Madonna di Pompei: Our Lady of the Rosary

Today is the feast day of St. Augstine of Hipo, one of my favorite saints because he helped spread the love of Christ after his conversion. He was a wild at heart and had many lovers. His mother, Monica prayed fervently for his conversion as her wild son seemed like a lost cause. He is the saint for people with vices and addictions that are hard to break. St. Augustine loved exploring philosophies and trying to find out what life was all about through those various philosophies but felt disappointed. One day he was drunk with his friend when he heard a child's voice tell him, "Pick it up and read it." He went to a Bible, picked it up and opened it to Romans 13:13: "Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in fighting and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh." In that moment, in that garden, St. Augustine experienced a call to convert and he chose to follow the call. I think of St. Augustine today after having seen so many beautiful addicted young people in the streets of Baltimore and DC. I wish St. Augustine could intercede for them. My favorite quote of St. Augustine is one he made to Jesus, "Too late in my life have I loved you!" which reminds me to pray for faith, a deeper conversion, and invest in my spiritual life each day to not loose that beautiful gift which is the love of Christ given to each of us to accept. St Augustine's conversion leads me to my favorite lady: Our Holy Mother who is a mother to all, even addicts who become saints, she is a loving and sweet mother.

St. Augustine's conversion by Fra. Angelico

Have you ever been to a place so beautiful that you lack words to describe it and just replay what it looks like in your memory? The sensations, the details, what you loved most. And sometimes that place is almost too beautiful to talk about because to other people it might not have the same significance. For me, the church of Madonna di Pompei is that place. It is a beautiful church outside of Naples, and sits next to the ancient Roman ruins of Pompei.

Close to the church and Roman ruins!

The rosary beads in her hand have moved, twice.

 From the highway behind it you can see the Roman pillars, narrow streets and Roman houses from centuries ago which were buried when the Vesuvius volcano exploded. And just a few hundred feet away you can see the beautiful church tower of Madonna di Pompei.

The church is built for a very sweet reason, Our Lady of Pompei is a painting of the Holy Mother giving the rosary to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. This painting was discovered in the cart full of manure. No one knows where it came from. Out of this barrel of manure the painting came at the base of the Vesuvius volcano and the people around the town decided to build a little church.  Miracles upon thousands of miracles started happening to people who went to pray for graces for healing, for health, for relationships from that little church. The first miracle was a girl was cured of epilepsy. As a result of the painting and miracles pilgrims started to flock to the tiny church to see the painting and to pray, to convert. The tiny church could no longer hold the large crowds of people coming to pray so a Basilica was built, then an orphanage that was open till about 10 years ago.

A copy of the painting of Our Lady of Pompei. She is giving the rosary, the doorbell to heaven, to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena

The first church with the volcano smoking in the back.

Many siblings were raised in the orphanage at Madonna di Pompei.

Lots of sweet little girls from the girls side of the orphanage.

Words for this church fail me. It is the rosary. As you enter and you notice it looks like just another gorgeous Italian church your eyes deceive you. For this church is built like a rosary, like the rosary that our Holy Mother gave us to use to call to heaven. The entire interior of the church is gilded with mosaics of roses and more roses and more roses. Roses of every shape and color are on each of the walls and arches. Pink roses, red roses, white roses, young, fresh, growing and blooming roses. It would be beautiful enough to see all of these roses adoring the church but then look, look at the murals! Oh, more paintings in another old church. No! Look closer! It is the first joyous mystery at the entrance! Our Lady is being visited by the angel Gabriel. He's asking her to be the mother of Jesus who will bring healing to this broken world and give us each a chance to accept love and to learn to love! She is saying yes! 

Virgo concepisti. The Virgin conceives Jesus.

Look up! How many roses do you see? There are ten! Ten roses in the arch leading to the second mural. What is that mural? Two women chit-chatting. What kind of nuns are they? They don't look like nuns at all! It's Mary visiting Elizabeth. It is the second joyful mystery.

Vistando Elizabeth portasti. Mary visits Elizabeth.

 Here is Mary visiting and caring for her much older and very pregnant cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Baby John was so excited to be close to Baby Jesus in Mary's womb that he kicked happily in utero! Lets look up, oh those new ten roses now make sense! They are the prayers of "Hail Mary" to our lady as we move in contemplation to the next mural which is the third Joyful Mystery: the birth of little sweet baby Jesus in a dirty smelly poop-filled stall. An unhygienic stall I would never think to have a pregnant woman give birth in. But there is Jesus, born poor, loving the poor, loving the afflicted, and choosing the most humble of places for His birth.

Quem Virgo genuisti. Him who thou didst give birth to. 

Hello beautiful baby. Jesus of innocence. Jesus of light. What I would do to see him as a baby and know that we are loved so much that the creator of life and trees and love sent love in the form of a human to teach us how to love, how to be as we were meant to be. I would have taken pictures of all of the mysteries but a new mass started so I stopped photographing to be reverent for that mass.

Oh, I loved the church of our Lady of Pompei. I wish every church was built as a rosary! The rosary went all the way around the entire church spanning the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries ending with the last one: crowning Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

Ora pro nobis Sancta Dei Genetrix, ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. 

Pray for us Mother of God that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.