August Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary

OUR LADY ASKS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ORDER FOR REDEEMING CAPTIVES (1218)

Our Lady of Ransom appeared to Saint Raimund, of the order of Saint Dominic, on this day in the year 1218, and also to King James I of Aragon, and likewise to Saint Peter Nolasco in three separate apparitions, making known to all three that she desired each of them to contribute to establishing an order for redeeming captives.

That Order they established is known as the Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives, is also known as The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, the Order of Merced, the Order of Captives, or the Order of Our Lady of Ransom.

At that time in history, during the 13th Century, the powerful Islamic Taifa kingdoms in Spain, as well as the Ottoman Empire at the opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea, operated a slave trade the scope of which has not been seen anytime else in history. The Spanish, particularly, were subject to raids in which they would be captured and imprisoned, sold into slavery and often forced to renounce their Catholic faith or face discrimination, torture and death.

Long before the First Crusade, organizations like the knights of St. John Hospitaller and the Templars were formed to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land, while the Hospitallers also ran hospices along the route to the Holy Land and even a hospital in Jerusalem. There were also charitable institutions, usually run by the nobility, that would ransom Christian captives from imprisonment.

In the year 1203, a man named Peter Nolasco formed an organization that would ransom those who were not wealthy or prominent men, whom he called the “poor of Christ.” Saint Peter Nolasco was not a priest, but he worked diligently to rescue Christian captives, and other men soon joined him in this charitable work. Unfortunately, there were far more captives than he was able to help, so Peter turned to God and His Blessed Mother in prayer for help. It was then that the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Ransom, appeared to him on August 1, 1218, turning his order into a religious organization with the assistance of Saint Raimund, and the protection of King James I of Aragon.

Saint Peter Nolasco went to the court of King James I the following day, and as the king had also received a vision of the Blessed Virgin, he was extremely supportive of what Peter Nolasco intended to do. In fact, King James considered himself a founder of the order, and gave his own illustrious coat of arms, with a cross above a shield with four red stripes on a gold background, to be worn on their breasts and scapulars. The cross is the Maltese Cross of the Knights of Saint John, the military order who had fought so magnificently against Islam for centuries.

On August 10th, the Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives was officially constituted at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Barcelona. One of the vows of its members is that they will take the place of captives, and even die for any Christian who was in danger of losing his Catholic faith.

In 1235 Pope Gregory IX formally recognized the Order inspired by Our Lady of Ransom, which at one point was renowned for having rescued 70,000 Christian souls. It is estimated that 2,700 were rescued during the lifetime of Saint Peter Nolasco, who died in the year 1258.

OUR LADY OF ANGELS, ASSISI, ITALY (13TH CENTURY)

Our Lady of Angels, or of the Portiuncula, is located six hundred yards from the city of Assissium, in Italy. It was a desolate locality, and apparently an unsettled one where robbers and the lawlessness flourished, for the Benedictines who had lived at the monastery felt it was too hazardous to remain there. They abandoned the monastery, relocating to Mount Subasio, which was a fortified monastery.

The original chapel is thought to date from the 4th Century, and was built by holy hermits who had come from the Valley of Josaphat. It is said that they brought relics of the Blessed Virgin with them to the region when they constructed the chapel.

When Saint Francis chanced to come upon the little, run down and abandoned chapel of Our Lady of Angels, or Santa Maria degli Angelis, in the year 1208, it was almost completely hidden in shrubs and brush. Saint Francis entered the hidden church, which measured only twenty-two feet by thirteen feet, and saw the ancient fresco that had been placed above the main altar. It was an image of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin surrounded by angels. Some say that this is why the chapel was named Our Lady of Angels, although there are also legends that angels could often be heard singing there.

The place took its name, the Little Portion, or Portiuncula in the native Italian, from the small section of fertile land that was gifted to the monks for them to work for their support. It is said that this was the place where Saint Francis first understood his vocation, received visions, and was also where the saint desired to live. The Benedictines had lived at that location for hundreds of years, but the Benedictine monks gave this chapel to Saint Francis upon his request. It was certainly here that the Franciscan Order was founded.

At first Saint Francis wished the convent which he built there to be the principal one of his order. He assembled the first General Chapter there, where there were five thousand religious. It was also where he yielded up the ghost on October 3rd in the year 1226, the twentieth of his conversion, and the forty-fifth of his age. The cell in which the poor man of Assisi died can still be seen where it rests against one of the columns of the cupola under the choir bay.

OUR LADY OF BOWS, LONDON (1071)

Our Lady of Bows was a shrine in London. It is related that in the year 1071 Mary’s image there had been carried away by a storm, together with more than 600 houses. It fell uninjured with such violence that it broke into the pavement, and sunk more than 20 feet into the earth, whence it was never possible to draw it out.

There is a church currently in London named Saint Mary-le-Bow that was constructed in about 1080 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a Norman church which may have replaced a previous structure of Saxon origin, and that building may have been destroyed in a storm in 1071.

What is certain is that there was a terrible storm in the city of London in the month of October in the year 1091, based on a 12th century chronicle. This may be the actual date referred to by the Abbot Orsini, as it was recorded that there was a great wind and a tornado from the south that killed two men and lifted the roof and rafters of the church so high that when they fell the rafters were driven so far into the earth that only a seventh or eighth part of them remained visible. The rafters were nearly 30 feet long. It is also mentioned that the rafters could not be pulled back out of the ground, and so were sawed off at ground level and left. I can find no mention of an image of Mary that also was driven into the ground at that time.

