THE BACKGROUND OF ROSA MYSTICA

INTRODUCTION

The information contained on this web site is devoted to Our Lady, Rosa Mystica. It is based on the writings of Fr Thaddeus Laux of the Salvator College in Bad Wurzach in his book ‘Mary, Rosa Mystica’. The book is a diligent and conscientious production of the revelations and history of Mary, Rosa Mystica, and contains details of accounts from meetings with Pierina Gilli (the visionary to whom Our Lady appeared in Montichiari and Fontanelle), Monsignor Rossi (the parish priest), and various people in the town of Montichiari (Italy).

In the Apparitions of the “Rosa Mystica” we are dealing at the deepest level with Mary’s concern for the renewal and sanctification of priests and all persons dedicated to religion.

Let us pray that the Holy Spirit helps in the production of this work so that His Light may guide and direct all the thinking and that He may exclude every error. The major concern is with the present serious condition of the Church, with the renewal of Christian life, and with the help God’s dear Mother can give. As the Holy Father Pope Paul remarked in respect of the Holy Year 1975, “The renewal of Christian life, the renewal of society will depend upon the abundant help of Our Lady, on the Mother of Our Redeemer, the Mother of the Church, the humble and glorious Queen. She is the guarantor of this hope, this bold venture”. (July 11, 1972). These words issued from the Holy Spirit.

This information on this web site ‘Rosa Mystica’, is based on the apparitions of Montichiari, and dedicated to the Mother of the Church. It is hoped that this may contribute powerfully to your inner renewal. All readers should pray seriously every day for the intentions of the Holy Father. Salvation is to be had only through a genuine renewal. Renewal must, as throughout the Church’s history, start from the head and then spread to the members. The shepherds must first be renewed, then the flock.

Mary’s motherly love embraces the whole world

But this love first embraces Holy Church and her children. The Church is the ever-living, ever-loving, ever-working, ever-suffering Christ; but here, too, He continues to work His miracles.

The first public miracle reported in Holy Scripture occurred in Cana. The Lord performed it at the request of His holy Mother, Mary. It was a miracle of transformation. We can call it a Marian miracle. “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him”. (John 2, 11). This first miracle of Christ at the request of Mary – God alone works the miracles – did not remain the last. They recur over and over again in the Church. The numerous Marian shrines with their many thousands of votive tablets expressing gratitude witness throughout the centuries to the fact that Mary has helped.

This Mother, whom the Lord on Golgotha, in the world’s most holy hour, gave to all the redeemed, has never forgotten the Church and her children, never forsaken them. Especially in difficult times, what blessings have gone forth from Mary’s holy shrines! What consolation in our own difficult times! Mary remains true to her children.

The Church has recognized La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima and now Montichiari/Fontanelle as authentic; they are shrines where issue endless blessings. Anyone who has ever knelt and prayed at these shrines will have been able to tangibly experience them.

The Church has always been saved and restored by charismatic people. Among these the Church has canonized many Marian charismatics. We have only to think of St. Dominic, St. Norbert, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. John Eudes, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. John Bosco, St. Louis Grignion, St. Catherine Laboure, St. Bernadette Soubirous and many others. It is at the Marian shrines that so many charismatic things have happened, miracles of healing sick bodies, and still greater and more numerous, healings of sick souls.

It is there the miracle of Cana is to be renewed; there that the faith, confidence, and love of the disciples is to be revivified and confirmed. The main thing is not Mary: She wishes to lead us to the Lord and above all to our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament. She seeks not her own honour but that of her Son.

She wishes above all to help to bring about the miracle of transformation which is the inner renewal of souls and of the Church in restless and difficult times.

“The concealed, but none the less genuine, capitals of the world are Mary’s shrines of pilgrimage”. (Konrad Adenauer).

Pope Paul VI said on October 7, 1973, on the occasion of the jubilee of the 600th anniversary of the death of St. Brigid of Sweden, that “the Lord grants with unusual magnanimity the graces of mystical union in times of unrest”.

Many apparitions of Mary are recorded in the history of the Church. Many have been recognized as worthy of credence. What blessings have issued from them! Even in our own times many appearances of Mary are reported. It is a good thing the Church is cautious, for the devil is always busy trying to sow tares among the wheat.

According to canon law the diocesan bishop is responsible for pronouncing, after a conscientious examination, on the ‘credibility’ of any such appearances of Our Lady. This does not prevent people from giving a degree of credence to it long in advance. If people pray, make sacrifices and atonement at such places, this is already a good sign, for no devil calls people to prayer, penance, sacrifice and atonement! These are the best weapons against the Devil.

