On this day, 80 years ago, the city of Rome made a vow to “Maria Salus Popoli Romani” asking that the Eternal City not be bombed as had happened to the main European capitals.
In 1944, the war continued and Romans gathered in prayer before the sacred images. Especially dear is that of Divine Love, in the ruined tower on the outskirts of Rome.
Pope Pius XII feared that it would be destroyed by bombs and, to preserve it, he moved it from the sanctuary of Castel di Leva to the center of Rome. He first stayed in the small church of the same name, in Piazza Fontanella Borghese; Later, in May, due to the enormous influx of faithful, it was decided to move it to San Lorenzo in Lucina and again to Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, in Campo Marzio. Here, on June 4, thousands of people, including believers and priests, pronounce a citizen’s vote to the Virgin so that the city is saved. And that is exactly what happens: around 7:00 p.m., the Allied troops enter Rome without encountering the slightest resistance from the Germans, who abandon the city from the north.
The next day, June 5, the crowd gathers in St. Peter’s Square, where Pius the “Salus Populi Romani” a new proof of her maternal kindness, which will remain in the imperishable memory of the annals of the City.
Eighty years later, the diocese of Rome commemorates those events with a series of celebrations in four different locations; the same ones that were protagonists of the 1944 vote.
On Saturday, June 1, the first commemoration begins at the Don Orione Center, presided over by Cardinal Enrico Feroci, rector of the Sanctuary of Divine Love; on Tuesday the 4th in the Roman church of Sant’Ignazio in Campo Marzio; and on Saturday, June 8, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, with Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko; and on Sunday, June 9, at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love, in Castel di Leva, on the outskirts of Rome.