The church of Saint Mary-le-Bow takes its name from the unusual Norman arches, or bows, which were considered a novelty. The church is thought to be built above a crypt from a much earlier age. Sir Christopher Wren, who rebuilt the church after it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, felt it was of Roman origin, and wanted it used as a burial chamber. At that time the only access to the crypt was by a trapdoor with a ladder, although later a staircase was constructed to assist access.

Besides the tornado that struck the church in 1091, there was a fire in 1196. A tower of the church collapsed in 1271, and the church was completely destroyed by the German’s in World War II before being rebuilt in 1964.

There is a saying that to be a true Londoner, a Cockney, one must be born within hearing distance of the bells of Saint Mary-Le-Bow. It is now an Anglican church.

OUR LADY OF DORDRECHT, HOLLAND, SHRINE BUILT BY ST. SANTERA

Our Lady of Dordrecht, in Holland, is located at the west end of the Voorstraat, and is also known as Grote Kerk or Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Chruch of Our Lady). The name of Dordrecht comes from the informal name of Dordt given to the town by its inhabitants, combined with "drecht," which means "ford." It became a major market city due to its strategic location.

According to tradition, it was built by Saint Sauters, also known as Saint Sura or Saint Santera, in about the year 1300, on the spot designated by an angel, as it is said, who was sent by the Blessed Virgin.

Saint Sauters is said to have planned on building the church when she only had three small coins in her purse, much as Saint Don Bosco later did in the 19th Century. The saint afterward received the crown of martyrdom in the same church where the shrine was erected, as Saint Sura was said to have been murdered by the builders of the chapel out of greed because of her supposed wealth. There is a legend that Saint Sura rose from the dead after her murder. There is a painting of Saint Sura in the Church of Saint Nicholas holding a church in her hands as she looks up at a statue of the Blessed Virgin holding the Infant Jesus on her right arm.

To render her memory more celebrated, God caused a fountain to flow, after her death, which, through the intercession of the Saint and recourse to Mary, cured fevers. The healing water soothes troubled minds, brings relief to aching brows and strength to weakened limbs, as Mary’s sick children come for aid to her.

Dordrecht is the oldest city in Holland, having been granted city rights by the Count of Holland, William I, in the year 1220. The church was built in the Gothic style, and is the only one in Holland with stone vaulting. The tower, at 122.3 meters tall, is the still the tallest structure in the city. A total of 49 bells were installed in the year 1949. Charles the Bold, the last Valois Duke of Burgundy, is buried in the choir space behind the high altar.

In 1568, the Dutch revolted against Spain and King Philip II, and nearly all of Holland met at Dordrecht for what was called the First Assembly of the Free States. The church was already the home of Michelangelo’s sculpture known as the Madonna and Child, which had been donated to the church in the year 1514. Thankfully, it somehow survived the ravages of the French Revolution, as was returned to the church after being stolen by Nazis in World War II.

OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS

Improbable as it is for snow to fall during August, history tells of a snowfall that seemed more impossible, namely in Rome, Italy. August 5, 352, snow fell during the night in Rome.

There lived in the Eternal City a nobleman, John and his childless wife, who had been blessed with much of this world’s goods. They chose the Mother of God as the heir to their fortune, and at the suggestion of Pope Liberius, prayed that she might make known to them how to do this by a particular sign.

In answer, the Virgin Mother during the night of August 5, appeared to John and his wife and also to the Holy Father, Pope Liberius, directing them to build a church in her honor on the crown of the Esquiline Hill. And what would be the sign that John and his wife had requested?

“Snow will cover the crest of the hill.”

Snow rarely falls in Rome, but the flakes fell silently during that night, blanketing the peak of the historic hill. In the morning the news quickly spread and crowds gathered to throng up the hill and behold the white splendor. The snow had fallen in a particular pattern, showing the outline of the future church. When it became known that the snow was a sign from Mary, the people spontaneously added another to her long list of titles, Our Lady of the Snows.

The church built there is now known as Saint Mary Major. It is the focal point of devotion for many of Mary’s millions of children, one of the most popular churches in the world. There Mary has been pleased to secure various and many blessings as numerous and varied, as the flakes of snow that fell that August night.

The church built by John and his wife in honor of Our Lady of the Snows, restored and enlarged at various times was known by different names: the Basilica of Liberius, Saint Mary of the Crib because it enshrines relics of Christ’s Crib; lastly, Saint Mary Major, to distinguish it from the many other Roman churches dedicated to the Mother of God; Major, means Greater. There is an image revered as Our Lady of the Snows, which is believed to have been produced by St. Luke the Apostle.

Saint Mary Major is one of the four basilicas in which the pilgrims to Rome must pray in order to gain the indulgences of the Holy Year. Most fitting do we call Mary Our Lady of the Snows. The white blanket of that August night symbolizes Mary, pure as the driven snow; her blessings and graces, numerous and varied as the falling snowflakes.

Science tells us that every snowflake is different in form and make-up: size, outline, structure, ornamentation, are all without limit, infinite in wondrous beauty, startling complexity, perfect symmetry as they fleet, dancing down from the sky. What a wonderful figure of the blessings Mary obtains for us! Snow changes the face of the earth, painting even a field of mud with a white coat. The grace of God won through prayer to Mary, also changes the face of the earth. Snow preserves the heat of the earth, protects vegetation, supplies moisture with slow effectiveness.

