Italian religious visionary (1911–1991)
Pierina Gilli (August 3, 1911 – January 12, 1991), was an Italian visionary who claimed to receive apparitions and messages from the Virgin Mary in 1947 and 1966. The Marian apparitions were originally determined by the local ordinary, after consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), to be lacking in sufficient evidence of credibility. However, a process of review which began in 2013 and is ongoing as of 2022 has reached a provisional finding of the 'validity and exemplarity of the mystical-spiritual experience of Pierina, as well as the richness of her existential, humble and virtuous story.' Having reached a favourable view of the person of the visionary, the diocese is conducting a review of the theology of Pierina's writings in the light of Catholic teaching.
Pierina was born in the municipality of Montichiari which is located in the Brescia province of the Lombardy region in northern Italy. She died there when she was 79 years old. She is mainly known as the seer who claimed the Blessed Virgin Mary revealed herself as Rosa Mystica; the message focussed on Our Lady's motherly care for her deeply beloved consecrated souls of priests and of male and female members of religious institutes within the Roman Catholic Church.
Childhood.
Pierina Gilli was born on August 3, 1911, in the San Giorgio section of the northern Italian municipality of Montichiari. Her parents, Pancrazio Gilli and Rosa Bartoli, had three children, of which Pierina was the eldest. Her family was poor, as her father worked as a daily hired farm-worker. Due to its limited household income, the family often moved to various residences in Montichiari.
When Pierina was seven years old her father, died, leaving her mother to support the three children. Between 1918 and 1922, Pierina was placed in a Montichiari orphanage, conducted by the sisters of the Handmaids of Charity. This experience had a lasting impact on Pierina. Pierina received her First Holy Communion in the orphanage when she was eight.
Pierina returned to her family to assist her mother with the care of her two younger siblings, at the age of 11. At age 12, her mother (who was now remarried), and eight siblings moved to live in a cottage with her step-family. Pierina claimed she had received inappropriate attention from her step-father. Although not wishing to introduce any discord into these two families that were now living together, Pierina eventually confided everything to her mother. Partly due to that trauma, Pierina decided to consider a vocation in the religious life at age seventeen. Her confessor advised her to wait, in order to further discern any genuine religious calling to the consecrated life.
Despite all of Pierina's troubles, a soothing glimpse of her caring and devout family upbringing can be observed by this early childhood reminiscence from Pierina's diary: "I was the first of nine children, I the first to be delighted in the joy, the bliss, and the caresses of my parents. The day of 3 August 1911 was the dawn of my earthly coming, and I was baptized on August 5, the feast of the Madonna of the Snow; on that given day, my Mamma consecrated me to the true Mamma in Heaven, so that her maternal protection would preserve me as white and pure as snow.".
Young Adulthood.
At eighteen, Pierina worked as a children's assistant at a communal nursery school in Montichiari. When she was twenty years old, a marriage proposal was made to her by an honest and well-intentioned young man. For two months Pierina intimately suffered so much, because she did not feel herself to be called to the married life, but rather, she felt that the Lord wanted her totally for Himself. Her confessor finally spoke concerning her most genuine thoughts, thus confirming her vocation. Pierina was initially accepted as a postulant by the religious sisters' community of the Handmaids of Charity, but this soon had to be set aside for the first time by Pierina due to her health problems, including pleurisy, that persisted for several months. Instead, Pierina sought employment, and she worked for about seven years (from age 20 to 26: from 1931 to 1937) as a domestic servant of Father Giuseppe Brochini, and as caretaker of his elderly (frail and blind) mother, in the nearby small town of Carpenedolo.
Pierina then focused on obtaining her nursing license at the "White Villa" Care Home (managed by the Sisters of Charity of St. Antida Thouret) in the city of Brescia. Subsequently, starting at age 29, and throughout the four years of World War II (1941–1945), she worked as a licensed nurse's aide in the Civil Hospital (managed by the Handmaids of Charity) in the smaller city of Desenzano del Garda, located on the southern shore of Lake Garda, within sight of the north Italian Alps.
Apparitions of Sister Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa.
Sister Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa (Mary Crucified of the Rose) was the foundress of the congregation of the Handmaids of Charity. She died in 1855, and was canonized a saint on June 12, 1954, by Pope Pius XII.
On April 14, 1944, Pierina, then 32 years old, was accepted as a postulant by the Handmaids of Charity. She never attained the profession of final religious vows at this religious institute. Even so, this congregation of women deeply influenced her spiritual growth during her formative years, continuing well into her later life. She was subsequently assigned as a nurse at the Children's Hospital in the city of Brescia. On December 1, 1944, Pierina contracted meningitis, and was taken to her religious order's infirmary in Ronco for infectious isolation and medical treatment. The infirmary was located in a tiny section of the small Alpine village of Corteno Golgi, in the Brescia province. After twelve days in a comatose state Pierina was administered the Last Rites. Pierina recorded that beginning December 17, 1944, Sister Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa began to appear to her. Sister Maria held a vial of ointment that was given to her by Our Lady, and she anointed Pierina, saying comfortingly to her: "You will be cured, but you will have a heavy cross to bear."
