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by John O’Connell
On the Saturday after Easter Sunday, April 12, 1947, Bruno Cornacchiola took his three children (Isola, Carlo, and Gianfranco) for a picnic to Tre Fontane (the area outside of Rome where the Romans beheaded St. Paul). On that lovely spring day, Bruno sat in a grove a eucalyptus trees preparing a talk ridiculing the Immaculate Conception. Earlier that day, as if to manifest his bitter hatred for the Immaculate Mother, he had written on the base of a statue of the Holy Virgin that had the inscription Virgin Mother that “You are neither virgin nor mother.”
Bruno though once a Catholic had now not only thoroughly rejected the Catholic Faith, he had conceived a great animosity towards Catholicism. Shortly after marrying his wife he deserted her to fight on the side of the anti-Catholic forces during the Spanish civil war in the 1930’s. Later he returned to his wife, but he was far from a model husband. He frequently used blasphemous and obscene speech, committed adultery, beat his wife, and had forbidden his wife from going to a Catholic church or in anyway practicing her faith. He joined the Seventh Day Adventists, becoming an ardent proselytizer. To cap his anti-Catholic career, Bruno plotted to assassinate the Holy Father (Pius XII) on September the 8th (Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) 1947.
As Bruno was busily working on his screed against the Immaculate Conception, one of his children asked him to help them find their ball. He followed the child and saw his youngest child kneeling at the entrance of a cave. The child’s face was radiantly joyful as he stared into the cave repeating, “Beautiful lady, beautiful lady.” Bruno looked into the cave and could see nothing that would account for the boy’s action. He then turned towards his other two children, but by then they too were kneeling with their eyes transfixed on someone in the cave. Seized with fright, Bruno tried to grab his children and carry them away, but he could not move them.
Then a bright light momentarily blinded him. He became weightless, ethereal—he felt as if his soul was leaving his body. Then his sight returned and he saw in the cave a woman of celestial beauty. She wore a dazzling white dress with a rose sash and a long green mantle that went from covering her head to almost touching the ground.
The Lady told Bruno who she was: “I am the one who is of the Divine Trinity.” She revealed herself as, “Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse and Temple of the Holy Spirit.” Mary Immaculate in this message confirmed her unique intimacy with the Blessed Trinity.
Our Lady also announced to Bruno that “I am the Virgin of Revelation.” This title is fraught with religious significance—
- the Church’s teaching on Mary is based on Divine revelation
- Sacred Tradition as well as the Bible comprises Divine Revelation;
- Mary Immaculate is the Woman mentioned in the mysterious last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse or Revelations of St. John the Apostle.
To understand fully Our Lady’s remarks, we need to know that when Bruno was first married he still attended Mass with his wife. She persuaded him to come to church with her for nine First Fridays hoping that he would be converted. (Our Lord promised to St. Margaret Mary that anyone who attended Mass for nine First Fridays and received Holy Communion in reparation for the offenses committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus would receive the grace of salvation.)
“In this place of sin I shall perform miracles for the conversion of unbelievers.” And indeed an area that was once known as a place of immorality has been transformed into a shrine of the Virgin of Revelation, where the faithful have attributed many miracles to the dirt from the grotto.
The Virgin of Revelation also had a message for the faithful: “Return to the pure source of the Gospel.” And echoing the messages she has so often brought to the world over the last two centuries she instructed Christians to: “Pray much and recite the Rosary for the conversion of sinners, of unbelievers, and of all Christians.”
Our Lady, anticipating the solemn declaration of the dogma her Assumption into heaven by Pope Pius XII, explained: “My body could not be allowed to decay. My Son came for me with His angels.”
Mary’s visit and remonstration was not wasted on Bruno. He repented of his sinful life and became an outstanding Catholic. Still living, Bruno, who has become another Paul, has dedicated his life to evangelizing and teaching the truths of the Catholic Faith.