Grace serves similar purposes: it preserves the warmth of God’s love in our hearts; it protects the soul from the chill of temptation and sin; it nourishes the soul with new life. We see a further symbolism in this feast. There are millions living in lands of ice and snow who have not come to the knowledge of Mary and her Divine Son. We might ask that with the actual snowflakes, she shower down upon them the graces of the True Faith.

In particular may that land where snow falls long and heavily, Russia, come to share in a fall of graces through prayer to her whom we honor on August fifth as “Our Lady of the Snows.”

OUR LADY OF COPACABANA

Among the passengers of a ship lost in a storm near Rio de Janeiro, were some Brazilian pilgrims returning from a visit to the shrine of the Virgin of Copacabana in Bolivia. They called upon the Virgin to intercede for them, and, they were landed safely on the Brazilian shores. In token of gratitude, they called the spot Copacabana – and it has since become one of the world’s favorite resorts.

In Bolivia, however, the original Copacabana does not suggest gay social life; it spells a wonderful story of faith and love. Enclosed by beautiful sloping mountains overlooking the Mary-blue of Lake Titicaca, lies the tiny cove called Sepa-cabana or Copacabana. The name means “one who looks at the precious stone,” because in the distance, lovely to see, stretches the majestic, ice-capped necklace of the Cordillera of the Andes. In this spot in the days of the Inca Empire, lived good Indians whose sole duty was to prepare for journeys of worshippers to the Island of the Sun, some miles out on the lake. Copacabana, accordingly, became the center of much Incaion activity, for the Incas were fanatic in their visits to the island shrine.

The missionaries who came with the Spanish conquerors naturally planted the cross in all large Incan centers, and a church was built in Copacabana. It was dedicated to St Ann. However, The Mother of the Blessed Virgin seemed to frown on this honor, for the town soon fell into disrepute and the harvests were poor. Many of the Indians moved away until only a few souls remained. Those who stayed believed that if the town were dedicated to some other saint, the town might prosper; but the agreement on the identity of the new patron could never be reached.

In the year 1581, a young Indian lad, Francisco Yupanbi, desired earnestly that his town be dedicated to Our Lady. In secret he started to construct a statue of the Virgin and Child to be presented to the village. For more than a year he labored day and night. When he called in the townspeople to see the result, they laughed at him in scorn, for Francisco knew nothing of art, and his statue proved it. Undaunted, but burning with the desire to complete the task, the youth went off to visit all the great cities of Bolivia in order to study under the masters who were decorating churches and monasteries.

Finally after months of disappointments and successes, he finished his labor of love, Our Lady of Copacabana – a Virgin with all of the features of his own race, in her arms an Infant no different than the thousands of Indian Babies Francisco had known so well. He called in his teachers and other artists, and they were astonished; he had created a veritable work of art; but for him it was a labor of love, representing his “Little Mother,” the Virgin who could save his native town of Copacabana. He hastened with his precious burden to his home; but as he arrived, he was met by a delegation of citizens, who had come to drive him and his silly lump of plaster away.

But the Virgin, Our Lady of Copacabana, smiled on Francisco; when the box was opened the hostile attitude changed; when they saw the love that had been caught in the face of the Madonna, they welcomed Francisco and his dear burden to the town. There were soon many miracles attributed to devotion to the new statue of Our Lady of Copacabana. The warmth of love engulfed Copacabana, and soon a church was built for the Mother and her Child. Jewels from devout persons far and near poured into the shrine to adorn Our Lady of Copacabana; distant pilgrims came day after day.

Francisco entered a monastery where he died a happy, holy man. Many legends grew up around his statue; it is said that if you look at her and think her beautiful, that is a sign that you are in her favor; if not, your soul is ugly. Many cures and miracles have been attributed to this Virgin, the greatest, that of faith – she stands as a monument of the faith of Francisco Yupanbi and to the faith of the millions of Indians who came after him; of poor and rich, mighty and lowly, who have revered this simple piece of clay that reminds them of their “Mamita,” the little Mother of everyone. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the patron saint of Bolivia, and the shrine of Our Lady of Copacabana is one of the oldest shrines in the Americas.

OUR LADY OF SCHIEDAM, HOLLAND (15TH CENTURY)

This statue is located in Holland. The chronicle relates that a merchant, who had stolen this image, embarked with the intention of selling it at a fair at Antwerp. Mysteriously, he could never get away from the port. Alarmed at this prodigy, he restored the image which he had taken away, and it was solemnly translated to the Church of Saint John the Baptist.

It was at the shrine of Our Lady of Schiedam that the mystic, Saint Lidwina, (also Lydwine) spent whole nights in prayer. Born at Schiedam on 18 April 1380, early in her life Lidwina was drawn toward the Mother of God and prayed a great deal before this miraculous image. The Mother of God revealed to her the extent of suffering Christ would ask her to endure, but likewise assured her that she, Mary, would sustain her through her grace and intercessory power. (Interestingly, the name Lidwina means “suffering.”)

One winter day in 1395, when Lidwina was about 15 years old, she went out to skate with her friends. At one point she fell on the ice so hard that she broke a rib that would not heal. This was the beginning of a martyrdom that would end only with her death nearly four decades later.

At first Ledwina began to have difficulty walking, and had severe headaches, nausea and thirsts. It was only the beginning, though, as the wound became gangrenous and the disease spread all over Lidwina’s body, without, however, killing her. For the rest of her life Lidwina was bedridden and lay in indescribable pain, and in the last seven years of her life was completely blind. It seemed impossible that she could remain alive in such condition, as even parts of her body fell off and blood would pour from her mouth, ears, and nose. The Blessed Virgin Mary was true to her word, though, as was Saint Lidwina in accepting the will of God in imitation to Our Lady’s Fiat.

