The Castelpetroso apparitions of Our Lady of Sorrows

Castelpetroso is a small town in the province of Isernia, in Molise. Above it rise the western slopes of Monte Patalecchia. A rocky spot there is called Cesa tra Santi. In March 1888 two peasant women were sent up the hill to find a stray sheep. Fabiana Cicchino, aged 35, came from the hamlet of Pastine, while Serafina Valentino, a married woman, was 34.

22 March 1888. Cicchino noticed an unusual light coming from a hollow in the rock and went closer. In its rays appeared a young, very beautiful, pale lady with dishevelled hair, a deep red dress and a dark mantle. She described the Sorrowful Virgin kneeling, her arms open and her gaze raised heavenward, with seven swords piercing her heart. At her feet lay the dead Jesus, covered with blood and wounds.

Valentino looked into the same rock. She initially saw nothing. Then came 1 April 1888. Easter Sunday. The women returned, and this time Serafina also witnessed the apparition.

Word spread fast. Within a few days some four thousand people visited the spot, double the number of those living there. A child and an avowed heretic reported seeing Mary. A sceptic was said to have seen Our Lady four times in half an hour. Others described her as Our Lady of Mount Carmel or the Queen of the Holy Rosary, sometimes with saints and "angelic troops".

In May 1888 a spring appeared at the foot of the rock. Healings were claimed. Angelo Verna, a six-year-old boy said to be mute from birth, reportedly began to speak after drinking the water. Augusto Acquaderni, the 12-year-old son of Count Carlo Acquaderni of Bologna, was said to be cured of bone tuberculosis.

Bishop Francesco Macarone Palmieri of Boiano placed the site under control and opened a canonical inquiry. On 26 September 1888 he went to Cesa tra Santi himself, with Don Nardone, the archpriest of Boiano. His testimony was simple. "When I went to the sacred place, focusing on prayer, I had the apparition of the Virgin." On 23 February 1889 he issued a formal declaration, informed Pope Leo XIII and set up a diocesan commission.

On 18 December 1889 Fr Giuseppe Lais of the Vatican Observatory examined the site. He is quoted as saying that optical delusion was "out of the question" and that "the natural formation of the rocks excludes the theory of trickery."

Not everyone was convinced. On 13 May 1888 the Isernia weekly Il Grillo blamed the visions on an exalted imagination. It reportedly changed its position after the bishop's visit. Don Achille Ferrara, archpriest of Castelpetroso, did not at first believe the women. No formal finding of a hoax was ever made.

In September 1890 about 30,000 people gathered to lay the foundation stone of a neo-Gothic sanctuary designed by Francesco Gualandi of Bologna. Three generations of the Gualandi family worked on it. It was consecrated on 21 September 1975. In 1973 Paul VI made the Addolorata patroness of Molise, and today the shrine is promoted as the Little Lourdes of Italy. John Paul II said Mass there on 19 March 1995, and Pope Francis acknowledged the apparition on 5 July 2014.