What happened in December 2021.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, What happened in December 2021.    

This is one of the many photos of what has happened in USA. It seems to me that these tornados events happen more often, and they are more violent, in this case more than 70 people have lost their lives, and a lot of building have been destroyed, in several locations.  

What happened in December 2021.

  World news in December 2021.  

Welcome to my diary, What happened in December 2021. 

Dear readers, I am writing this diary to remind me what I have seen happen during my life, anyhow, this is the month of December and nearly Christmas time, which sometimes we call the silly season, because everybody likes to make merry and do happy things. This year again, we may need to refrain from being carried away from it, because of what is happening, so, we need to be serious. 

You see, apart from thinking about Christmas, it seems to me that we need to continue talking about two other main things: one is Climatic changes, because of what has just happened in USA recently, and the other is this pandemic that is affecting the entire world. So, let us see what has happened in USA, because what has happened can be linked to the climatic change. So, hereunder I quote what I have found on the Internet.

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Tornadoes have caused widespread damage in central and southern US states, with dozens of people feared dead. Witnesses and survivors have been describing their terrifying experiences of the storm.

Related: At least 70 dead as tornadoes rip across central and southern US states

The damage included building collapses of a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, where officials believe more than 70 people may have died, an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, and a nursing home in Arkansas. The other states that have been most affected are Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

 Kentucky: tragedy at candle factory

Kyanna Parsons-Perez felt the building was making them “rock from one side to the other” right before it collapsed on her and her co-workers at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, on Friday after it was hit by the tornado.

 Parsons-Perez, an employee at the candle factory in this city of less than 10,000, was stuck for three hours in the rubble, and documented part of it in a livestream on Facebook in which her co-workers can be heard crying in fear.

 Images of America Tornado

bing.com/images

 (End of my quote)

Above I have pasted a link about these tornados, I hope it works to see what has happened. Below is what Joe Biden said, when he visited Kentucky.

1.    Joe Biden promises tornado-ravaged Kentucky ‘we’re …

https://www.news.com.au/world/joe-biden-promises-tornadoravaged...

6 hours ago · US President Joe Biden has spoken in Kentucky addressing the damage wreaked by tornadoes in one of the hardest hit cities of the disaster. The President made his address from Dawson Springs, Kentucky.

 

Anyhow, there are reasons to believe that these tornados are happening more than usual, so, this may be due to the warmer temperature caused from climatic change. As you know they have had a couple of meeting last month about this climatic change, so I hope that they keep working on it, to give the best outcome, in the hope that this will minimize violent weather happening, like these tornados and other things.

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While I was editing this article the 31st of December, I found that another tragedy has occurred, which can also be attributed to climatic change.   

Colorado wildfires: tens of thousands evacuated as blazes destroy hundreds of homes

Tens of thousands of residents were forced to flee in northern Colorado after fast-moving wildfires destroyed an estimated 600 homes.

Over 30,000 residents across three communities outside Denver had to evacuate their homes after wind-fueled grass fires rapidly burned through multiple buildings including a hotel and Target shopping complex, along with 580 homes.

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Now let us talk about the COVID19. 

The covid19 continues, has different names, since it mutates, we had the Delta variant and the latest one is called Omicron. Anyhow, things are a bit better now, perhaps we finally have realized that we will survive somehow. But let us see what is happening now and make a list at the end of this month.  

 

1.    COVID Live Update: 271,930,235 Cases and 5,340,821 Deaths ...

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?%20%3Ca%2

Reported Cases and Deaths by Country or Territory. The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 222 countries and territories. The day is reset after midnight GMT+0.The list of countries and their regional classification is based on the United Nations Geoscheme.Sources are provided under "Latest News." Learn more about Worldometer's COVID-19 data. 

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Above is a link that takes you to see a few things, if it works. Now let us update today list of what is happening.

 

On the world list today, the 29th of December 2021 there are over 283 million positive and 5.43 million dead, Now let us talk the 4 countries with most affected people.

USA. 54,136,000 affected people and 842,000 deaths.

India 34,808,000 affected and 480,000 deaths

 Brazil 22,254,000 affected and 618,000 deaths

UK. 12,300,000 affected and 148,000 deaths

These are the 4 countries most affected.

By comparison Australia today has 323,278 affected and 2202 deaths. So, we are doing well.    