Saint Lidwina prayed much despite her suffering, and was particularly devoted to the Eucharist and willingly bore her anguish for the love of God. She was also a stigmatic, and her diet consisted for some time of nothing other than the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Lidwina received various visions, many of them of Heaven and Hell. On Easter Sunday in the year 1433 she had a final vision and received the Last Rites from Our Lord Himself.

After 38 years of suffering, Saint Lidwina died a holy death at the age of 53.

OUR LADY OF KUEHN, NEAR BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Our Lady of Kuehn, or Kuen, Belgium. The crops were poor; there was much sickness, but the Virgin would not let her people plead in vain. She knew what hunger, poverty and pain was. She would help. Fervently, confidently, lovingly, the people gathered at Mary’s little shrine and asked their Mother for aid.

Suddenly the image of Mary smiled and a sweet voice begged them to erect a church in her honor and to build it on this spot. Our Lady promised that on the morrow she would show them where and how. The dimensions of the church are said to have been marked out with a line which is still visible.

It reminds us of when Our Lord returned to Galilee with His first disciples, and Jesus and His Mother were invited to a wedding at Cana, near Nazareth.

Two days of festivities preceded the wedding, which was followed by an evening banquet. It was here that Mary noticed the wine was scarce. She reminded Jesus that He had promised to supply the wine. The Divine Savior had just been speaking of His Heavenly Father; He replied with loving, calm, impersonal majesty: “What is that to you or to me, Woman? My hour has not yet come.”

Mary understood, and was prepared to relieve the anxiety for the guests. Trusting the Father would reveal the Lord’s power at the right moment, she went to the worried servants and said to them with quiet modesty and confidence: “Do whatever He tells you.”

A moment later Jesus told the waiters to bring the water jars to Him and turn them upside down. The servants brought in six large, stone jars, which when fell were so heavy that two men had to carry just one jar. Jesus said to the waiters: “Fill the jars with water.” After this was done, Jesus went to the jars and blessed them; then He said to the waiters: “Draw out now and take them to the chief steward.” When the chief steward, who did not know where the wine had come from, tasted the water made wine, he went to the bridegroom, exclaiming in surprise: “Every man first sets forth the good wine, and when they have drunk freely, then that which is poorer in quality. But you have kept the good wine until now!”

Just so, Mary will respond to our appeals, asking Our Lord to relieve our difficulties, for He will not deny the request of His beloved Mother.

OUR LADY OF OEGNIES, BRABANT, NETHERLANDS

Oegnies, also spelled Oignies and known as Ongniacume in ancient times, is a village located in the north of France. It is thought to be the birthplace of Saint Mary of Oegnies, who visited the holy image of Our Lady of Oegnies once every year, even walking barefoot to the shrine during the severe rigors of winter. Saint Mary of Oegnies was beatified by the Church, and her feast day is June 23rd. It is said that the Virgin Mary once sheltered her from the rain with her mantle. Saint Mary of Oegnies was born at Nivelles in 1167, and died on June 23rd, 1213, of natural causes.

Mary was born into a wealthy family. Very early in life she felt the call to the consecrated life. According to tradition the beginning of her conversion came about due to her contemplation of the Cross and Passion of Christ. Meditating on the Passion one day she was so moved to tears that her steps in church might be traced by the copious drops that fell on the paves. Many who observed her also felt moved to devotion, reading in her countenance as in a book the unction of the Holy Ghost.

Despite her wishes, Mary’s parents desired for her to marry and arranged a marriage for her at the age of 14. Mary was obedient, but convinced her husband, John, to live chastely with her as brother and sister. They gave what they had to the poor, and for many years she and her husband served lepers in a hospital at Willenbrouch near Nivelle.

Mary was greatly devoted to Our Lady of Oegnies and Saint John the Evangelist, and was a friend to a woman known as Christina the Astonishing, a remarkable woman who truly merited her name. Having apparently died while in her early 20’s, Christina came back to life and levitated from her casket during her funeral ceremony to tell those present that God had shown her Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, and that she had returned to do penance for the relief of the dead and the conversion of sinners. These penances included casting herself into furnaces from which she would later emerge unharmed, and allowing wild dogs to tear and rend her flesh until she was covered with her own blood, only then to immediately heal with no trace of wound or scar.

Eventually unable to bear the frequent attention of devotees, Mary and her husband felt it God’s will that they should separate to live contemplative lives. Mary retired to a hermitage of Saint Nicholas in Oignies, near Namur. There she prayed for the souls in Purgatory, and gave spiritual advise to the disciples who gathered around her, among them James of Viry. She practiced asceticism worthy of the Desert Fathers, and was privileged to have mystical ecstasies and visions, mainly of Saint John and her guardian angel. Mary also continued to care for lepers.

Three days before she died, Mary began to sing in ecstatic strains in the Romance language concerning the Trinity, the Humanity of Christ, the Virgin and the Saints. She sang as if the sentences with their rhythm were written before her. She said, greatly rejoicing at it, that the Holy Spirit would soon visit His Church, and send laborers more abundantly than usual into the harvest.

