«Every outing was an enchantment»

by Pina Baglioni

The late Gothic façade, the remains of the ancient Shrine of Mount Berico, leans on the Baroque church. It was restored in the two years 1860-61 by the architect Giovanni Miglioranza: only the rose window escaped neo-Gothic restoration. The Baroque façade, however, is decked with one of the three bas-reliefs by Orazio Marinali, set above the doors into the church: here the laying of the first stone of the original shrine is commemorated

In 1927 the four-hundredth anniversary of the apparition of the Madonna of Mount Berico was being celebrated in Vicenza. Among the thousands of pilgrims climbing towards the shrine, there was also a priest and two young boys. All three came from Canale d’Agordo and they were the archpriest of Canale, Don Filippo Carli, 15 year-old Albino Luciani and seventeen year-old Saba De Rocco. The two youngsters, friends since elementary school, were both seminarians. The future was to see one become pope and the other superior general of the Congregation of the Somaschi. Later the two were to meet again as Council Fathers at Vatican II.
Seven years after that pilgrimage to Mount Berico, Don Carli died, the beloved and never forgotten parish priest of Canale. On more than one occasion both Luciani and De Rocco were to recall the priest who had so encouraged them in setting out on the road to the priesthood. And among the different memories, Father Saba De Rocco had one of that very pilgrimage to Mount Berico. We quote it here.
«The last pilgrimage-outing, that I remember, one in no way tiring, was when we went with Don Filippo to Vicenza by train in 1927. It seems to me that it was for celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of the apparition of the Madonna of the Shrine of Mount. We arrived the evening before and spent the night in a hotel in the city. In the morning, early, we went on foot along the arcades, to the solemn tolling of the shrine’s enormous bell, as far as the large open space: we found a good position, on the edge of the square, to attend the sung pontifical mass, celebrated by Cardinal La Fontaine, the Patriarch of Venice; but it wasn’t possible to get into the beautiful shrine because of the crowds of people. In the evening we caught the train back to Canale.
Every outing was an enchantment, an education, a painstaking task undertaken by a great and beloved teacher who guided us along the paths of this earth, each towards his own destiny».

Saba De Rocco, unpublished memoirs,
Canale d’Agordo 1982