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Talking about Christmas 2021. 

Anyhow, now let us talk about what we see happening, this Christmas 2021, or should we say what we hope happens this Christmas. You see, before this pandemic Christmas time was happy times, at least for some of us. Today we are not so sure anymore, so, we should ask ourselves what we should do, perhaps the best thing to do, is to go back to our religious beliefs, where we can find some peace of mind and hope. So, hereunder is what religious people tell us to believe, and I quote.     

This week, we’re focusing on Jesus—the Light of HOPE. Christmas has always been a season of hope. From the beginning, the prophecies about Jesus’ birth were gifted to the world as a hope people could cling to—the hope that a Saviour would be born into the world who would crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15), so that, through this Saviour, all the nations on earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

Jesus remains the only Light of Hope—a beacon of certainty in an uncertain and dark world. Now’s especially the time to remember the hope we have been given through our Saviour. Below are three ways to experience the Light of Hope as you begin this Christmas season.

Expect the Light of Hope

No matter what has happened in our world lately, Jesus is our greatest hope of all. Jesus is God’s Christmas gift to you—this year and every year. There’s just one stipulation—you have to accept the gift.

You don’t have to wait for perfect circumstances or rainbows and butterflies to appear before you have hope. After all, that isn’t really hoping for anything, it’s just believing what you’re already seeing. Real Bible hope believes the promises God has made in His Word. That’s where you get your hope from, not from your circumstances. Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) tells us that faith is a substance, and that substance is “things hoped for.”

Now pope Francis at the Christmas mass.

Pope Francis urges Christians to value the 'little things in life' as he leads Midnight Mass at the Vatican - while worshippers around the world gather for annual service

• An estimated 2,000 members of the public and 200 religious figures attended mass at St Peter's Basilica
• Pope Francis called on the faithful to value the 'little things in life' and show solidarity with the poor
• Worshippers were seen gathering for masses in cities across the US, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Kenya and Russia

By STEPHEN WYNN-DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 11:52 AEDT, 25 December 2021 | UPDATED: 13:04 AEDT, 25 December 2021

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 Anyhow, this is the end of my quotes, and I wish that this Christmas is the end of the pandemic, and next year everything will go back to normal, so, we hope for better time next year, we need this break soon, may God help us to achieve that.    

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We are hoping for better times next year. .

I believe that the last two years have been hard for everybody, mainly because of the COVID19 pandemic. So, we hope that next year will be better, there are some signs of improvement, even if it is not a lot, at least we are not scared as much as before. Some doctors even start saying that this new strain called Omicron can be helpful, because people are likely to become immune. I must say that this is the first time that I have heard about it, so, there must be some hope that one day the pandemic can become less virulent and become like a bad influenza.

Anyhow, what we would like to see happen next year? I am pretty sure that most people would like to see the corona virus disappear, or at least become modified and weak, so, even if you catch it, it will not kill you, but you can become immunized. Then we would like to see everything go back to normal. Perhaps not exactly like they were before, but with an added improvement that we have learned during the pandemic. This may result that the central government, will help anybody that needs to be helped, this may sound more like communism than a liberal government, that is based on capitalism and individual competition only.

Anyhow, the world has still many problems to solve next year 2022, the major ones are the pandemic, global warming, illegal emigration, and many others. So, every day that passes we look at the news in the hope of seeing some permanent solutions, but unfortunately at the best we find only marginal improvement of some problems. Anyhow, let us hope that the year 2022 is a better year, and brings some solutions to the several problems that we face.

I believe that this article is long enough, and I have said the main things I have noted this month, so, see you next time in a month or two, with another article like this one. meanwhile I will post other posts about other things. 

See you soon. 

Simple man life observations.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, Our life observations.  

 When people observe things they learn how those things are and behave, life is full of observations. You do not need to be a learned person to observe things, anybody can do it, in fact we all learn from life by observing other people and things around us, once we learn those things they will stay we us for the rest of our lives. So, let us all observe and learn.  

 

Welcome to our article, Our life observations. 

Dear readers, what I am writing here is a simple man life observations, they are my life memories and observations. You see, we have to learn from our life, before we can say these things; for instance now: I am writing my own life observations in this article, we will call this part, simple man life observations. Anyhow, we will break my writings in several sub titles, like the following, observe and learn from life, let me talk about my childhood and my childhood pains; one can still learn from the hurting part of life, we need to be positive.  

