Grace Pending
Muro Lucano is an ancient, tiny, hillside village located in Potenza, Italy.
With little work available, heavy migration over the years, and hilly terrain, its last official population count, as of 2009, was just 5,812. The Village’s website today claims that the population is over 6,000, still a far cry from over 10,000 just a few decades ago.
Economically distressed for years, Muro Lucano is not a thriving community.
Its major claim to fame, as you can well imagine, is very limited and has been mostly forgotten:
The city is situated on the site of the ancient Numistri, at the foot of the Apennines, the scene of a battle between Hannibal and Marcellus in the second Punic war [218 to 201 BC].
Yet this tiny Italian village holds a fascination for me for two reasons.
First, three of my grandparents were born in Muro Lucano.
In fact, my two grandfathers were best friends and grew up together, and went to school together, before making their way, separately, to America some decades later.
And I can still trace the Zampino lineage there back a few hundred years (at least as far as the internet is trustworthy enough for such an endeavor!).
Moreover, a great-uncle, a Monsignor who had stayed behind, many decades ago founded a boys orphanage in the Village that, as far as I know, still operates today.
I am ashamed to admit that I have yet to visit Muro Lucano. But one day I just might show up randomly on the doorsteps of one of the last remaining Zampinos who still reside there.
Second, the Saint whom we honor today, Gerard Majella, was born in Muro Lucano in 1726.
St. Gerard is the patron of children, especially unborn children, women in childbirth, mothers, expectant mothers, falsely accused people, and, of course, the village of his birth.
Not a well know saint for sure, numerous miracles have been attributed to St. Gerard’s intercession, before and after his early death at the young age of 29:
Some of Majella’s reported miracles include: restoring life to a boy who had fallen from a high cliff; he blessed the scanty supply of wheat belonging to a poor family, and it lasted until the next harvest; several times he multiplied the bread that he was distributing to the poor. One day he walked across the water to lead a boatload of fishermen through stormy waves to the safety of the shore. He was reputed to have had the gift of bilocation and the ability to read souls.
I’ve embedded a short video below with some additional information about this powerful, yet little called upon, intercessor.
If you know an expectant mother, especially one who now finds herself in distress and faced with a life-decision concerning her unborn child, you might look to St. Gerard and offer up a prayer on their behalf.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite St. Gerard quotes (yes true, there aren’t many!):
Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support?
Peace
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons
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