There is the so-called Treasure of Oignies, which consists of thirty reliquaries, crosses, and other precious items dating from the 13th century, and together they are considered one of the Seven Wonders of Belgium. The Treasure of Oignies is the work of an exceptional jeweler, brother Hugo d’Oignies, and is one of the most important heritage treasures with which Belgium is enriched. Made in the priory of Oignies-sur-Sambre between the years 1228 and 1238, they escaped as by miracle from the French revolutionaries who destroyed the monastery in the year 1796.

OUR LADY ASKS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ORDER FOR REDEEMING CAPTIVES (1218)

Same as August 1

Our Lady of Ransom appeared to Saint Raimund, of the order of Saint Dominic, on this day in the year 1218, and also to King James I of Aragon, and likewise to Saint Peter Nolasco in three separate apparitions, making known to all three that she desired each of them to contribute to establishing an order for redeeming captives.

That Order they established is known as the Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives, is also known as The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, the Order of Merced, the Order of Captives, or the Order of Our Lady of Ransom.

At that time in history, during the 13th Century, the powerful Islamic Taifa kingdoms in Spain, as well as the Ottoman Empire at the opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea, operated a slave trade the scope of which has not been seen anytime else in history. The Spanish, particularly, were subject to raids in which they would be captured and imprisoned, sold into slavery and often forced to renounce their Catholic faith or face discrimination, torture and death.

Long before the First Crusade, organizations like the knights of St. John Hospitaller and the Templars were formed to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land, while the Hospitallers also ran hospices along the route to the Holy Land and even a hospital in Jerusalem. There were also charitable institutions, usually run by the nobility, that would ransom Christian captives from imprisonment.

In the year 1203, a man named Peter Nolasco formed an organization that would ransom those who were not wealthy or prominent men, whom he called the “poor of Christ.” Saint Peter Nolasco was not a priest, but he worked diligently to rescue Christian captives, and other men soon joined him in this charitable work. Unfortunately, there were far more captives than he was able to help, so Peter turned to God and His Blessed Mother in prayer for help. It was then that the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Ransom, appeared to him on August 1, 1218, turning his order into a religious organization with the assistance of Saint Raimund, and the protection of King James I of Aragon.

Saint Peter Nolasco went to the court of King James I the following day, and as the king had also received a vision of the Blessed Virgin, he was extremely supportive of what Peter Nolasco intended to do. In fact, King James considered himself a founder of the order, and gave his own illustrious coat of arms, with a cross above a shield with four red stripes on a gold background, to be worn on their breasts and scapulars. The cross is the Maltese Cross of the Knights of Saint John, the military order who had fought so magnificently against Islam for centuries.

On August 10th, the Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives was officially constituted at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Barcelona. One of the vows of its members is that they will take the place of captives, and even die for any Christian who was in danger of losing his Catholic faith.

In 1235 Pope Gregory IX formally recognized the Order inspired by Our Lady of Ransom, which at one point was renowned for having rescued 70,000 Christian souls. It is estimated that 2,700 were rescued during the lifetime of Saint Peter Nolasco, who died in the year 1258.

OUR LADY OF THE WAY, ST. CHARLES, MISSOURI

In Saint Charles, Missouri, there is a roadside shrine, called Our Lady of the Way: it is believed to be the only one in the world dedicated to the Virgin Mary under this title.

It was built by twenty-five volunteers, all laymen, at the intersection of the two major highways, about eight miles west of Saint Charles, Missouri. The original idea was to build the shrine in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but the priest who was asked about it, suggested that it be called Our Lady of the Way instead. Now it is fondly referred to as “Our Lady of Missouri.”

The shrine faces Interstate 70, in the town of Saint Peters, in Saint Charles County. It was originally located about a mile to the west of its present location following in part the route of Boone’s Lick Road, which was for 40 years the major overland road leading to the great American West.

The shrine consists of a statue of Mary with vases of flowers on either side, and an image of a book carved in stone at her feet. Engraved in the book is written: “Our Lady of the Way. Our Lady of the Way is the patroness of all who travel along the roads of the world and on the Seven Seas. O Lord Jesus Christ who art the way, the truth and the life, grant us in Thy mercy, that through the intercession of Blessed Mary, Thy Virgin Mother, we may run the way of Thy commandments and reach unto eternal life.”

There is also a plaque which honors Wendell A. Boschert’s family for the donation of the land for the shrine’s original location, and to the May Company for the donation of the land for the present location. It also includes the names of the Charter Members who produced the shrine.

Our Lady of the Way, or Our Lady of the Road, or Madonna Della Strada, is patroness of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. The original icon bearing this name resides in the Society’s church in Rome.

OUR LADY OF ROUEN, FRANCE

The Cathedral of Rouen is a Gothic cathedral in France. The first church at the location, which was later destroyed during an invasion, was believed to have been built in the year 396. This original church was visited by Charlemagne in the year 769, and Rollo, who founded the Viking principality in what would become Normandy, visited the site in the year 915. King Richard I of England gave great gifts to the church and enlarged it in the year 950. The heart of this king, better known as Richard the Lionheart, is still entombed in the present church.

It is notable that as early as the 11th century a notable fraternity of prominent men was established at Rouen to honor the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The current Cathedral of Rouen that can be seen was not begun until late in the 12th century.

At the time of the Black Plague, Rouen was delivered by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and placed itself under her protection by a special vow. It is estimated that between 30 and 60% of Europe’s population died from the plague between the years 1347 and 1350.

For their deliverance from the plague the people built a beautiful edifice known as Our Lady of the Vow in the chapel of the cathedral to commemorate the event. Throughout Rouen, squares, fountains, and public monuments all bore Mary’s image as a token of gratitude. The magistrates suspended a massive golden lamp over the white marble Madonna on the altar which burned without interruption until it was extinguished by the Protestants in the sixteenth century.

