woodblock on a paper about a foot
square. Printing was then new, and who knows if this may not have been the
first print by the first printmaker? The simplicity of the image certainly
matched the well-mannered scholar’s simplicity of heart. It showed, and still
shows, the most Blessed Virgin holding her Holy Infant and surrounded by saints
like King Solomon by his guard. Above to the right and left shine the sun and the
moon, luminously forecasting that the Virgin was to consecrate this paper with
a power like the moon’s over water and the sun’s over fair weather.”
“The honour of the
Virgin had advanced these happy boys from easy letters to graver studies when,
on February 4, 1428, fire broke out in the classroom downstairs. No one knew
how it started, but the outcome so glorified God and His Blessed Mother that
fires nowadays cause joy where they burn!
When this fire had feasted on the benches and cupboards of
the school, it followed its nature to ascend and sprang to the sacred paper. In
awe at the sight of the most holy image, the flames stopped and – wonder of
wonders – like the blameless fingers of a loving hand, they detached it from
the wall to which it was tacked. The fire thought the wall too base a support
for so sublime a portrait and longed to uphold the heaven of that likeness,
like the other heaven, on a blazing sphere. Above the flames raging in the
closed room the unscorched image floated as on a throne. When the fire had
consumed the ceiling beams it wafted out the revered leaf, not to burn but to
exalt it. With this leaf on its back it flew to the second floor, to the third,
to the roof, then through the roof, and behold, the Virgin’s image burst above
the wondrous pyre like a phoenix, triumphant and unconsumed! The miracle drew
the eyes of all the people and came to the ears of the papal legate, Monsignor Domenico
Capranica, who carried the paper in a procession, accompanied
by all the people, to the cathedral of Santa Croce, where it was placed in a
holy but simple chapel.”
The building burned to the ground, but the image of Our Lady
of Fire was not forgotten. The images were reproduced, and they could be found
in every Christian home in the region. The original print itself was the focus
and center of religious life in the town of Forli, which had been blessed to
witness such a great miracle.
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