If real miracles occur, especially in the form of great conversions; if by unqualified obedience to the Holy Church, the inner defence of such places is not lost; if curiosity, love of sensation or even money-making are not too much in evidence; if, instead, the true Christian virtues are revivified, these are surely good fruits and constitute a good sign.

Below are reports of Marian appearances in Upper Italy, in Montichiari, in the diocese of Brescia where Pope Paul VI originated. The appearances began in 1947 and have continued up to our time. The Church’s final recognition is still awaited, but the following facts should be noted – more detail will be given later – that six bishops, including the former bishop of the diocese. Msgr. Giacinto Tredici, have expressed their belief in their genuineness, and Pope Pius XII, his special good will towards them.

But above all, the essence of the message is that Mary appears as the

'Rosa Mystica’and desires the Renewal of Priests, Religious Houses, and those dedicated to God. 

Every renewal of the Church must begin with the head and then be achieved in the members; start with the shepherds and spread to the flock. Today it is more necessary than ever.

If Our Lady really appeared as ‘Rosa Mystica’ in Montichiari/Fontanelle – and there is much to support this as the following exposition will show – it is not only an urgent admonition, but also a great responsibility; and even more, it is a great grace and help for the most painful, the most dangerous wounds of the Church of our time.

We should begin straight away, priests, religious communities and those whose lives are dedicated to God, to carry out the wishes and requests of Our Blessed Lady, The ‘Rosa Mystica’. All genuine believers in God, of whom, thankfully, there are very many still – good, prayerful, self-sacrificing and penitential souls – should join them because they exhibit in fact the greatest need of the Church today and want to help overcome it; genuine renewal of the shepherds and therefore of the whole flock of Christ.

The Special Significance of Montichiari

This is best understood in the life of prayer and penance of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus.

On July 14, 1889, she writes to her sister, Celine, “O Celine, I feel that Jesus is asking us both to quench His thirst by giving Him souls, priests’ souls”.

On December 31, 1889, “This year we must win many priests who love Jesus, priests who feel that tenderness towards Him that Mary felt when Mary touched Him in His cradle”.

On September 28, 1890, :O let us pray for the priests! Every day shows us anew how seldom they are friends of Jesus! It seems to me that it is just this which hurts Him most, to have to experience the ingratitude of those who are dedicated to Him yet give their hearts to other things”.

July 8, 1891, “It is only by suffering that souls can be led to Jesus. It is surprising then that we are so richly supplied with it! It is not our merits but those of our Bridegroom which we offer up to Our Heavenly Father, so that our Brother, a Son of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, may find His way again, and find refuge in the folds of the mantle of the most pitying of mothers”.

On August 19, 1897, she offered her last Holy Communion for a lapsed priest, for Father Hyacinth Loyson. When this man lay dying in 1912, aged 85, he repeated over and over again the words, “O my Most Sweet Jesus”.

This is how Teresa prayed for the priests.

“O Jesus, Eternal High Priest, keep Your priests in the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where no one can hurt them. Keep their anointed hands unsullied, which daily handle Your Scared Body. Keep pure the lips which are reddened with Your Precious Blood. Keep pure and unworldly their hearts which are sealed with the sublime token of Your glorious priesthood. Cause them to grow in love and loyalty to You and protect them from the contamination of the world. With their power of transforming bread and wine give them the power of transforming hearts. Bless their work with rich fruit and grant them one day the crown of eternal life. Amen”.

This is how St. Catherine of Siena prayed;she was honoured in our times by the Pope with the title of Doctor of the Church:

“Hear your servants and look not upon the multitude of my sins. I beseech You direct the hearts and wills of the servants of Your Bride, the holy Church unto Yourself so that they may follow the poor, bleeding, humble and gentle Lamb of God on the way of the Cross. Make them angels in the shape of men, for after all, they have to administer and distribute the body and blood of Your only begotten Son!” (Indeed a moving prayer, which tells us what true priesthood is). A real soul-hunter.

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer makes this staggering admission “Just think: Through priests, salvation and ruin, blessing or curse comes to people. When under the Old Covenant other scourges no longer sufficed to reclaim the hardened people from their erring ways, God sent them the most painful scourges, wicked and deluded priests. Pray then that God, the Lord, may give us holy priests!”

And Pope St. Pius X said, “We are not priests in order to live a comfortable life, but to work very hard and to die of exhaustion”. “Estote Salvatores Mundi”, i.e., “Be the world’s saviours”. This is the urgent advice of St. John Chrysostom (d. 407), once Bishop of Constantinople, to all his priests.

These words of just a few saints indicate what this book is all about. This seems to be the concern, the burning concern, of the ‘Rosa Mystica’ in Montichiari; for it deals primarily with priests, religious communities, and people dedicated to God.