The kings of France have granted the Cathedral of Rouen great privileges throughout the centuries.

In the 16th century the cathedral suffered heavy destruction at the hands of pious Calvanists, who destroyed statues, tombs, furnishings, and even the priceless stained glass windows. Later, in the 20th century, the church was intentionally bombed in April of 1944, which did extensive damage but did not level the church, and was bombed again in June of the same year, which resulted in the loss of the North Tower.

In our own day, the cathedral of Our Lady of Rouen is perhaps most famous for the 28 paintings that the impressionist Claude Monet painted of it.

DORMITION OF OUR LADY (58)

Death of Our Lady in the presence of the apostles, except Saint Thomas. Like her divine Son, she rose again and ascended to heaven on the third day after her death. The Dormition of Our Lady.

“The holy Apostles held a conference concerning the burial of the most sacred body of their Queen and lady. As they remembered that, according to the custom of the Jews at burial, the deified body of their Master had been anointed with precious ointments and spices and wrapped in the sacred burial cloths; they thought not of doing otherwise with the virginal body of His most holy Mother. Accordingly they called the two maidens, who had assisted the Queen during her life and who had been designated as the heiresses of her tunics, and instructed them to anoint the body of the Mother of God with highest reverence and modesty and wrap it in the winding-sheets before it should be placed in the casket.

With great reverence and fear the two maidens entered the room, where the body of the blessed Lady lay upon its couch; but the refulgence issuing from it barred and blinded them in such a manner that they could neither see nor touch the body, nor even ascertain in what particular place it rested.

In fear and reverence still greater than on their entrance, the maidens left the room; and in great excitement and wonder they told the Apostles what had happened. They, not without divine inspiration, came to the conclusion, that this Ark of the covenant was not to be touched or handled in the common way. Then saint Peter and saint John entered the oratory and perceived the effulgence, and at the same time they heard the celestial music of the angels, who were singing: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” Others responded: “A Virgin before childbirth, in childbirth and after childbirth.” From that time on many of the faithful expressed their devotion toward the most blessed Mary in these words of praise; and from them they were handed down to be repeated by us with the approbation of the holy Church.

The two holy Apostles, saint peter and saint John, were for a time lost in admiration at what they saw and heard of their Queen; and in order to decide what to do, they sank on their knees, beseeching the Lord to make it known. Then they heard a voice saying: “Let not the sacred body be either uncovered or touched.”

Having thus been informed of the will of God, they brought a bier, and, the effulgence having diminished somewhat, they approached the couch and with their own hands reverently took hold of the tunic at the two ends. Thus, without changing its posture, they raised the sacred and virginal Treasure and placed it on the bier in the same position as it had occupied on the couch. They could easily do this, because they felt no more weight than that of the tunic. On this bier the former effulgence of the body moderated still more, and all of them, by disposition of the Lord and for the consolation of all those present, could now perceive and study the beauty of that virginal countenance and of her hands. As for the rest, the omnipotence of God protected this his heavenly dwelling, so that neither in life nor in death any one should behold any other part except what is common in ordinary conversation, namely, her most inspiring countenance, by which She had been known, and her hands, by which She had labored.

Then the Apostles consulted further about her burial. Their decision becoming known among the multitudes of the faithful in Jerusalem, they brought many candles to be lighted at the bier, and it happened that all the lights burned through that day and the two following days without any of the candles being consumed or wasted in any shape or manner.

The Apostles took upon their shoulders the sacred body and the tabernacle of God and, as priests of the evangelical law, bore the Propitiatory of the divine oracles and blessings in orderly procession from the Cenacle in the city to the valley of Josaphat. This was the visible accompaniment of the dwellers of Jerusalem. But besies this there was another invisible multitude, that of the courtiers of heaven. It was composed of the thousand angels of the Queen, continuing their celestial songs, which were heard by the Apostles and disciples and many others, and which sweetly continued for three days. In addition to these many other spirits had descended from heaven, namely, many thousands or legions of angels with the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets, among whom were saint Joachim saint Anne, saint Joseph, saint Elizabeth and the Baptist and numerous other saints, who were sent by our Savior Jesus to assist at the exequies and burial of His most blessed Mother.

When the procession came to the holy sepulcher in the valley of Josaphat, the same two Apostles, saint Peter and saint John, who had laid the celestial Treasure from the couch onto the bier, with joyful reverence placed it in the sepulcher and covered it with a linen cloth, the hands of the angels performing more of these last rites than the hands of the Apostles. They closed up the sepulcher with a large stone, according to custom at other burials. The celestial courtiers returned to heaven, while the thousand angels of the Queen continued their watch, guarding the sacred body and keeping up the music as at her burial. The concourse of the people lessened and the holy Apostles and disciples, dissolved in tender tears, returned to the Cenacle.

VIGIL OF THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY

The Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady. Mention is made of this vigil, with fasting, by Pope Nicolas I, who was the pope in the year 858. It is recorded that on this day angels were heard, near the city of Soissons, singing this anthem:

“Felix namque es, sacra Virgo Maria, et omni laude dignissima, quia ex te ortus est Sol justitiae, Christus Deus noster.”

