8th April : Our Lady Of The Valley
8th April
Our Lady Of The Valley
Country : Italy (Sicily)
Year : 1040
The Sicilian shrine to Our Lady of the Valley, or of the Green Valley, is said to have originated about the year 1040, when a bandit, who operated around Mount Etna, was converted by a vision of Our Lady, who appeared to him in an earthquake (Etna is a volcano). The robber turned hermit, and built a chapel at a spot in a green valley to which he was directed by a flight of cranes; it was provided, so the story goes, miraculously with a picture of Our Lady in the form of a Byzantine icon, which is still venerated.
A feast of St. Mary of the Valley is kept throughout three dioceses of Sicily.
