«I greet you, Holy Lady, Mother of God, Mary who is always a Virgin»: this is how Saint Francis invoked the Patroness of Reggio. On the seventh and last Saturday in honor of the Madonna della Consolazione and on the eighth centenary of the death of the “poor man of Assisi”, the launch supported by the bearers presided over by Gaetano Surace, entered the Cathedral at 11.40, following the evocative and traditional final “flying” in the square of the same name. Immediately afterwards, there was a light rain, with the faithful looking for shelter, however after having had time to applaud the entry of Roe deer’s painting into the cathedral.
The “descent” began at 8am after an intense night of functions at the Hermitage and the Marian vigil presided over at 9pm by Msgr. Fortunato Morrone, archbishop of the Diocese of Reggio Calabria-Bova. After the masses and the assembly on the launch of the Holy Effigy, among the shouts “Now and always, long live Mary” the procession begins between two wings of applauding crowd. At 9.30 am the stop in the “delivery square” where Mary was entrusted to the diocesan clergy by the Capuchin friars minor who, after returning next November, will take her back into custody in the basilica of the Hermitage under the spiritual guidance of Father Pietro Ammendola.
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