In the June 2021 issue of “The Message of the Holy House of Loreto” (“Il Messaggio della Santa Casa di Loreto”), there’s a beautiful testimony from a married couple named Fabrizio and Maria Rita Musino. The husband recounts the dramatic story of an illness he survived thanks to the saving power of Mary at the most critical moment.
It was June 13, 2019 when Fabrizio, a musician, felt a violent pain in his head while he was alone at his mother’s house. He had just enough time to warn his wife (a doctor) by phone before entering a semi-comatose state.
His wife, Maria Rita, immediately rushed to the scene and realized that he was suffering from a serious stroke. She called for emergency assistance, and accompanied Fabrizio by helicopter to the neurosurgery department at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome.
Fabrizio underwent an emergency operation to stop the hemorrhage and to drain the leaked blood which, if it remained inside the skull, would cause serious neurological damage.
Nearly fatal
The patient, whose life was in great danger, regained contact with the world after three days in intensive care. He had intense pain in his neck (which also felt extremely stiff), nausea, and vomiting, but fortunately he was able to move his arms and legs.
Reciting the Hail Mary
Unfortunately, he developed a urinary infection due to his catheter, and it turned into septicemia. He had a very high fever and wasn’t responding to antibiotics and antipyretics. Fabrizio told The Message of the Holy House of Loreto:
I remember that afternoon I wanted to pray with my wife, who could only enter the room for a few minutes with a thousand precautions and wearing a disposable gown. We prayed a Hail Mary, and amidst the tears of us both, we renewed our marriage vows … “For better or for worse, in sickness and in health until death do us part.” Then my wife anointed my forehead with the oil of the Holy House of Loreto, reciting the appropriate prayers to the Lord, gave me a kiss, and left.
A visit from Mary
Fabrizio was afraid to face the night in those difficult conditions, but at a certain point he felt that he was no longer alone. The shrine’s publication shares his account of the experience:
That night the great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, came to my bedside. I wasn’t sleeping, I’m sure; I wasn’t addicted to drugs and I wasn’t taking medications that could cause hallucinations. Suddenly I had the sense of being able to perceive the Transcendent. The distance that separates us from what is outside of objective reality is minimal. What is outside of our sensory experience is truly in the next room. I remember feeling a great peace and a strong feeling of love—that peace, that love, and that harmony that one breathes in a familiar environment.
It was at this moment that Fabrizio saw the Virgin appear, a graceful figure in a majestic dress, carrying the Child Jesus in her arms. She reached the foot of his bed and smiled at him without saying anything.
She wore a dalmatic as in the iconography of Our Lady of Loreto, and was covered by a black veil, which allowed the brilliance of the gems of her dress, as well as her beautiful face full of grace, to shine through .
All his pain vanished
Instantly all his pains ceased: he remained in silence, pervaded only by a feeling of well-being and serenity that made him sink into a restful sleep, “like a child in his Mother’s arms.”
In the days that followed, the drugs became effective and cured infection, and his healing process began. Today, Fabrizio reflects on how many people, consecrated and laity, prayed for him—in Loreto, where he and his wife have gone as pilgrims many times, in Italy, and a little bit all over the world, where he knows many musicians and teachers. It was the strength of that chorus of prayers, he says, that made Our Lady come to his rescue. He told The Message of the Holy House of Loreto:
A real prayer chain was created, a unanimous voice which, I believe, reached all the way to heaven, and was so strong, powerful, and heartfelt that it most likely moved the Blessed Virgin, who not only saved me from death, but wanted me to see her.
Thanks to Mary, Fabrizio was reborn
This extraordinary experience of physical and spiritual rebirth has completely changed the perspective with which Fabrizio lives and faces existence.
Today I feel that I’m truly a new person, reborn in Christ Jesus. Having looked death in the face, but above all having understood what eternity is, which awaits us after this existence, everything takes on relative value. An earthly life has been given to us and it’s our duty to live it in the best possible way—that is, as an act of thanksgiving to the Almighty Father, trying to put into practice every day the teachings of the Holy Gospel, always looking towards the heavenly homeland where our Mother awaits us in the communion of saints.
During the first year of the pandemic, Fabrizio joined the legions of musicians who shared their talent with the message, “Andrà tutto bene”—“Everything will be OK.” Listening to his words after his experience of Mary, we can see that he’s not simply repeating a slogan; he knows it to be true. Here’s a simple video where he plays part of the Italian national anthem, with “#andràtuttobene” written on a sheet of paper hanging from his music stand.
And today we celebrate...