It is always the sea that seal the devotion of the Messina for Mary by feeding that hope that is proper to those who furrow the waves in search of a safe port. A bond that the inhabitants of peace feel strong, under the protection of the patroness the Madonna delle Grazie, which every year on the second Sunday of September is brought to procession.
A party heard by the Messina of Grotte and beyond, who yesterday accompanied the artistic simulacrum in procession. On the way to Maria, a journey participated by families, young people and children, the elderly and the sick, those who have been able to participate physically and those who saw the procession pass under the windows and the balconies of the house.
To pray, to ask and make thanks by entrusting joys and worries to her. The sound of the sirens of the ships greeted the exit of the simulacrum from the church, accompanied by the bearers, after the solemn mass concelebrated by the priests Bartolo Saltalamacchia and Gianfranco Centorrino; Then the first fires at sea, the higher lighthouse gang and the invocation of prayer during which the parish priest Don Francesco Venuti entrusted the young people of the city to the Madonna, the suffering in the body and spirit. He prayed for peace in the world and for those who live the discomfort of solitude or do not have the comfort of faith.
The institutional presence (the mayor Federico Basile with the commissioner Enzo Caruso, the president of the sixth district Francesco Pagano with the vicar Giovanni Donato, the municipal police and the carabinieri weapon, the volunteers of the Coast Guard and other civil protection realities), together with the devotees of the Confraternity of the Madonna della Montagna di Ganzirri, spiritually twinned with the parish of peace, are a sign that the procession is not only spiritual sharing, But also social and cultural that Messina needs.