In this series, condensed from a book written by Fr. Northcote prior to 1868 on various famous Sanctuaries of Our Lady, the author succeeds in defending the honor of Our Blessed Mother and the truth of the Catholic Faith against the wily criticism of many Protestants.
Concerning the following article, it is important to note that, as caves abound in Italy, there are many shrines "della Grotta" (of the Grotto); likewise there are many images of Our Lady called "Avvocata" (Advocate). The shrine Fr. Northcote has written about is now known almost exclusively as "dell' Avvocatella" (of the Little Advocate). Only a few miles away is another "dell' Avvocata" shrine, which also has its own "grotto" as well as a footpath to the same monastery mentioned below.
I pass by Santa Maria di Constantinopoli, di Piedegrotta, della Sanità, della Vita, and others within the city of Naples,
each of which has its own history, worthy of being known, that I may find room to speak of a sanctuary more modern than these,
the Madonna della Grotta, as it is called in its own immediate neighborhood, or Santa Maria Avvocata dei Peccatori
(Advocate of Sinners), as it is more fully described by those who have written of it in books.
Catholic travelers, who, after having visited the shrine of St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori at Pagani, and the ancient Baptistery of Santa Maria Maggiore at Nocera, would go on to the shrines of St. Matthew and St. Gregory VII at Salerno, not infrequently would also make a little detour from the high road, as soon as they had passed La Cava, that they might visit the famous Benedictine monastery of La Trinità. The road by which the ascent to this monastery is generally made passes a little to the right of the sanctuary of which we are speaking, and hides from the unconscious traveler the very beautiful scenery which is so near him; but if he turned aside to the left, soon after having passed the village of San Cesareo, two minutes walk would suffice to bring him to the edge of a long, deep, narrow, and precipitous ravine, clothed with trees down to the brink of the stream which rushes along the bottom, and crowned on either side with a chapel of the Madonna.
At present there is a very safe and commodious path, leading to the mill which is a little farther up the valley, and a bridge whereby one may cross from one side to the other. But in the 17th century, at which time our history begins, this path was neither safe nor convenient; it had a very bad name, and was said to be infested by evil spirits. One day, in the year 1654, as a certain Don Federigo, a priest of La Cava, was going along by this way to San Pietro a Dragonea, one of the hamlets belonging to the parish of San Cesareo, he had (or imagined he had, for it makes no difference to our story), an encounter with some of these spirits, just at the mouth of one of those grottoes, or natural cavities in the rock, which are so frequent in that neighborhood, and from whence La Cava itself is supposed to have derived its name.
On his return home, this good priest determined to place so dangerous a cavern under the immediate protection of the Madonna; but not having sufficient means to procure a statue or painting for this purpose, he was obliged to content himself with fastening to the rock a little print, which he happened to have, representing the Blessed Virgin, with the Dove and Cherubim over Her head, holding the Child Jesus in Her arms, and having St. Paul the first Hermit on Her right hand, and St. Onofrius on Her left. The title of this picture was the "Advocate of Sinners;" and as the print remained there, uninjured by time and by the dampness, during a period of forty-eight years, the cave gradually lost its old name of the Grotta degli Sportiglioni (or, of the bats), and received in its stead that of the Avvocatella.
Doubtless it had been saluted with many an Ave by the devotion of the passers-by during this half century; and at length, in the year 1702, Fra Angiolo Maria di Majuri, a lay brother of one of the Franciscan convents in La Cava, remarkable for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin, caused a copy of the engraving to be executed in fresco, in a little niche which he had prepared for it in the rock. At the same time he exhorted the neighbors to burn a lamp before it, and frequently repeated, in the presence of the parish priests and others, that that grotto, which had been the haunt of infernal spirits, would ere long become the house of God, and that the Mother of God would dispense from thence the treasures of Her power and goodness with a most generous hand. Of course the first part of this prophecy (so to call it) had a natural tendency to bring about its own fulfillment. One of the priests, who had often listened to Fra Angiolo’s confident assurances on this subject, caused an altar to be raised before the painting, a lamp to be kept burning, and the litanies and other devotional exercises to be frequently repeated there.
It happened on Saturday, the 19th of May, in the following year, that as a poor man, named Antonio Casaburi, accompanied by his son, a boy of six years old, was driving along this path a donkey laden with corn, the animal went too near the edge of the precipice and rolled down, carrying the boy along with him. The depth of the rock in this place was about 120 feet, so that the poor father expected nothing else than to see his son dashed to pieces at the bottom; nevertheless, with the natural instinct of a Catholic, he called loudly upon Santa Maria dell’ Avvocata whose shrine was at his side, to assist him in this hour of danger; and when, in company with two or three others who had been witnesses of the accident, on whom he had called from the mill to assist him, he arrived at the spot, he found the animal quietly grazing, the boy busily collecting the scattered grain, and both perfectly uninjured.
The fame of this miracle, which was attested to by three competent witnesses, besides the father and the child themselves,
drew such multitudes of persons to the grotto, that the crowd passing to and fro in so narrow a place became quite dangerous,
and leave was obtained from the proper ecclesiastical authorities to erect a spacious chapel there.
The building was carried on briskly, through the generous alms-giving of those who came to ask for grazie there,
and but few of them were "sent away empty;" but in the meanwhile a new Bishop had been appointed to the See of La Cava,
who determined to take all the precautions enjoined by the Council of Trent, and to inform himself,
by means of a congregation of theologians, and by the juridical examination of witnesses,
of the exact truth of the marvelous reports which were in circulation. The painting was boarded up,
and all access to it forbidden, whilst this examination was pending; but it soon appeared that the proofs
were too distinct and too numerous to admit of doubt. After fifteen days the people were once more gladdened
with the sight of the Avvocata, and the episcopal sanction was formally renewed to the undertaking in hand.
On the 7th of September, 1704, the first Mass was celebrated in the new church by one of the parish priests,
a man whose span of life had already exceeded "threescore years and ten," and who, having himself received
a signal grazia at the hands of this Advocate, consecrated the last years of his life to celebrating Her glories,
and, by order of the Bishop, published an account of them.
Every year, as the principal festa, which is in the month of May, comes round, numbers would crowd to visit the sanctuary, not only from Nocera and Salerno, but also from Castellamare, Sorrento, and even Naples itself; and at all times of the year, simple peasants from the adjoining villages, groups of women, members of the same family, or neighbors in the same village, suffering under some common affliction, could be seen wending their way through the chestnut groves of La Cava, with bare feet and disheveled hair, alternately reciting their Rosaries and Litanies until they reach this Church of the Grotta; here they kneel for awhile to repeat their devotions in the presence of the picture itself, and to make some little offering of flowers, or oil, or candles, after which they return to their homes, bearing with them some portion of the oil from the lamp that has been burning before the shrine, not doubting that, if it be God's will, the sick will receive the same benefits from the application of this oil, as we know from the testimony of St. Chrysostom (Hom. 32, al. 33 in St. Matt.), that the Christians of his days often experienced from the same remedy. It is in memory of such a humble pilgrimage, undertaken by kind-hearted villagers for the sick child of strangers making their summer residence amongst them in 1849, that this brief notice of their favorite shrine is here inserted.
Contact us: smr@salvemariaregina.info
Visit also: www.marienfried.com
