Terezija Dush
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Terezija Dush | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 10, 1845 Porzùs, near Udine, Austrian Empire |
| Died | August 16, 1870 (aged 24) |
| Occupations | Herder, Servant, Nanny |
| Known for | Marian apparitions in Porzùs (1855) |
Terezija Dush, sister Marija Hozana (10 September 1845 – 16 August 1870), was a Venetian Slovene herder, servant, nanny, and Marian seeress.
She was born on 10 September 1845 into a poor Slovene family in Porzùs near Udine.[1][2][3] Her mother was the farmer Katarina Grimac (1806 – c. 1856) and her father the farmer Jože Dush (1803 – c. 1856).[3][1][2][4] Terezija was the youngest of seven children.[3] She and her family spoke the Venetian Slovene dialect. As a child, she knew no other language.[5] She did not attend school but helped her parents with work and tended the family cow.[1] At the age of nine she began attending catechism with the local parish priest.[6]
Apparitions
In 1855 a cholera epidemic raged in Porzùs.[3] Manuscripts of Zuan Grimaz (Giovanni Grimaz), one of the few literate villagers, describe the epidemic and three apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the villager Terezija Dush.[3] On Saturday, 8 September 1855 (the Nativity of Mary), while grazing the family cow, she reportedly saw a woman in fine peasant clothes who spoke to her in the local dialect: 'Daughter, what are you doing here?'.[3] The woman warned her that it was a feast day, that work on such days is forbidden by God and is a sin.[3] The woman then helped her cut some grass and told her to instruct the villagers to keep Sundays, feasts, and vigils, to fast, not to curse, to pray the Rosary, to hold a procession, and to ask forgiveness.[3] Terezija relayed these instructions, for she believed the woman to be the Mother of God, but the villagers did not believe her.
A second apparition reportedly occurred on 27 September 1855 in the church during the Rosary, again speaking to her in the local dialect.[3] A third took place on 30 September 1855 in the church, when Mary is said to have imprinted a small cross on the back of Terezija's right hand, appearing like shining gold and about three centimetres in size.[3][5] At that time the Mother of God purportedly entrusted her with a secret that she took to the grave. When the villagers saw the mark, which, sources report, remained until her death, they began to believe her.[2] According to Zuan Grimaz's notes, the cholera epidemic in the village then ceased.[3] Two of Mary's admonitions, written in the local dialect, Nimata klet (Do not curse) and Nimata dielat tu nedejo (Do not work on Sundays), were inscribed on the wall behind the parish church altar.[7][8]
