Θαύματα κι οράματα σ' όλο τον κόσμο: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
APPARITIONS IN ITALY AND SWITZERLAND: INSTEAD OF THE MONSTRANCE THE FACE OF JESUS APPEARED
On a hill in a forest near Giubiasco, in the southern part of Switzerland, stands the chapel Madonna of the Angels. On the 13th of every month pilgrims from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein and France come there to attend prayer healing meetings with Pino Casagrande, to whom, during the meeting, the Virgin Mary appears. The rosary is sung for some hours, healings take place, photographs taken show signs of the regular appearance of the Holy Mother. Pino Casagrande was born on 22 July 1924 in Italy. He is married and has two adult children, runs a small business, and is known as an artist painter. He lives in Vercelli, North Italy. He never thought that such experiences would be his one day. Together with his wife he joined a prayer group called Renewal in the Spirit. In 1982, he realised that something inexplicable was happening in this group. He heard languages which nobody understood. He heard music from far away which he had never heard before, and he was amazed. He recorded this music on audio tapes, and later, when he tried to delete it, it would not erase. (Padre Grassi from Rome announced this hearing as a gift of God). This was the beginning.
In September 1982, Sister Pierina of Colma di Valduggia, Italy, invited Pino Casagrande to her home to take some pictures of a deaf and dumb lady who was working there. When developed, the photograph showed a Madonna. On 13 August, he took a photograph of an altar and for the first time the face of Jesus appeared on the picture.
The account of Don Vittorio, vicar of Colma di Valduggia, as he witnessed it: On the night of 15 August 1983, about 50 people took part in the second meeting of the Friends of Gethsemani in Colma di Valduggia, Vercelli province. Every day, between 11.30 am and 1.30 pm a solemn hour of adoration was held at the parish church. Every evening, some people from the neighbouring village of Borgosesia who had joined the Friends of Gethsemani one year before, came to pray with us. Among them was the painter Pino Casagrande. On Saturday 13 August, he felt the urge to come in the morning instead of the evening. He took his polaroid camera with him. He arrived at 11 am and joined us for the adoration hour. At a certain moment it was about 12 noon he felt an urge to photograph the altar. The Monstrance had been placed between flowers and candles. When he looked at the picture (it was still moist) he turned pale and showed it to Paul and to others who stood near him. Instead of the Monstrance, as would have been logical, there appeared the holy face of Jesus with a gentle expression of sadness.
During the adoration I was sitting in front so that only at the end could I see the photograph. I noticed streams of light emanating from the face of Jesus, and that he looked like someone who knows about Eternity.
For us, the Friends of Gethsemani, the question was, what was the significance of the sign that Jesus was giving us. That in the holy Eucharist He is alive and present in a real, true way? That we add to the expiation night-watch on Thursdays a Lenten penance? We decided to do it on every first Friday of the month, and those more generous with their time would do it every Friday night.
About two months later, on 12 and 18 October, the same face of Jesus appeared again on Pino Casagrandes photographs. In spring 1985 there appeared on a photograph the profile of Padre Pio, to the right of the face of Jesus. From then on, the photographs showed alternately the faces of the Madonna, Jesus or a dove, or a eucharistic host with the face of Jesus.
After a prayer meeting in a private home in Lugano on the night of 8- 9 August 1985, Pino Casagrande witnessed for the first time the Madonna who appeared before him for about 8-10 minutes. After the appearance, Pino Casagrande said to his friends: I saw the Madonna, all in white, she smiled and spoke to me. She hovered in the air.
Through the seer Anna Polli from Ascona, Switzerland, who died in December 1985, he received in 1983 messages to go to a certain small chapel on the 13th of the month. The seer had seen the place in a vision but neither she nor Casagrande knew where it was. One day, when he was in the surroundings of Bellinzona, he discovered in a prospectus that the chapel must be Madonna degli Angeli. On 13 July 1987, when he was at this chapel with a group of friends, he received the first vision and message from the Holy Mother. Since then, every 13th of the month, the prayer healing meetings have continued. For a few months pilgrims have visited this place every day. Now a prayer chapel has been set up in the forest near the Madonna of the Angels chapel, which is open to the public only on special occasions.
In a Swiss catholic weekly newspaper of 6 July 1990, the journalist Stefan Treier writes about this place: Through a message from the Madonna to Pino Casagrande, this place is expected to become a prayer centre, and in the future there will be a water source with healing properties. Pino Casagrande continues to have visions of the Virgin Mary during prayer meetings, not only in Switzerland but also in Northern Italy.
(excerpted from SHARE INTERNATIONAL, October 1993)
* * *