Our Lady of the Day (26 June 1562) – Powerful Virgin of Trompone (Beata Vergine Potente), Moncrivello, Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy

Once again Mary comes to the aid of the sufferings, not only of a poor woman, but also of the people disheartened and exhausted by wars, bringing an era of peace and reconstruction for the whole of Piedmont.

Domenica di Miglianotto, known and called by all the Miglianotta of Cigliano, is a poor woman afflicted by serious infirmities. Gibbous and very curved, for six years subjected every day to terrible illness, she is almost unable to speak. She lives her life of pain and sadness, consoling herself only with prayer. In her short journeys, she usually goes to a place called Trompone, from a large strain of lopped off chestnut (in their dialect: trumpa).

One day, while she was praying, she saw the Holy Virgin appear right on that trunk, in a very bright light, holding the Child Jesus in her arms, smiling amiably at her. At the same time, she felt life flowing back into her poor body: her back straightened, her tongue loosen and all her sickness faded away. She felt completely healed. Our Lady also spoke to her saying that she wanted a church to be built at Trompone so that She could rightly become in that place mediatrix of graces to the suffering.

The news of the miracle, as is natural, immediately spreads to neighboring countries. The woman is well known, so healing is evident. People flock to the Trompone to pray to Our Lady and to bring their sick to the place of the apparition. New miracles occur immediately: healings of the blind, the lame and people affected by various sicknesses.

A few months later, on August 19, the Clergy and the people of Moncrivello convene in procession to the Trompone and, on a mobile altar, the priest Giovanni Battista Ferraris celebrated a solemn Mass “in honor of God and of the Blessed Virgin”, after which a foundation stone for a small church was placed.

The Marquis of Moncrivello, Cesare Majo, on the occasion of an audience in Rome, informed the Pope of the events at Trompone. Pope Pius IV, who had been Commendatory of the Sant’Andrea hospital of Vercelli as a cardinal, replies with a Bull, dated August 31, 1562, in which he recognizes the healing of the woman of Cigliano at the appearance of “a great light”. He took action of the devotion aroused by the event and of the numerous graces obtained, and authorizes the construction of a Church “without obligation to ask for the license of the local Ordinary”. He also granted plenary indulgence to all the faithful who visit the Trompone Church every year on the occasion of the Sunday feast in Albis. To push the Marquis to take an interest in the apparition was his consort, Gabriella di Valperga.

After various events, in 1568 the construction of the Rotonda was completed, 22 meters high with a diameter of 10 meters which, later on, will be connected with the current Sanctuary, solemn and contemplative, in three naves, it was consecrated on 13 October 1783, dedicated to Mary with the title “Blessed Virgin of the Angels”.

In October 1584, Saint Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan and grandson of Pope Pius IV, on his third trip to Turin, at the invitation of Duke Carlo Emanuele I, to venerate the Holy Shroud, visited the Trompone and disposed that near the Church a small seminary should be built, connected with that of Vercelli, to implement the provisions of the Council of Trent, which was just concluded at that time.

Throughout history, the Franciscans, the Camaldolese alternate in the animation of the Shrine, and finally in 1881 it was given back to the custody of the minor Seminary of Vercelli. In this new phase the Seminary sees the flourishing of the vocation of Don Secondo Pollo, it first seminarian, then later became professor of Philosophy and Theology and then courageous military chaplain during the Second World War. On December 26, 1941, hit by a bullet while assisting an injured a soldier, Don Pollo died in Montenegro with the last words on his lips “I am going to God, who is so good!”. John Paul II beatified him in Vercelli on 23 May 1998.

In October 1970 the complex was donated to the Silent Workers of the Cross Association who carried out professional training courses there. For over 30 years the Center has been home to educational and training courses for the disabled. At the end of the nineties the C.R.R.F. Mons. Luigi Novarese was transformed into an out-of-hospital residential rehabilitation center for people with physical disabilities, and for this purpose two floors of the existing seminary were renovated in order to transform them into wards capable of accepting patients by adapting the premises to the needs of the new activity . The need to make the structure more suitable and the desire to expand the work led to the construction of the new center located in front of the Shrine, inaugurated on October 7, 2006. Since 2005, the structure has been operating as a private nursing home which was accredited with the Regional Health System in 2007 and carries out 2nd level rehabilitation activities.

Thus, the Virgin Most Powerful of Trompone has desired to realize her first project, manifested with the miracle of the healing of Domenica Miglianotto: to cure, heal, rehabilitate the sick and to value human suffering.

SOURCES:

sito ufficiale: www.trompone.it

http://www.mariadinazareth.it/www2009/Apparizioni/Apparizione%20Moncrivello.htm

http://www.donbosco-torino.it/ita/Maria/calendario/08-09/14-Santuario_Moncrivello-VC.html

https://biscobreak.altervista.org/2013/06/beata-vergine-potente-del-trompone/.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santuario_della_Beata_Vergine_del_Trompone