The recent Vatican approval of an Italian mystical circumstance known as “Our Lady of the Rock” was interesting on several levels.
First, of course, any Vatican approbation of mysticism is unusual and newsworthy. Until recently, Rome could go many years, even decades, between official recognitions.
It took several centuries for what has turned out to be major apparitions in France, at Laus, to receive a nod from the Vatican (approval: 2008; events: between 1664 and 1718).
Our Lady of the Rock was far more recent, beginning in 2016 in the southern Italian diocese of Locri-Gerace.
As the Vatican, in its approval, noted:
“This Sanctuary, which began as a simple chapel, was erected on 11 February 2016 following a young believer’s intense spiritual experience. Since then, it has attracted the interest of many other faithful people from different backgrounds, especially those who are suffering and sick. Over the years, the place has increasingly attracted devout attendance and pilgrimages under the supervision of the competent Ordinary.
“An intense spiritual activity of prayer and listening has developed in this place. [It has been] written: ‘The fruits of Christian life in those who frequent the Rock [i.e., the shrine] are evident, such as the existence of the spirit of prayer, conversions, some vocations to the priesthood and religious life, testimonies of charity, as well as a healthy devotion, and other spiritual fruits.’”
This Marian shrine in Santa Domenica, a tiny village in the Italian region of Calabria, was built around a boulder said to be the site of Mary’s alleged appearances to 18-year-old Cosimo Fragomeni as he was returning home from work in the fields.
The story began on May 11, 1968. Brother Cosimo was 18 and living in poverty with his family, grappling daily with survival—working arid land, tending to livestock, and having to abandon school. It was a time when many young people across Italy and Europe were protesting for educational reforms and political change, in the spirit of rebellion sweeping most of the West. Cosimo was too busy helping his family survive.
On the day in question, the young lad was returning from the pasture and burdened with forage grass when he encountered a blinding light coming from a large, dark limestone known as the Scoglio near his home.
The lumination revealed a young woman about his age who delivered the first of four messages (May 11-May 14). Echoing the tone of Fatima, she urged Cosimo to pray the Rosary as she sought to make the location a hub of spirituality, offering welcome to all.
Initially overwhelmed and scared, Cosimo wanted to flee. (“It was beyond my wildest dreams,” he acknowledged.) But compelled by a voice calling to him, he returned, and “from that moment, I was filled with an infinite desire for compassion, my heart brimming with love.”
Despite not knowing initially how to fulfill the Divine requests, the young man worked and prayed fervently (sometimes up to twenty rosaries a day) until he felt enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
“Our Lady asked me to transform this valley into a significant spiritual center, a place where souls will find peace and refreshment, a window to heaven opened by God through my mediation to show His mercy,” Brother Cosimo later explained, recounting the Virgin’s message from that transcendental and transformative day in 1968. Since then, the site has attracted hundreds of thousands, reaching over a million pilgrims annually before the pandemic and from all corners of the globe.
The bishop of Locri Gerace, Monsignor Francesco Oliva, remarked on the site’s unlikely allure given its remote location and lack of conventional attractions. “Many wonder why so many have visited the Scoglio for over forty years. Despite the challenging roads and absence of art or entertainment, the only explanation is ‘digitus Dei est hic’—here, there is the finger of God. This is evident in the devoutness of the faithful, the lines at the confessionals, the silent prayers before the Virgin’s Scoglio, and the contemplation during holy ceremonies.”
The Vatican accepted that decree in July.
As Reggio Today noted, “Among the many testimonies collected, priestly vocations have matured through the experience of prayer on the Scoglio. Many people claim to have been healed by prayer or by the blessing of Brother Cosimo. Others after bathing in the water of the Madonna’s fountain, which flowed on the sacred site at the direction of Brother Cosimo. Several people have expressed having obtained a grace, personal or for their loved ones, through the simple prayer of the Holy Rosary. Others have been healed by touching the accessible part of the Scoglio dell’apparizione, located next to the entrance to the crypt.
“’A desperate father,’ – the writer Imma Divino expressed in this regard – ‘leaned a garment against the rock of the Scoglio to bring to his son in a coma due to acute pancreatitis, and the boy was cured.’ Listing all the testimonies preserved at the Scoglio would be impossible: the case history is vast, as are the ills that afflict humanity. But among the emblematic testimonies, one cannot fail to mention that of Rita, who must be considered the living testimony of the love and healing power of God.”
And Rita?
Turns out she was a sixty-six-year-old who was severely afflicted with typhoid osteomyelitis along with bone sarcoma—deadly cancer.
The woman could hardly move on her own volition and science simply couldn’t offer any real assistance.
The prognosis: death following exhausting suffering.
And for thirteen and a half years, in fact, Rita was confined to a wheelchair as the tumor slowly and inexorably consumed her bones, soon putting her in bed full-time. Just before visiting the site, a priest had administered the Sacrament of “Extreme Unction” (as it was called back then). The woman had been visiting the rock, and, in desperation, was brought back there.
Fast forward to August 13, 1988.
As Rita was to recount, “Brother Cosimo began to pray over me and, at a certain point, he said to me, ‘At this moment it is not I who is speaking to you, but Jesus who is repeating the same words he said to the paralytic in Galilee: Get up and walk!’”
“Lifted up by a mysterious force,” she continued, “I began to fly without touching the ground. At a certain point, it was as if I had been placed with my feet on the ground, outside the room where Brother Cosimo had welcomed me and prayed, I began to go down the steps of the churchyard, I went towards the Scoglio delle apparizioni and I prayed. Then I went back up the steps, entered the chapel, and stopped in prayer in front of the painting of the Virgin Mary. But I didn’t realize what was happening. Only when that state, which they told me was ecstasy, ended did I realize the miracle.”
Healed!
The first apparition? “I looked and I saw before my eyes, right on the top of the Scoglio, a sweet figure of a young woman, dark-skinned, about 18 years old, with long dark brown hair,” Cosimo had recounted. “She was barefoot, with her hands clasped, surrounded all around by a halo of brilliant light and behind her shoulders you could see something like a bright sun, with long golden rays. She was wearing a snow-white dress, a belt and a blue cloak, a transparent white veil on her head, sprinkled with stars and on her wrist a glittering rosary of pearls.”
During that and the subsequent three apparitions, a light shone upon the rock.
Not many apparitions, but enough, wouldn’t you say?