Anyhow, as I have said, we have to observe and learn, and then we can use our observations to guide us during our life; our observations of life are like our shadow that follows us everywhere we go and it never fails, so, let us learn from life by observing whatever happens around us. I know that sometimes we want to forget what has happened to us, because it is painful to recall, but even those painful memories are worth remembering, because they can teach us how to avoid them next time.   

Looking at the ways that we are living today, we can say that it is better than it used to be; but at the same time, living today is not as simple as it used to be; because of the changing ways that progress has brought with it, therefore, living our life today is complex, even if it is a life of a simple man like me.

You see, in the old times it was easier, because life followed the same pattern of the generation before, so, it was easy to copy the previous generation. But today is different, because things are changing quickly, so, we must change if we want to keep up with the times. Having said that, now, we must observe what can be done about it; of course, the best way is to plan how we want to live our life.

But even if we plan well ahead, there are times during our life when we must do whatever is most appropriate, to survive and thrive, and be able to earn our living. Therefore, even if we have made up our mind, and we have decided that we want to study, or we want to learn a trade, or do something special during our life, it may not happen the way we have planned it, because life events can override those decisions, so, we may end up doing a different job, or being something else other than what we had planned to do in the beginning. But then because these things happen we learn from life what we need to do and we do them since that is the best way to solve the problem. You see, we need to observe and lean, it is necessary to do that even if it is done to survive those times that we happen to live in. 

I believe that my life story and my life observations are like my own shadow, they follow me everywhere I go, so, I have learned to use them, to live the rest of my life the best way I can. 

Observe and learn from life. 

We should observe life events and learn from them

We must accept life the way it comes, because that is the only thing that we can do; we must do it without upsetting ourselves too much; I am saying this because, during my life I have had a few of those life experiences that are not the best; but I could do nothing to change the outcome, so, I had to accept them and live the best way I could.

Today, I am looking back at my life that I have lived, and I am thinking that I have lived the most important part of my life. You see, I happen to be in my sixties while I am writing this page for the first time; so, I can look back at my life and wonder at the great changes of lifestyles that we have been living in this present era. While I am looking at these changes, I also wonder at the events that have changed our lifestyle, and how it has been happening and keeps happening and changing even now while I am writing this article. 

Therefore, right now, I am wondering why I am writing this article, because writing articles is new to me, it is another lifestyle change, which has been brought about from those changing life events, you see, when I was young I could never have guessed that one day I could be writing something and publish it in something called the Internet, and I would be writing in a language that is not my native tongue.

All this has happened to me, because there have been lots of changes since I was born, there were life events that have changed my lifestyle during my life, so, they have forced me to change and to adjust with them as required; and it was one of these changes during my life, when I felt the need to start writing, so, that I could fulfil one of my emotional personal needs. And in doing so, I have written a few things. 

But here I am talking about my own personal writings, and even if they are worth nothing to the rest of the world, they are my personal writings and my experience of life, therefore, I want to keep them forever while I am alive. Anyhow, here are my life events and changes, according to the observations of my life, as it evolved starting from when I was a child, so, let me talk about my childhood and the problems that I went through when I was young.

Talking about my childhood.  

Let me write about my childhood, I was born near the end of the year 1938, and that is before the Second World War started. I was the second child in my family, my brother is only fourteen months older than myself, and for my parents my birth was too soon after their first born. They wanted more children of course, but they wanted them to be born more far apart; so, I was welcome and unwelcome at once, this is the way that I have understood it.
I was born a good healthy boy, but in those days medicine was not as advanced as today, so, they didn’t immunize children as much as they do today. So, I did not receive Whooping Cough immunization as a child, so, I caught the Whooping Cough, and although I was lucky and survived it, since then I have kept coughing on and off for the rest of my life; the Whooping Cough most of the time leaves this condition to whoever caches it for the rest of their lives, at least this is how my mother has explained my coughing condition to me.
Another health scare and a scar happened when I was three or four years old: I was playing with my brother who was older than me by one year plus, and while we were playing I don’t know why he hit me with a heavy boot in my face; so, my nose started bleeding, and it bled for a very long time, that even my parents were worried, they tried everything they knew and somehow they helped me stop the bleeding, but since then my nose has been bleeding easily.

