In January 2014, the Rosa Mistica Fontanelle Foundation was established, a foundation of worship and religion also recognized by the Italian legal system as an ecclesiastical body in agreement with the ecclesial authority.

The Foundation intends to continue the task of administering the places of worship in Fontanelle, a task initiated in the past by the association of the same name, which has now dissolved to merge with the Foundation.

The aims and activities of the Foundation, distinct from the direct management of worship and liturgy, which are entrusted to the Rector of the Shrine and can be briefly outlined as follows: in a spirit of collaboration with the Rector and the other members of the Board of Directors assigned to the Shrine, preparing all that is necessary to offer a dignified welcome to the faithful who come there for reasons of worship; to ensure that such manifestations of worship take place in an authentic spirit of prayer, sacrifice and penance; to prepare suitable measures to prevent behaviour and events contrary to public order and the respect for the place and the people; to continue archiving and studying the facts and testimonies that have made and still make the locality of Fontanelle a place of worship and Marian prayer, recognizing that any definitive judgment in this regard is the exclusive competence of the Church; to provide, without profit, for the protection of the current characteristics of the environment and intended use of the locality of ‘Fontanelle’.

Saturday, December 7, 2019, the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the canonical institution of the diocesan Shrine Rosa Mystica-Mother of the Church was officially proclaimed during the solemn Eucharistic concelebration presided over by the Bishop of Brescia, H.E. Archbishop Pierantonio Tremolada.

This historical passage was the result of a long ecclesial journey, initiated in these places for over 50 years, and even before at the Basilica of Montichiari: this journey, over time, has made these places an important spiritual point of reference and a place of pilgrimage for thousands of faithful from Italy and abroad.

The Bishop of Brescia reached this historic decision in constant consultation with the competent organs of the Apostolic See, and collecting the legacy of some important interventions of the predecessors who, starting from 2001, had authorized the celebration of public worship at the Fontanelle.

The two titles attributed to the diocesan Shrine, Rosa Mystica and Mother of the Church, are inseparably united by the tradition of prayer and piety with which the Mother of the Lord is invoked in these places and wherever this cult has spread, to support the journey of faith of the pilgrims, the convinced membership to the Church and sharing in its evangelizing mission, under the protection of the Lady who has always ensured Her maternal mediation.

The canonical recognition of the Sanctuary is therefore placed at the service of the missionary potential of these sacred places, in order to consolidate and increase the numerous spiritual fruits that have germinated here over time, as well as to offer the necessary pastoral care of pilgrims, especially through a conscious and fruitful celebration of the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, in view of a baptismal testimony ever more adherent to the demands of the Gospel and the fraternal love.

DOCUMENTS

The places of devotion of Rosa Mystica in Montichiari. The old hospital, the Cathedral, Fontenelle, Pierina Gilli’s home, Pierina Gilli’s grave

The events occurred in the Cathedral of Montichiari and in Fontanelle, and the messages witnessed by Pierina Gilli are currently to be considered as a pure personal experience..

We invite you to visit the brochure entitled History and places of worship

The life and spiritual experience of Pierina Gilli (1911 – 1991)

Premise: the historical origin of the imposing phenomenon of prayer and veneration towards the Holy Mother of the Lord, invoked at the Shrine as “Rosa Mystica – Mother of the Church”, is certainly linked in a not secondary way to the human and spiritual experience of Pierina Gilli.

The events that occurred during Pierina’s life and the numerous messages witnessed in her DIARY (edited by the ARES editions of Milan in 2016) were the subject of a renewed phase of study by the competent diocesan authorities and the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, a phase that, to date, can be distinguished in two moments.

The first stage was launched in the Diocese of Brescia in 2013, and concerned exclusively the analysis of the acts of the Diocesan Commission of Inquiry, carried out regarding Pierina between 1947 and 1949; this first stage ended at the end of 2016, with the contribution of in-depth checks on the canonical procedural, psychological-forensic, pharmacological level, and made it possible to re-evaluate the positive value of Pierina’s person in a new way, both from a psychological point of view and the spiritual one. 