Vigils were kept on the evening before each feast day from the earliest days of the Church. On that evening all of the faithful would gather together to prepare themselves and their dispositions for the feast they were about to celebrate. This might also include listening to readings from the Bible, or a sermon on the topic by a priest. Mass would then be celebrated on the feast day, and the fast would be broken. It is said that both Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome practiced and fully supported the idea of the vigil. The Vigil of the Assumption would have been one of the Church's most important vigils.

“Of the glory and felicity of the saints in the beatific vision saint Paul says with Isaias (I Cor. 2,9; Is. 64, 4), that neither have mortal eyes seen, nor ears heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him and who hope in Him. In accordance with this Catholic truth, we should not wonder at what is related of saint Auguestine, the great light of the Church, that, in setting out to write a book on the glory of the blessed, he was visited by his frined, saint Jerome, who had just died and entered into the glory of the Lord, and was admonished by his visitor, that he would not be able to compass his design; since no tongue or pen of man could describe the least part of the blessings enjoyed by the saints in the beatific vision. Such is the testimony of saint Jerome; and if through holy Scriptures we had no other information than that this glory is eternal, it would be beyond all our comprehension. For, however much of our intellect may expand, it will never comprehend eternity; and as this is infinite and boundless, it is inexhaustible and incomprehensible, how much soever it may be known and loved. Just as God, the Infinite and the Almighty, created all things, without being thereby exhausted, and even if He had created endless worlds ever anew, would remain still infinite and immutable; so also, although seen and enjoyed by countless saints, He will remain an infinite source of new knowledge and love; for in creation and in glory all creatures participate in Him only to a limited extent, each according to its condition, while He in Himself is without limitation or end.

“If on this account the glory even of the least of the saints is eneffable, what shall we say of the glory of the most blessed Mary, since among the saints She is the most holy and She by Herself is more like to her Son than all the saints together, and since her grace and glory exceed those of all the rest, as those of an empress or sovereign over her vassals?”

ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY INTO HEAVEN (FEAST INSTITUTED BY POPE LEO IV IN 847)

“Open the portals! The Queen is approaching. Lift up, O eternal gates!”

The endless parade of the blessed crowded about the wide-open gates of heaven. There was tense expectancy, such as one finds along a line of march as a parade approaches. A roadway of clouds billowed the pathway from an uncorrupted grave to an incorruptible throne.

At last, borne by angels, the lovely Lady arrives. It is the first Assumpton Day, the Assumption of Mary. The heavenly throng gasps with admiration. The celestial singers burst into song. The angels hurry to and fro to catch a glimpse of her and to tell their companions of her beauty.

Jesus waits at the open entrance, throws His arms about His Mother, leads her triumphantly and happily to the very throne of the heavenly Father, who leans forward and places solemnly and smilingly upon her beauteous head the crown, as the Holy Spirit, heavenly Spouse of the Virgin Mother casts warmth and light upon the welcome newcomer.

The Assumption of Mary !Sweet scene of Mary’s bliss! Who can measure her happiness? Who can count the throbs of joy in her heart: joy that now her lonesome life on earth without Jesus is over; joy that now she has Him, never again to lose Him; joy that now she can enjoy His company without the interruptions of earth or sense; joy that now she can help everyone on earth who is devoted to her Son; joy that all the honor and all the praise and all the glory is given to her because of her Son; joy that the very crown she is wearing as the Queen of heaven and earth, is given to her because she is the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God; joy that an eternity is just beginning during which she can wrap herself in her Child and her Redeemer, even more closely than their lives had been entwined upon earth.”

Our Lady assumed into Heaven! Entering body and soul into the presence of the Most Blessed and Eternal Trinity! The Assumption of Mary! Her sufferings, great beyond all measure, are nothing now as she finds her reward in the greatness of the Infinite God. What eternal joy in His possession; what peace in being eternally possessed by Him – surely the richest reward for the obedient Handmaid of the Lord.

Our reward is likewise the possession of the same Triune God – our way to Him is likewise along the same royal way as tread so humbly and submissively the feet of our obedient Queen. Her last recorded words in Sacred Scripture, her counsel to the servants at the wedding feast, applies to us with equal and unfailing force: “Do whatever He tells you!” Our obedience to Christ is our way to joy and peace.

Mary’s death was caused by love that consumed her heart; her death was not meant for punishment nor expiation, hence there was no violence nor was it painful, since she was preserved from the dominion given to death by sin. According to an opinion accepted since the Middle Ages, Mary’s death resembled Christ’s, because she accepted it voluntarily out of humble and loving obedience; so, she died of love in the strict sense of the word. Death came to her in the form of the weakening of the body caused by the supernatural might of Dying Love. Her natural vitality was exhausted by love-longing, by the strength of an ecstasy of love and her great love moved God to cease keeping her alive. Mary’s death was a holocaust of love where the sacrifice offered long before at the foot of the Cross in poignant and spiritual anguish was at last completed.

This feast, the Assumption of Mary, was instituted, according to Saint Bernard, in the very time of the apostles.

OUR LADY OF TRAPANI, SICILY

This Modanna is venerated in a chapel of the sanctuary or shrine of Our Lady of the Annunciation (Santuario dell’ Annunziata) in Trapani, Sicily, some 45 miles west of Palermo.

There are several stories about the origin of the title of Our Lady of Trapani. According to one, the origin of the image dates back to the year 733, and it was the work of a sculpture on the island of Cyprus. He placed it in a church of Fagamusta, where it remained a center of devotion to the Virgin for 400 years.

