The Emperor of the French Napoleon Bonaparte is a character who occupies a prominent place in Universal History. It is not the intention of this chapter of the series on the Theology of History to comment on his biography, but rather to highlight some extraordinary events that happened at the end of the 18th century in Rome, still then the capital of the Papal States, the temporal power of the potatoes. We are in the Europe of 1796 where the French Revolution unleashed in 1789 has ended with the Bourbon Monarchy, the multi-secular dynasty reigning in France and Napoleon, already then a young general of recognized prestige, is sent to fight the Austrians and the Italians and above all. everything to put an end to “the Infame” (“L’Infamme”) as Voltaire will call the Catholic Church.
With the rationalist vision and radically closed to the supernatural, a frontal enemy of all religion – especially Catholics – typical of the revolutionaries, the Parisian Directory had entrusted Napoleon with the mission of taking over its ancient States and expelling the Pope from Rome. . The invasion had achieved its objective quickly and the Treaty of Tolentino of 1797 and the armistice of Bologna of 1796 had allowed the seizure of countless valuable objects of the City, present in its wonderful Basilicas and Churches.
The main town of Ancona, an Adriatic port located in the northeast of the peninsula, awaited with dread the announced entry of the French troops preceded by the looting and purges that accompanied their victories. On June 25, 1796, many of its inhabitants had gathered in front of a painting of about 50 cm. on the side, which represented the Virgin as the “Queen of all Saints”, displayed in the Cathedral and highly venerated by the faithful. They were praying her Rosary, imploring her protection from the invader, when one of those present caught her attention, alerting her that the Madonna was opening her half-open eyes, moving her eyelids from top to bottom and her pupils from right to left.
It was a symbolic way, as appreciated by the faithful devotees, of collecting their prayers to elevate them to Heaven, and all of them, without exception, looking at those present from one end to the other. Simultaneously, the skin on his face seemed to come to life, changing color. The impression initially caused and stifled by the canon present urging not to fall into false impressions ended up prevailing in the face of the evidence and force of the facts. The news spread like wildfire through the city, with many people eventually coming to verify the veracity of what was stated.
The new authorities considered what happened as an invention of the clergy to galvanize the spirit of the faithful against the invaders, and ordered the removal and hiding of the painting. A few days later, on July 9, 1796 in Rome, similar phenomena began to occur in sacred images, paintings and sculptures present in various places in the capital, gathering before them growing crowds of citizens who came to contemplate them and were ecstatic when they contemplated them. what was happening before his eyes. There are 101 images that seemed to come to life in Rome, although the phenomenon was reproduced in other pontifical locations. Most were of the Madonna – the Virgin Mary – although two were also of Our Lord Jesus Christ and some of other various saints.
The religious authority was overwhelmed by the events, fearing violent repression by the French, but finally they had to face reality and open a strict investigation process to prove the certainty of what happened. 26 of the images were selected as representative of all of them, and witnesses of all kinds, of training, social status and activities of all kinds were also summoned, with the common denominator of being present at the respective events and having their own criteria and training to depose. before a rigorous examination.
The forcefulness of the testimonies, strengthened by the circumstance that the members of the court themselves could, while the sessions lasted, approach to verify the events, which continued to occur uninterruptedly, concluded with an incontestable verdict. A singular event occurred in Ancona, where it all had begun, when Napoleon himself arrived the following February. Informed of what was happening, he gathered some canons of the cathedral to express his firm will to put an end to that spectacle of superstition and idolatry, typical of the simple people whom, according to him, they had manipulated. He expressed his determination not to allow fanaticism of that type, also reminding them of the consequences of eventual disobedience to his orders. The conviction of some of those present, among them important Jacobins, convinced him to observe, out of simple curiosity, with his own eyes, the miraculous portrait in question.
The next day, he discreetly brought the painting to her presence and tore from the image’s neck a valuable diamond necklace that the charity of the faithful devotees had donated. He said that those jewels would be more useful as a wedding dowry for a destitute young maiden from the Residence of Divine Providence. At that moment her face transformed, remaining motionless looking at the image for a few moments. After returning to normal, she returned the necklace and told that the painting be covered with a veil, and that it be exposed to the cult on special occasions. At the same time he invited the canons to eat at his invitation. This behavior seemed unusual to everyone present who expected a violent and sharp reaction from her, destroying the painting to put an end to it. It was February 11, 1797, today the feast of Lourdes, and there were 61 years left for the Virgin to appear there as the Immaculate Conception.
It was a coincidence that was added to many that in turn were added to the evident fact that those miraculous manifestations had been Heaven’s answer to the prayers raised by the inhabitants of the Papal States in response to the request formulated by Pope Pius VI. to pray the Salve Regina to the Madonna so that She would “turn her merciful eyes towards the city and her troubled children” in those moments of affliction.
There is a chain of singular coincidences between these facts, disseminated by Vittorio Messori and Rino Cammilleri, two Italian writers and journalists, in a magnificent work entitled “The Eyes of Mary.” As a result of an exhaustive investigation, they recount the facts in detail, including the statements of qualified witnesses in the procedure opened by the Holy See, after having had access to the Vatican archives that jealously guard such a file.
In an interesting dialogue between both authors collected at the end of the work, they highlight the singular coincidences that are observed in what they describe as “an episode that must be analyzed as integrated into the Theology of History.” France and the Western world experienced a watershed in their History with the Revolution of 1789, which will begin a deeply secularized world, and with reason and man occupying the place reserved for God as the center and reference of Creation in the extinct and precedent Christianity. We have already commented on how the Sacred Heart of Jesus will be revealed to Saint Margaret Mary of Alacocque, to make known and extend his devotion and avoid that Revolution through the consecration of the then King, Louis XIV, to his Sacred Heart.
In a similar way, the Virgin will come to Fatima in 1917 to prevent the Second World War and prevent the spread throughout the world of “the errors of Russia”, that is, communism after the Bolshevik revolution of October of that same year. To do this, she will request her consecration to the Immaculate Heart, which will not be carried out in the same way as that requested from the French Monarch. These two revolutions that occurred in the last two centuries have given rise to a constellation of Mariophanies with revelations of The Mother of God and our Mother who comes to the aid of humanity in times of tribulation and distance from God, to exhort us to return to Him, the eyes and the heart.
Messori highlights that it is a message provided with “the eloquent language of the gaze, a silent explosion of miracles coinciding with the time that began the series of catastrophes that would mark the modern era.”
