October 19, 1947prev home next
After having devoted all of yesterday to a vision of the area of Rome extending from St. Paul’s Basilica to the countryside running towards the south of the city, an area over which I saw roses falling on May 5, 1947,324 with the Appian Way on my left - one of the few Roman localities I remember clearly because I visited it during my only stay in Rome, lasting three days, in October 1920, when I went to visit St. Paul’s tomb325 - and the Tiber on my right, heading towards the sea - and I don’t know why I should have been mindful of this section of Roman countryside throughout the day - at nightfall Our Lady also came to bring me blessedness.... And up to that point there was nothing sufficiently extraordinary to prompt me to write these words.
But after I had become sated with the joy of seeing Mary, there appeared the archangel Michael - always very imposing; I would say frighteningly handsome - with his blazing sword in his right hand. And here the vision for me alone came to an end, and it became universal communication.
The archangel, pointing to Our Lady, thoroughly lovely in her virginal humility - her gracefulness as an Eternal Girl is indescribable - cried out, “Set the weapon that is Mary against the Great Serpent that is advancing!” What a powerful voice! It shook the atmosphere, like the sound of a harmonious thunder-clap. Our Lady lowered her head, looking at the earth with boundless compassion.... And the archangel powerfully cried out three times. The defending archangel was very severe and imperious.... After the third cry and a pause following it, he prostrated himself before Mary, venerating Her by saying, “You alone are a defense! You alone are victorious! You alone are the hope of salvation against Satanic venom. Mother of the One who is without equal, I greet you, my Queen.”
He was still prostrate when the archangel St. Gabriel came racing down in flight from the Heavens to the earth, bringing with him a light compared to which St. Michael’s splendor was tenuous. He was holding a golden thurible smoking with incense in his hands. His appearance - his hair and clothing were golden and white - was spiritual, though, in order to be visible to my humanity, it was weighed down with a human exterior. His figure gave off light, the joyful light of Paradise. Singing - for the voice of St. Gabriel is a very soft, indescribable sound - he flew around Mary, incensing Her with his thurible, saying, “Hail Mary! Queen of the Angels, salvation of men, love of the Triune God! After God, who is like you, Mary! Hail, most glorious Queen in Heaven, medicine for all the illnesses killing spirits and extinguishing Faith, Hope, and Charity in men. Hail, Mary!”
What a blessed night! For a long time I remained contemplating the glorious Virgin and the two shining, very different Archangels, until a peaceful sleep (after so many nights of acute agonies) took me, lasting until the morning, when I reawakened and everything freshly came to mind again, and my heart was filled with the same joy as when I was seeing.
A disturbing thought was mixed, though, with my inner spiritual joy - the words of St. Michael: “Set the weapon that is ‘Mary’ against the great Serpent that is advancing.” Words with a connection to many others... which caused me fear concerning the Church of Rome and us, poor and very weak Christians of the twentieth century.
To provide the most exact possible indication of the lofty place between heaven and earth where I saw the vision unfolding of the angelic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I shall state that the tomb of Cecilia Metella was at my back - that is, behind me - to the left (my back was turned towards Rome), to the northeast of the place, while on my right I saw the Tiber flowing slowly towards the sea.
Today was the third day, after having asked Our Lady of the Three Fountains, in which I have received the physical grace I begged for.
324 See the entry for that date.
325 See the section entitled “In Calabria,” in Part Four of the Autobiography.