My nose bleeding has been a problem with me when I was a kid, and even when I was an adult it kept bleeding easily. But when I was a teenager was the worst, and my nose used to bleed day after day up to three times a day. Part of my nose bleeding problem could be attributed to the way of life that I was living in the farm, as in summer times I had to be in the hot sun a lot of times, and the heat expansion would make my nose bleed, and in winter times because I would catch cold in the cold weather my nose would be bleeding also; but part of this nose bleeding can be attributed to the boot in the face that I received from my older brother. 

Anyhow, the blood loss and a poor diet in the farm made me grow very skinny, so, skinny that one could say that I had all the signs of malnutrition, I was so skinny that one could count my bony ribs, and I was also so light that other boys made fun of me, when we were playing and they used to lift me up.
I need to say also, that all these hardships and poor health that I have suffered when I was young; they are also due to the greatest drawback of my life, which happened when I was about five years old. Because then Fate struck a heavy blow to my parents, as my father and three work horses perished from a lightning strike, while they were carrying on a cart one of the last loads of wheat of the season from a faraway field, I remember my mother crying several times about my father dead.

Death in the family and the greatest drawback of my life. 

When this great misfortune happened, we were left with no father and with great financial loss. With the death of my father everything changed for the worst for us children, therefore, all the good chances that we could have had in our life were taken away, and all the dreams that our parents had for us children came to an abrupt end.

So, after our father misfortune, our family that consisted then, of my mother and two boys and a girl including myself, we were left in a poor position to prepare for a decent future life.
My mother had to rely on her two younger brothers, who were only still teenagers at that time, and they had to help her to run our small family farm, so, we could earn a living, because in those days there was no help from the government whatsoever, we were on our own, those were hard times, I can tell you.
So, when I was about ten years old, because my family could not afford to hire a youth to help in the farm, I was chosen to help in the farm, instead of my brother who was one year older than me, and by right he should have been chosen to help.
So, I instead of continuing to go to school and get a better education, I had to go to help in our family farm, and this became the greatest drawback of my life.

The way of life in the farm was very boring when I was a child, as it had been for centuries before my time. But before my time people didn’t know how to live a better life, so, it didn’t matter much to them at that time, since most of the male farmers then lived in their farms all their lives, and everybody around them was at the same level of awareness, so, nobody was thinking that life was boring in the farm, as they accepted life as it was then, and they didn’t worry if the lot of them were dull people compared to the towns’ people, because they were less educated and lived a lonely and boring life.

Anyhow, they were happy just the same and some of them would thing that we were better off than the town people because there was always something to eat in the farm. Anyhow, the way of life that I was living, slowly became old fashioned, therefore, it was not right to live in such a way, because of the human progress everything was changing.

So, I have been unfortunate as a young man, because everything that had not changed for centuries started to change, and most of the people that were living in the towns who before depended from the farming sector to earn a living slowly became better off than us in the farms.
Because of the changing way of living and farming, it became hard for us to live in the farm and earn a living, so, in the end I had to leave our small family farm, to earn a living somewhere else. And it was then, that I realized that the work that I had done in the farm, and what I learned in the farm was a waste of time. Because I had to start to learn how to earn a living somewhere else.
Therefore, because of the changes of lifestyle, which brought more hardship than usual to the small farm owners, I was forced to leave my small family farm and the town where I was born, in order to find a better living standard away from home.
So, I migrated to Australia. In Australia I changed job and worked in the building industry, which was a lot better than farming, about this building industry I will be writing a few articles.

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Life means what you want it to mean, even when it hurts. 

Now, let us look at my life like a philosopher, and learn what we can from life. Here, we want to talk about the hurting part of live that we had to go through in our young life, because we ended up working in the farms when we were young, and this left us in a disadvantaged position. Anyhow, life means whatever we want it to mean, even when it hurts, because we can learn something from it, so, even if I am lamenting my bad luck, we should take it as a lesson.

I need to say that, we the younger would be farmers of those times kept working in our farms to feed the rest of the community, and even if we were working our guts out, and while we were doing that we were becoming dull, we did our part to support the rest of the community. But the town’s community doesn’t see it that way, and they think that we are stupid people that work our guts out, because we are dull and don’t know better.

So, this attitude of the community hurts farming hand very much, and most of all the young farm hands and those who would become young farmers one day, since this are the harsh thanks that we receive from the town’s community for doing what we had to do.

