The Assunta of Gozo

Abstract

The predilection which our Lady has always shown in her manifestations for the humble and obscure things of this world was strikingly illustrated by the story of the supernatural communications which she held some nine years ago with a peasant man and woman at the sanctuary ta ( or of) Pinu, in the island of Gozo.

There is much in the history and character of the Gozitans to account for why our Lady should have thus singled them out for her favours. When we consider that for nearly a century the Maltese Islands have been exposed to all the evils attending garrison and seaport town life, the brightness of the faith and the goodness of the lives of the majority of their inhabitants is indeed something wonderful. Their immunity from corruption may be owing to an element in the lives of both Maltese and Gozitans, which does not exist in most of the other blessed countries where the Catholic Faith and traditions have remained untouched, and have been suffered to permeate the lives of their people. To the Maltese and Gozitans heresy is a living reality, a horrible monster dwelling at their very doors, meeting them at every turn, and which they detest with a passion which rules their lives. They live in the midst of daily acts of irreverence, unconscious, indeed, on the part of the perpetrators, but none the less horribly real to those who witness them... [Excerpt]