In the midst of a rainy and cold weekend in Rome, we bring you a lovely photo of a shrine to the Virgin that’s located on Viale Trastevere, just across the street from the Ministry of Public Education. The shrine, as seen in the photo, is a popular one, as attested by the hundreds of marble plaques thanking Mary for her intercession. There are always candles, too, and fresh flowers and plants, and more often than not a devotee who has stopped to say a prayer.
It’s not just the eCool team that loves this site. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, an author who wrote beautifully about Rome (and the rest of Italy) until her recent death, admired this shrine as well. And so we bring you a passage from her book, Italian Days:
Rome is a city in which life exists in the midst of death, death in the midst of life. [On Viale Trastevere] there is a wall at which I often stop to refresh my spirits; it is a shrine to the Virgin–in the midst of clamour, salubrious naivete: a collection of pictures of those in peril saved by Mary; ex-votos, tin or silver representations of body parts for which Mary’s healing grace is asked; and testimonails to her efficacious intercession. (I am at the post office, I always think, when I sotp here, the post office where the Virgin collects her mail and simple sprays of flowers.) Each day there is a new thank-you note, a new request; it makes one quite happy to have left one’s house.
