Pope Leo XIV visited the Sanctuary of the Mother of Good Council, located in Genazzano, a small town located approximately one hour from Rome by surprise. It is a basilica entrusted to the order of San Agustín since the fifteenth century.
The Holy Father greeted people in the square and prayed to the miraculous icon of the Virgin, according to the Press Office of the Holy See. It is the first surprise departure of the Brief Pontificate of Leo XIV, chosen on Thursday, May 8. The Vatican said that Pope’s private visit took place until 4:00 p.m. (Rome time).
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Several hundred people gathered in the Plaza del Sanctuary to receive Leo XIV with a “holiday reception.” The pontiff then entered, greeted the religious, and stopped to pray first to the altar and then before the icon of Our Lady of Good Council. There, together with everyone, he recited the prayer of San Juan Paul II dedicated to this Marian devotion, which is of great importance in Italy.
After the prayer of Ave Maria and the singing of Regina Caeli, Leo XIV went to the faithful of Genazzano, gathered inside and outside the sanctuary:
“I wanted to come here in these first days of the new ministry that the Church has entrusted me, to carry out this mission as Pedro’s successor,” he said.
In addition, he recalled the visit he made to the place as a prior to the order of San Agustín, made shortly after his choice in 2001. The Pope reiterated his “confidence in the mother of good advice”, referring to her as a companion of “light, wisdom” and highlighting his words at Cana’s weddings: “Do everything he tells them.”
Next, together with the community, the Pope went to an interior room for a private encounter.
As a curious fact, Pope Leo XIII never visited the sanctuary, but in 1903 he raised him to the dignity of Minor Basilica.
Brief history of the Sanctuary of the Mother of Good Council in Genazzano
In the fourteenth century, the people of Genazzano venerated the mother of good advice in an old church that little by little he was left in ruins. An Agustina Tertiary, a widow named Petruccia, was very devoted to the mother of the good advice.
The pious lady received from the Holy Spirit the following revelation: “Mary Most Holy wants to leave Albania.” The fresco that now rests in the Basilica was before in the Albanian town of Scútari. Petruccia also received an order from the very Virgin: lift the temple that its fresco should receive, as well as the promise of being helped in timely time.
Los Heralds of the Gospel They say that the widow began the construction of the small church using all its resources, which were over when the walls only reached the meter high.
The skeptical inhabitants of the small city made the favorite blank of their teasing and sarcasm, calling her crazy, visionary, reckless and outdated. But she went on this test confidently.
On April 25, 1467, Fiesta de San Marcos, patron of Genazzano, the town – which was distracted with the bustling parties – feels a melody of singular beauty coming from heaven. It was a small white cloud, so bright that the sun’s rays opacked, which descended to the wall of a side chapel of the unfinished church of the town.
When dissipating, everyone saw suspended in the air, without any visible support, the fresh sacred of the Lady of Good Council. After this prodigy, the Church was finished. In the first 110 days after the arrival of the image to Genazzano, 161 miracles were recorded.
Andrés Henríquez
I was born in Caracas in 1996. I am a writer for ACI Press and correspondent of EWTN since 2023. Since then, I cover events of the Catholic Church in Venezuela, Latin America and the world. I have more than 6 years of experience in bilingual media. In addition, in Venezuela I have worked from various fields for freedom and respect for fundamental rights in the country. I am a member of the Regnum Christi Federation since 2014.