But what’s hurting us the young farmers most of all, it is when the towns people seem to laugh at us because we have become dull compared to themselves; this is the way that we are being treated from the rest of the town’s community and it hurts too much.

So, we the hurt ones, we feel that we want to shout into their faces that they should be ashamed of themselves because; They have first sacrificed us, as they have put us in a position where we could not improve ourselves, instead of treating us in the same way as they did for themselves, and then they laugh at us because we have become dull. What a shame! You first sacrifice your own children by sending them to work at a very early age, and then you laugh at their sacrifice, only because through their sacrifice they have become dull.

I suppose that what I have been saying above seems already out of time, as if it is hundreds of years old, but it is not, because it all happened during my life, so, how are today people going to compare my life story to today’s living is hard to tell, but it is helpful if they can compare it.

Now, I need to say that I have written the story of my life when I was young, so, will lament that, because that has affected my life in a bad way. But anyhow from what I have learned from life, let us compare the way of farming and how better off we are today. Then I will write the second part of my life story, beginning from when I migrated to Australia and what I did in Australia.

In this second part, I will be speaking from Australia, therefore, I will be telling you about the town that I came from, so, you my readers may understand better what was going on during my entire life. So, after I have written my next two articles, I will start telling you about the town that I come from, Genzano di Lucania. Anyhow let me close this article by saying that next article will be, Farming today compared to the old way. 

To see more click on this link, Our life observations. 

See you soon.

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The Madonna of Genzano story.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,   

This article can also be found at this link, The Madonna story.

Religious beliefs makes people do strange things, see above. Devotees of the Madonna of Genzano, at the Madonna feast buy this large candles, then they walk in the procession holding this large weight in their arms for hours. so, they give money to buy the candela and work hard carrying it around, because they believe that this Madonna can help them.   

The Madonna story

The Madonna of Genzano story.   

Welcome to our article, The Madonna story.  

Dear readers, this will be a long article, we will write about the history of the Madonna of Genzano. Anyhow, here is a link about what sometime happens in the church of this Madonna of Genzano.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsPrg1ucmsQ

Now, in our last article the heritage chapter, we have explained that in Genzano there were Greek people living in one of the chasms. Anyhow, I want to talk about the Greek people; because we believe that this Madonna story that we are writing here, could not have happened if the Greek people were not there. You see, before those Greek people left the chasm for the last time, they hid this Madonna effigy that has made history in the town of Genzano.

Anyhow, we must assume this imaginary story, because when we look, it seems that the Greek people were forced to move away from their living place in the chasm, and when they did, they hid their Madonna effigy at the lower end of the chasm. Here we are talking about the Greek people of the early Christian community that lived in the chasm of Genzano; we have to admit that there is no written evidence, so, what we are telling here is folklore stories and logic human explanations, when we put together of what is known today. 

Anyhow, what follows here is guess work, because nobody knows what happened to the Greek people, it is known that they were there in the chasm and then they were not there anymore, perhaps the Greek people were persecuted and had to run away, and when they left, they had to hide away their most precious religious things. So, they left behind buried in a secret spot in a little-known cave, an effigy of a Madonna, which was to be found later by the people of Genzano.

How they found this Madonna icon, everybody in Genzano seems to know the story, because it is a story that has been told from generation to generation, since they found this Madonna, so, just about everybody in Genzano can tell you the story. Therefore, I had only to find a few names and a few dates to write my own version down, which I want to tell you now.

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Telling the Madonna story. 

One day in the year of our Lord 1619 there was a fourteen years old youth grazing oxen in the fields of Genzano, in the zone that we call Sterpara; his parents were of a good and honorable family, the youth name was; Pietro di Giovanni Filippo, and he was minding some oxen in the fields, at the beginning of the chasm ‘Del Monte’ when this event happened. While he was browsing his oxen; a Lady all dressed in white appeared to him; and she told him that he should go and tell the people of Genzano that, they should go into the chasm near the fountain of Capo d’aqua, and dig in the cave that was once known as the vineyard of ‘Don Fabio’ and they would find her there. 