On November 2, 1946, Pierina was stricken by an intestinal occlusion and was again taken to the Civil Hospital in the Montichiari. During the night of November 23–24, 1946, Blessed Maria Crocifissa appeared to her again. Also, for the first time, the Madonna appeared, as described in Pierina's diary: "Then I see the most beautiful Lady, as if transparent, dressed in purple with a white veil that descends from her head to her feet; she held her arms open, and I saw three swords piercing her heart." Our Lady did not speak to, nor converse with, Pierina at that time.
A few months later, on March 12, 1947, after suffering heart failure followed by renal colic, Pierina had to be admitted again to the Civil Hospital of Montichiari, where she lost consciousness, She was assisted by her congregational sisters as well as by her mother and sisters, who feared that she might die. Again, Pierina convalesced slowly. During the month of May 1947, Pierina was subjected to diabolical vexations and experienced a vision of Hell.
Apparitions of Mary the Mystical Rose.
1947: First Cycle of Marian Apparitions at Montichiari.
In the summer of 1947, Pierina again witnessed apparitions of Sister Maria, with daily visions of her from June 11 to July 12, 1947, as well as a second apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary with three swords piercing her Immaculate Heart. It was at 3:15 am on the night of 1 June 1947, during the recitation of the Rosary, when the Madonna said just three words to her: "Preghiera, Sacrificio, Penitenza" (Prayer, Sacrifice, Penance). Pierina recovered once more. Pierina had offered her sufferings for the sanctification of Roman Catholic consecrated souls (namely, for the priests and for members of male and female religious institutes, as listed in the Holy See's "Pontifical Yearbook", in Italian, "Annuario Pontificio").
Then, on July 13, 1947, there occurred the first "grand" apparition. As noted in Pierina's diary, the Blessed Virgin Mary was accompanied by the Blessed Sister Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa; and Our Lady appeared in a splendidly different manner: in a white dress and with a white cape around her head that reached to the floor; the three swords were on the floor, and on the chest of the Virgin were three roses: one white, one red, and one gold. She explained to Pierina,
I am the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of you. Our Lord sends me to bring a new Marian devotion for all male and female institutes, religious orders, and secular priests. I promise those religious institutes, orders and secular priests who venerate me in this special way my special protection, an increase of spiritual vocations, few betrayed vocations, and great sanctity among the servants of God. I wish the 13th day of each month to be celebrated as the day of Mary. On the 12 preceding days, special prayers of preparation should be said.
According to Pierina, Mary then explained to the meaning of the three swords and the three roses. The first sword means loss of the vocation as a priest or a monk. The second sword means priests, monks, and nuns who live in deadly sin. The third sword means priests and monks who while giving up their vocation, often lose also their faith, and become enemies of the Church. The white rose means the spirit of prayer. The red rose means the spirit of expiation and sacrifice. The yellow or golden rose means the spirit of penitence. Additionally, on these first thirteen days of every month, Mary asked for the prayerful observance of the following four long-standing Roman Catholic devotional practices: the Holy Mass, the Holy Communion, the Holy Rosary, and the Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration.
Notable developments therefore took place on June 1 and July 13. The first development is that the initially silent Madonna (first appearing on the night of November 23–24, 1946) becomes the speaking Madonna (from 1 June 1947). The second is one of appearance: the sorrowful and tearful Madonna dressed in purple (reported by Pierina on the night of 23–24 November 1946 and again on 1 June 1947) gives way to the white-clad Rosa Mystica from 13 July 1947, when Mary appears in a white dress and long white cape, with three roses: white, red, and gold, adorning her Immaculate Heart.
Later in that same year, on October 22, 1947, at 7:00 pm, while the Rosary was being recited by Pierina and others in the chapel of the Montichiari hospital of Pierina's religious order where she was serving as a nurse, Pierina saw a luminous ray of light emanating from the tabernacle to a nearby statue of Blessed Sister Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa holding a crucifix. She saw the statue of Sister Maria and the figure on the Crucifix seemed to become animated; Pierina rose up and knelt in front of the statue, and, from the crucifix in its hands, were emerging drops of blood, which Pierina wiped dry with the purification cloth from the altar, as instructed by her holy foundress.
The Blessed Sister Maria then spoke grievingly to Pierina: "See how much blood is lost uselessly"; and next the holy foundress pleadingly asked Pierina to recite the following prayer: "My Jesus, mercy, pardon our sins." Then, Mary the Mystical Rose appeared, announcing her final visitation to the premises of the Handmaids of Charity, by saying to Pierina:
For the last time I come to request the devotion already recommended at other times. My divine Son wanted to leave proof by his most precious Blood in order to witness how great is his love for all humanity, from which is returned such great offenses. Get the purification cloth, and show it to all here present. Behold, the drops of blood of the Lord. Let it be covered by a white cloth, and then let it be exposed for three days in this chapel, together with the statute of Sister Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa that will become miraculous for the sake of the devotion of the faithful. Have the coming factual test be referred to the Bishop, and say to him that conversions and revival of faith will verify it. I interpose myself as Mediatrix between all human