LA CROSSE — The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe will host the Relics of the Passion program throughout Divine Mercy weekend, Friday through Sunday, April 1 to 3, starting at 10 a.m. each day. The program will be at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The event, designed to connect participants to the roots of their faith, is sponsored by the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in collaboration with the Apostolate for Holy Relics (AHR), an organization founded 10 years ago in Los Angeles.
MADISON — “Wow! What a 23 hours with the relic of St. Maria Goretti’s body in our parish and our church,” wrote Msgr. Michael Burke, pastor at St. Maria Goretti Parish in Madison, in his parish bulletin.
Relics of the parish’s patroness were at the parish from the morning of October 16 to the morning of October 17. More than 13,000 people from 11 states were estimated to have venerated the relics. According to the parish, there were two medically confirmed healings.
It was a birthday party unlike any other.
“This has been unbelievable . . . the greatest experience ever for this parish.”
Those words from Msgr. Michael Burke, pastor of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Madison, are the simplest way to sum up the 24-hour period in which the relics of St. Maria Goretti were at the parish from the morning of October 16 — the 125th anniversary of her birth — to the morning of October 17.
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| St. Maria Goretti’s remains are encased inside a glass-sided casket. Inside the casket is a wax statue, which contains her skeletal remains. Her body is not incorrupt, and none of the sacred remains are visible. Nevertheless, the skeleton is complete save for small fragments that have been taken for placement in altars and for use in the Church’s ministry. (File photo) |
MADISON — St. Maria Goretti Parish is one of more than 50 sites in the United States to host the major relics of its patron saint, St. Maria Goretti, as part of the “Pilgrimage of Mercy: The Tour of the Major Relics of St. Maria Goretti.”
The relics will be brought into the church at 5313 Flad Ave. on Friday, Oct. 16, at 8 a.m. and lie in repose there for public veneration beginning at 9 a.m. that day until 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison will celebrate a Solemn Mass at 7 p.m. on Friday evening.
Hundreds of pilgrims are expected to walk past the reliquary during the 22-hour period. October 16 is St. Maria Goretti’s 125th birthday.
Fr. Carlos Martins, CC, a Custos Reliquiarum (ecclesiastically appointed curate of relics) and director of Treasures of the Church, will lead the tour of the United States with the sacred remains of St. Maria Goretti. She is an immensely popular saint, and this is the first time her body travels to the United States and only the second time she has left Italy.
The youngest canonized saint in the Catholic Church, the 11-year-old Maria Goretti died July 6, 1902, after being stabbed 14 times in an attempted rape.
Her last words on her deathbed were of mercy toward her 20-year-old attacker: “I forgive Alessandro Serenelli . . . and I want him with me in heaven forever.”
The unrepentant Serenelli famously reported receiving an apparition of his victim within his prison cell, some six years into his 30-year sentence. That occasion began his dramatic transformation from being a violent and ruthless man to that of a gentle and renewed soul intent on spreading devotion to God and his saintly victim. In his words, “Maria’s forgiveness saved me.”
ASHTON/SUN PRAIRIE — St. Peter Parish in Ashton and Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish in Sun Prairie will host an exhibition of sacred relics with Fr. Carlos Martins of the Companions of the Cross.
St. Peter Parish, 7121 County Hwy. K, will host an evening of exposition and presentation on hundreds of sacred relics on Monday, June 24. The evening will begin at 7 p.m. with catechesis on holy relics by Father Martins in the church building and will continue with the relics exhibition in the school building.
As part of the year-long celebration of the parish’s 150th anniversary, Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish, 221 Columbus St., Sun Prairie, will present a teaching and exposition of sacred relics on Tuesday, June 25, at 7 p.m. Father Martins will teach about these holy objects.
“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days” (Galatians 1:18).
In my previous two-part preparatory article, I outlined the historical context and current format and content of the ad limina apostolorum pilgrimage, literally, “to the threshold of the apostles,” by bishops to Rome on a quinquennial basis, i.e., five-year basis.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino and the bishops of Region VII, comprising Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, recently completed their pilgrimage and I’ll offer a brief reflection in thanksgiving as a privileged pilgrim accompanying Bishop Morlino on the ad limina pilgrimage.
I extend my deepest thanks to Bishop Morlino for the opportunity to assist him and accompany him on the ad limina pilgrimage.