The youth went to town and told the people and the priest of the apparition of this great Lady, but they were not sure whether to believe him or not; so, nothing was done. But after a few days or a week or two, the Lady in white appeared to the youth again; but this time she asked the youth to open his hand, and she wrote in his hand a message to the priest, she closed the youth hand and told him to go to the priest and show him that writing. The youth now with his closed fist that he could not or would not open for fear ran into the town and found the priest, and told him about the second apparition of the Lady in white, and that the Lady had written on his hand in his closed fist something; the priest took his hand to see and there in front of the priest he could open his hand again; and in his hand the priest could see the message which read (I am Maria Santissima Delle Grazie, and come to find me).

So, now the priest had no doubt in his mind from where that message was coming from, and he assembled the people of Genzano and told them the facts. A search was organized, and they dug in and around the said cave for a very long time, and not knowing where else to dig, they also dug farther up the mountain, where they found some human remains and other object as evidence that eremites had been living there, a long time ago.

The search went on for about two years. So, they thought that there was not a real Madonna image to be found, because the only image of a Madonna that they had found, it was a Madonna traced over the sand which was slowly disappearing. And thinking that this was all they would find, they decided to give up the search, but at the same time they wanted to build a small chapel in honor of this Madonna. But while they were digging the foundation for this chapel, a whole heap of hard rocks fell from the chasm’s wall above, which showed them that there was a smaller cave near the old cave higher up in the chasm’s wall, and in this small cave they found a few religious items, including a small image of St. Peter on a brick, but there was no Madonna image or icon to be found.

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This is how the Madonna chapel looks today, so, they never have built a church there, and there are less people visiting this place, accept in summer times when it is hot, then some people will go there for an outside picnic or something. The cave you see above the chapel, I believe it is where they found this sprig of water that today feeds the fountain.   

The Madonna is found. 

Anyhow, they decided to remove the fallen rocks, they could use the rocks to build the chapel. While they were doing that this happened; it happened the 25^th day of March 1621 late in the afternoon, it was about the time when in the church they say this afternoon Vespers’ prayers, at this time of the day most people that are in the country pack up to go home. But there was a worker working at the fallen stone heap, he was tired, but he wanted to do a little bit more, so, he kept working: His name was ‘Giovanni Malatesta’ and he was digging with a pick to get the stones loose from the fallen heap of rocks, when he hit a very hard rock, and a beautiful aroma filled the air: he had struck with his pick the sculpture of the ‘Madonna with Child’. What a shock to this man must have been, when he realized that he struck with his pick the icon of the Madonna over the eye. They say that he never was the same man again, and he died early in life, after this event.

As soon as they realized that they had found the Madonna, somebody ran up the road to town, to let the people of Genzano know that they had found the Madonna icon.

All the religious authorities were in due time advised about the finding of the Madonna icon, and they took part in the prescribed religious events that followed. A Chapel was built on the spot where they had found the Madonna, with the intention that one day they would build a church there. After they found the icon of the Madonna with Child many people came to adore this Madonna, they came from the surrounding towns and from far away towns and they received many miracles from this Madonna that would be hard to count them. Of course, today’s people don’t believe in miracles, therefore, they will not believe what we are saying here, but this is the Madonna folklore story that goes around Genzano town even these days.

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Taking the Madonna to town. 

But there is another folklore story to tell about this Madonna, today most people may not believe it, but you see, here we are talking about Madonna's and miracles, we have to keep in mind that the old people believed that it happened the way that they have been told, so, let us tell you the story, the way it has been told and retold many times from the elders of the town.

The story is, that while they were taking the Madonna effigy to town, to the church of Maria SS Della Platea, which was the main church of Genzano then, when they reached the entrance of the town, the Madonna effigy became heavy, (In those times every town had their entrance doors that were shut at night), the effigy was so heavy that the bears had to stop and set the devise they were carrying the Madonna with on the ground.

Then when they tried to lift her off the ground they could not lift her; so, the priest and the town authorities started to think, why this was happening and what they could do to overcome this unseen problem, some wise man started saying that perhaps the Madonna wanted to be recognized that she was a powerful spiritual being, and to recognize her the best thing to do was to give her the keys of the town, and hope that this was what the Madonna wanted, so, they went to fetch the keys and placed the keys beside her effigy, and soon the effigy became light again and they were able to take her through the entrance of the town and into the church. This is one of the folklore stories of this Madonna; now it is up to us, if we want to believe it or not.