The second stage, which began in 2018 and is still ongoing, and is focusing on thetheological-doctrinal analysis of the entire corpus of messages contained in Pierina’sDiary. Previous studies in this area, in fact, had focused only briefly on the alleged apparitionsof the first phase of Pierina’s life (from 1947 to 1960) without ever comparingthem with those of the second phase of her spiritual experience, which began in 1966with the alleged apparitions that began in the locality of Fontanelle di Montichiari. Thestudy conducted until now, which will require further in-depth studies in the theologicaland historical field in order to verify the conformity of Pierina’s writings with the doctrineand the ecclesial teaching on the subject of Marian apparitions, has in any case alreadyascertained the validity and exemplarity of the mystical-spiritual experience of Pierina, aswell as the richness of her existential, humble and virtuous story. 

Pierina Gilli (1911 – 1991)

Pierina Gilli was born in Montichiari on August 3, 1911, the first of nine children, in a modest peasant family, poor in means but rich in faith. She grew up dedicated to family, work and prayer, patiently enduring the hardships of material poverty and poor health.
Although she soon developed a desire for consecration to the Lord in religious life among the Handmaids of Charity, founded in Brescia by St.
Maria Crocifissa di Rosa, she was never able to fulfill it due to the constant postponements that sudden illnesses and serious misunderstandings caused her.
Around the age of thirty Pierina suddenly becomes the protagonist of intense spiritual experiences linked to the devotion to Maria Rosa Mystica, now known all over the world, and in this faithful testimony, she received her definitive Cross, made up of innumerable physical and moral sufferings. 

Events from 1946 to 1947

In the night between November 23 and 24, 1946, at the peak of a very serious illness, Pierina declared that St.

Maria Crocifissa di Rosa would have appeared to her, inviting her to turn her gaze to a point in the room: “Then I saw a beautiful Lady, nearly transparent, dressed in purple with a white veil that came down from head to foot, She held Her arms outstretched and I saw three swords stuck in Her chest in correspondence with the heart”.

St. Crocifissa di Rosa would have explained to her that the Lady was the Virgin who came to ask her for “prayers, sacrifices and sufferings” to atone for the sins of three categories of souls consecrated to God:
◆ for religious souls who betray their vocation,
◆ to repair the mortal sin of these souls,
◆ to repair the betrayal of Priests who make themselves unworthy of the sacred ministry

The Saint would have then recommended the prayer for the sanctification of priests through the most effective means of prayer, sacrifice and penance.

On July 13, 1947

Pierina declared that the Madonna had again appeared to her, this time dressed all in white with three roses on Her breast instead of the three swords, which were placed at Her feet:
◆ the white rose, would have indicated the spirit of prayer
◆ the red rose, the spirit of sacrifice
◆ the yellow rose, with golden reflections, the spirit of penance.

On that occasion Pierina reported that Our Lady had asked her that a Marian day be celebrated with particular solemnity on the 13th of each month, to which, as a premise, a time of prayer and penance lasting 12 days should be prepared as preparation.

Feasts of Corpus Domini and the Transfiguration of 1966

Località Fontanelle di Montichiari

On the feast of Corpus Domini on June 9, 1966, Rosa Mystica would have appeared to Pierina among the ripe wheat fields, she would have asked that the wheat be ground to become Eucharistic Bread for many reparative Communions.

On the feast of the Transfiguration, the following August 6, of the same year, the Holy Virgin would have requested that on October 13 the world day of the Communion of Reparation be celebrated. 

Last years

The last years of Pierina’s life passed in a humble and hidden way: in the course of the days, she has always remained obedient to the provisions of the ecclesiastical authority, continuing to welcome everyone with the usual affability and modesty in her little house and, as long as her health allowed her, she had a good word for everyone, an advice, and above all a prayer.

In 1990, when the disease got worse, she was had to sit in a wheelchair and only then stopped visiting and comforting the sick; on January 12, 1991, after a long purification of body and spirit, she ended her earthly life.

Her funeral was celebrated in the presence of a large crowd of faithful and friends who accompanied her to her burial in the Montichiari city cemetery.