Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel: 26th April

The Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel is of some significance because it is one of the feasts of Our Lady that occurs during the season of Easter. Furthermore, it is a reminder that we need the counsel of the Woman who was not only chosen to be the Mother of the Saviour, but who was also one of the first witnesses of his Resurrection:
Records dating from the reign of Paul II (1464-71) relate that the picture of Our Lady, at first called "La Madonna del Paradiso" and now better known as "Madonna del Buon Consiglio", appeared at Genazzano, a town about twenty-five miles southeast of Rome, on St. Mark's Day, 25 April, 1467, in the old church of Santa Maria, which had been under the care of Augustinians since 1356. The venerated icon itself, which is drawn on a thin scale of wall-plaster little thicker than a visiting-card, was observed to hang suspended in the air without the slightest apparent support; thus early tradition, which furthermore tells how one might have passed a thread around the image without touching it. At once devotion to Our Lady in Santa Maria sprang up; pilgrim-bands began to resort thither; while miracles in ever-increasing numbers, of which a register was opened two days after the event, were wrought, as they still continue to be, at the shrine. Source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11361a.htm