We need to say that believer believe any religious thing that are being told; I am saying this because of the following event, I remember when I was young that at this same entrance where the Madonna came into Genzano town the first time; there were times when some peregrines would come to adore this Madonna with child, and they were bringing with them a little statue of a child, I don’t know exactly what all this meant, but there is a phrase in the town dialect “U bambnid d Frenz” meaning the little baby Jesus of Forenza; Forenza is a town that take several hours of walking to reach Genzano, and those peregrines did all this walking to come and adore this Madonna in Genzano, there were really religious believers in those old days.

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Building the Madonna church.  

A few years after they found the Madonna icon at Capodacqua, somebody dreamed that the Madonna wanted a church of her own, built on a hill called ‘Montefreddo’. When the dreamer dreamed that the Madonna wanted her church built, that night was snowing, but in the morning the snow had melted away everywhere except where the dreamer had dreamed that the Madonna wanted her church built. The dreamer told her dream to the people of Genzano, which then they understood and took notice of the strange event of the snow. Therefore, it was decided that the new church had to be built where that large patch of snow was left. And this is the reason why the church of this Madonna with child was built on this hill called, Montefreddo.

With the building of the Madonna church many devotees came to adore this Madonna, and they prayed to her for graces and miracles; and many graces and miracles they received in return, so, this Madonna sanctuary grew and became well known all around the country for a few centuries.

Today, this Madonna church has been damaged badly twice by earthquake and once by fire, it has been rebuilt and restored and it is still popular, but not quite as much as it used to be, I suppose it is the sign of the times, because people nowadays don’t believe in religion as much as they used to believe in the old times, when they found this Madonna.

Anyhow, in the town of Genzano, we still celebrate a great feast for this Madonna, the yearly festivity for this Madonna are held for three days the first weekend in August. We will come back to tell you about these festivities later; because now I want to tell you what else the people of Genzano did after they found the Madonna Icon at Capo D’acqua.

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Madonna chapel and fountain.

The Madonna chapel and Capo D'acqua fountain

Let us go back to the site where they found the Madonna Icon; as we have said they were going to build a chapel, and they did build the chapel; but at the same time, they built a larger fountain, because when they were digging to find the Madonna icon, they also found a large spring of water, so, they channeled this water to make a larger fountain at Capo d’acqua, because on the abundance of this spring waters.

Since then this fountain has been rebuilt and enlarged several times, one of this was about the year 1800, to serve the people of Genzano as the population was growing larger. The fountain has inscribed in a corner the name of a certain ‘Lepore’, perhaps he was the mayor of the town at the time when they built or rebuilt the fountain. As I said it is a large and abundant spring fountain situated downstream from where they had found the Madonna, and where the chasm Del’monte and the Greek chasm meet, but well before they merge with St. Antony chasm.

The fountain was built as a simple country fountain, and it had five or six large troughs of about three-metre-long and one-metre-wide, all built of solid and simple masonry. We believe that the people of Genzano have used this fountain outside the town a lot, because there was no reticulated water in town in those days.

So, this fountain was used in various ways, as there are two troughs which have three and four water sprouts each, which are fed from the spring and are constantly pouring water into the troughs. The two troughs with the sprouts are reserved for the animals to drink, and for those people that want to fill some vessels straight from the sprouts. From these two troughs then the water runs out into the rest of the troughs, and these secondary troughs were used to do the town’s washing, since there was no reticulated water in town in those times.

Capo d’acqua fountain was very popular in the old times, there was even a song that a young girl used to sing happily, she would sing about the time when she would go to Capo d’acqua fountain to do the washing. I can still remember a few of the dialect verses, and they go like this:

My Italian dialect verses.

Me chiam Rosa e teng vent’ann

E a Capodacqua ije lav li pann

Kess eij la dota ca me dai mam

na strecatora e na cest pei pann.

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English version

My name is Rose and I am twenty

And a Capo D’acqua I wash the clothes

This is the dowry that my mother gives me,

A scrubbing board and a basket for clothes.

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There is a longer version of the washing lady written from the writer 'Angelo Valente' which must be a lot closer to the original; I am going to post it in my blog, http://genzanoit.blogspot.com/, once you open this link on the left side find a list of pages and click on, Poem the washing lady.

I believe that I have said enough about the Madonna story, So, see you next time with, Our life observations. 

To see more click on this link,  The Madonna story.  

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