Late for Mass

Arrived late to Mass at the Church of the Virgin of Graces today in Civitavecchia, which is about 30 miles north of Rome. It was standing room only all the way to the back door.

Dark clouds have stalled my progress in Civitavecchia.

Came upon a statue outside the Church of the Virgin. Towards the end of the 16th century, a little church was built by Franciscans. In 1804, it was promoted to a parish and committed to the Minor Conventual Friars. It was wholly reconstructed in 1856, the first parish in the world, and it was dedicated to the Virgin. Inside, on the altar, the holy picture to which prodigious happenings were credited in April 1854.