Why did Our Lady appear at the three fountains?

WHY AT THE THREE FOUNTAINS?
In every apparition of the Virgin, among the many questions that the Christian people ask themselves, the question of why of that place where the event happens always appears: «Why right here and not elsewhere? Does this place have something special or is there any reason why Our Lady chose it? ».

Certainly she never does anything by chance, she leaves nothing to improvisation or whim. Everything and every aspect of the event has its own precise and profound motivation. Very often these motivations escape us at first sight, but then, if you dig in the past, in history, some of these come to the surface and it seems surprising to us. Heaven also has its memory and, perhaps after centuries, this memory revives and takes on new colors.

It is interesting to note how the history of humanity and the places where particular events take place also become part of the strategy of Heaven. Ever since the Son of God entered time, time has also been part of the unfolding of God's plan, that plan which we call "history of salvation". Even after her Assumption into Heaven, Mary most holy is so close and involved in the life of her children that she makes each one's own story. The mother always makes the "story" of her children her own. We ask ourselves then: is there anything particular in that place of the Three Fountains that has attracted the sympathies of the Queen of Heaven, for which it has decided to appear there? And then, why is that place called "The Three Fountains"?

According to an ancient tradition that refers to the first centuries of Christianity, confirmed by historical documents of great value, the martyrdom of the apostle Paul, which occurred in 67 after Christ by order of the emperor Nero, would have been consumed in the place then called Aquae Salvìae, precisely where the abbey of the Three Fountains stands today. According to tradition, the beheading of the Apostle took place under a pine tree, near a marble memorial stone, which can now be seen in a corner of the church itself. It is said that the Apostle's head, severed with a sharp sword stroke, bounced on the ground three times and that with every leap a spring of water would spring. The place was immediately venerated by Christians, and a temple was built on it that contained three marble temples elevated on the three prodigious springs.

It is also said that an entire Roman legion was slaughtered in the area led by General Zeno, a legion who before the martyrdom was condemned by the emperor Diocletian to build the grandiose baths that bear his name and from the remains of which Michelangelo then took the splendid church of S. Maria degli Angeli alle Terme, resulting thus, albeit indirectly, one of the first temples raised to Mary most holy by the Christians. Furthermore, Saint Bernard of Chiaravalle lived for some time in this abbey, a distinguished lover and singer of Mary. And for so many centuries that place resounded and still resounds with the praises and invocations raised to Mary. And she doesn't forget. But the most specific aspect that probably led Our Lady to choose that location had to be the particular reference to St. Paul, not only for his conversion but also for his love for the Church and his work of evangelization. In fact, what happened to the Apostle on the way to Damascus has several points of contact with what happened in this apparition of the Virgin to Bruno Cornacchiola. Saul, later called Paul, converted to the words of the One who, after having thrown him from his horse and blinded with his dazzling light, had said to him: «I am the one whom you persecute!». At the Tre Fontane the Madonna will say to the seer, covering him with his affectionate light: "You persecute me, that's enough!". And he invites him to enter the true Church which the heavenly Queen calls "holy ovie, heavenly court on earth". And in that book that she holds in her hands and close to her heart, which is the book of Revelation, there is a large part that came out of the heart and mouth of the "apostle of the Gentiles", sent to announce the truth to the pagan world, and which Protestants, unduly, consider their patron. And how much Paul had to suffer from the divisions that had arisen in those Christian communities that he had founded can be understood from his letters: "I wrote to you in a moment of great affliction and with an anguished heart, among many tears, but not to sadden you, but to let you know the immense affection I have for you "(2 Cor 2,4: XNUMX).

It seems to us that we are not mistaken then if we interpret that holding those words of the Apostle to the heart as if Our Lady intended to make them her own and repeat them to each of us. Because each of his visits to this earth in a visible way constitutes a call to true faith and unity. And with his tears, he doesn't want to sadden us as much as letting us know the immense affection he has for all of us. Unity among Christians is one of the reasons for his concern, and invites us to pray for it.

In practice, what the Madonna will propose at the Three Fountains is the same message that St. Paul lived and announced in his life as an apostle and that we can summarize in three points:

1. conversion of sinners, especially by their immorality (the place where Mary appears was the theater);

2. conversion of unbelievers from their atheism and from their attitude of indifference towards God and supernatural realities; the unity of Christians, that is, true ecumenism, so that the prayer and longing of his Son may be fulfilled: let only one sheepfold be made under the guidance of one shepherd. The fact that the place is located in Rome is in itself a reference to Peter, to the rock on which the Church is founded, to the guarantee of truth and security of Revelation itself.

Our Lady shows a particular affection and care for the Pope. With this he wants to make it clear that he is the shepherd of the "holy sheepfold" and that there is no true Church, in the full sense of the term, if one forgets union with him. Bruno was a Protestant, and Our Lady wants to enlighten him immediately on this point, outside of which he continues to wander and grope, like blind people. And since we are talking about Rome and the pope, we still note that this appearance at the Three Fountains is very "discreet", perhaps more discreet than others. Probably because Rome is the seat of the pope, Mary in her delicacy does not want to let him pass in second order or interfere in her mission as vicar of Christ, her Son. Discretion has always been its specific characteristic, in all circumstances, both in its earthly existence and now in its celestial one.