Santa Domenica di Placanica, Italy (1968)

Summary

Maria Livia had been married twenty years when she began to receive visions and apparitions in 1990. At first she only told her confessor, but later confided in her husband and immediate family. She did not speak publicly about this until the year 2000 when, she claims, Our Lady instructed her to build the shrine on the Cerro.

Between 1990 and 2000, she became friends with the enclosed Carmelite nuns in St Bernard’s monastery in Salta. She described to them the Virgin she sees in the apparitions: she has the face of a 14 year old girl, the age at which Our Lady conceived Jesus, is kneeling, and wears a white mantle and veil. The nuns made a statue based on her description, but were unable to paint the exact colour of the eyes. But soon after they completed their work, Maria Livia discovered that the eyes of the Virgin had been mysteriously painted the right colour – aquamarine. She and the nuns interpreted this as something ‘miraculous’.

1950

Fratel Cosimo Fragomeni was born in Santa Domenica di Placanica, a village of Calabria, one of the poorest regions in Italy. From an early age he was a committed Roman Catholic.

May 11th 1968

He reported to the village priest, don Rocco Gregorace that the Mother of God, standing on a rock (scoglio), appeared to him. The Virgin Mary asked Cosimo to transform the valley into a shrine in order to bring people closer to God.

May 12th 1968

The second apparition to Cosimo.

May 13th 1968

The third apparition to Cosimo.

May 14th 1968

The fourth apparition to Cosimo.

For that reason on the rock of the apparition, Cosimo built a little chapel, and called the shrine “Madonna dello Scoglio” (Our Lady of The Rock) because the Virgin Mary appeared to him on the top of the rock. He also placed a marble statue of Our Lady on the rock of the apparitions. Pilgrims come from all over the world to pray and touch the sacred rock, through the metal fencing that circumscribes it, testifying great miracles and conversions.

Shortly after the apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Cosimo began to lead prayer and healing sessions for pilgrims and many people were cured from diseases. Although he had received little formal education, he was admitted to the lay order of the Franciscan brothers with the name of "Fratel Cosimo”. He leads a mystical life, living in solitude in a house near the apparition rock, fasting and praying like an hermit, and avoiding any sense of celebrity. Fratel Cosimo is a man of God, appreciated by his Bishop for his obedience and humility to the Catholic Church. He emphasizes prayer as the primary vehicle for opening oneself to God and for receiving spiritual and physical healing.

Donations of the pilgrims have allowed the shrine grounds and facilities to be expanded. A foundation and a rosary prayer group have been established.

Dec 8th, 2007

The local Bishop Mons. Morosini, declared the “Scoglio” an official Catholic shrine.