Then in 1113, during the reign of Baldwin, King of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem there was established in Jerusalem, the Order of Templars. Around 1130, a group of crusaders, knights and nobles on Cyprus, decided they would join the Order of Templars and forthwith took ship to Jerusalem, and with them they took the image of the Virgin and Child.

The image seems to have remained in Jerusalem for almost 150 years. Then, after the failure of the 7th Crusade, one of the Knights Templar – said to have been Guerrogio of Pisaset, sailed for Italy taking the image with him, possibly to save it from profanation by the Turks. During the course of the voyage, the ship ran into a terrific storm and soon it appeared that the ship and all on board were doomed. But the knight did not despair – he prayed fervently to the Blessed Mother and solemnly promised her, if they weathered the storm he would enshrine her image on the first land they would touch.

The storm died down and eventually the ship landed at Trapani, Sicily. The story of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Trapani quickly spread among the people of Trapani and they decided to erect a church in Mary’s honor. Work soon began and the church was completed around 1332. It was rebuilt in 1760.

At one end of the church behind the main altar, there is a fine chapel and in it stands the venerated image of the Madonna of Trapani, a statue of marble, depicting the Virgin with the Infant on her left arm. A new statue was sculptured, for modern authorities think the present statue is a work of the 13th century art schools, possibly of the Fisan School. However, Our Blessed Mother needs neither time, artists, nor sculptors to make her image famous.

VICTORY OF THE KING OF FRANCE (PHILIP THE FAIR), IMPLORING THE HELP OF OUR LADY OF CHARTRES (1304)

It was on this day in the year 1304 that Philip the Fair gained a signal victory over the Flemish after recommending himself to Our Lady of Chartres.

The eldest son of King Philip and Isabella of Aragon, he was nicknamed Philip the Fair while yet a prince of his handsome features. He became king of France at only 17 years of age, and married Joan of Navarre in 1284, which enlarged his kingdom.

In the year 1302, Philip sent an inadequate army into Flanders to suppress the Flemish, who were making incursions into his realm at will. His army was soundly defeated at the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Philip responded by winning a naval victory over the Flemish at Zierichzee, and then met the Flemish army at the Battle of Mons-en-Pevele, also known as Mons-en-Puelle, on August 17, 1304.

The battle was furious, lasting all day in extreme heat. Eventually the majority of the French army fled the field, leaving Philip alone with only ten knights fighting desperately to save themselves and their king. Philip’s horse collapsed, having been killed under him, and his life was in great danger of being lost. At that moment, while facing death and certain defeat in battle, Philip turned to the Queen of Heaven, Our Lady of Chartres, begging her assistance to save the day and his life.

Suddenly the French knights who had been fleeing the field turned and saw the king’s royal standard still stood, and that he himself fought like a knight of great renown amidst a sea of raging enemies. Racing to the scene with their swords and lances, they turned the Flemish and drove them from the field in what became a resounding victory of the king of France. The Battle of the Golden Spurs was well compensated.

In gratitude for this victory and favor of Our Lady of Chartres, King Philip went at once to do homage to the Virgin Mary at her cathedral. He took off his own armor that he had worn in battle and gave it over to the church at the altar. He also gave to it in perpetuity the land and lordship of Barrus, founded a daily Mass for ever, and left to this church all of the other accoutrements which he had worn on that day of victory. This feast is kept in the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris, on the following day, the 18th, and the office is double. This armor was formerly exhibited in the church on the anniversary of the battle.

Victory of the King of France

THE CORONATION OF OUR LADY

The idea of the coronation of Mary in Heaven after her Assumption took its rise in an accommodation of the words in the Song of Songs (4:8),

“Come, my bride, from Lebanon..thou shalt be crowned..,” and was chiefly developed and popularized by iconography.

The earliest existing example is probably the mosaic in Santa Maria in Trastevere at Rome, where Our Lady is depicted already crowned, sitting at the right hand of her Son; this dates from about 1140. A century later there appeared what became the usual design, Christ putting a crown upon His Mother’s head.

The theme of the coronation of Mary was popular in English medieval carving, and it was everywhere highly embroidered and developed at the Renaissance. Among more recent artists the subject has aroused little interest, and Catholics today are familiar with it chiefly from the last glorious mystery of the rosary.

Its meaning suggests the final “moment” of the Assumption and the reference in the Apocalypse to “a crown of twelve stars.” It seems to be a second feast of the Assumption, emphasizing the bodily aspect of the mystery.

Saint Mary the crowned is recalled in the verse of a medieval carol:

“After to Heaven He took His flight,
And there He sits with His Father of might,
ith Him is crowned that Lady of Light
Redemptoris Mater.”
“Filia Sion, thou art the Flower
Full sweetly shalt thou sit by Me
And bear a crown with Me in tower;
And all mine Saints to thine honor
Shall honor thee, Mother, in my bliss,
That blessed body that bear me in bower--
Veni, coranaberis.”

“After placing the most blessed Mary on this exalted and super-eminent throne, the Lord declared to the courtiers of heaven all the privileges She should enjoy in virtue of this participation in his majesty. The Person of the eternal Father, as the first principle of all things, speaking to the angels and saints, said to them:

“Our Daughter Mary was chosen according to our pleasure from amongst all creatures, the first one to delight Us, and who never fell from the title and position of a true Daughter, such as We had given Her in our divine mind; She has a claim on our dominion, which We shall recognize by crowning Her as the legitimate and peerless Lady and Sovereign.”

The Incarnate Word said:

“To my true and natural Mother belong all the creatures which were created and redeemed by Me; and of all things over which I am King, She too shall be the legitimate and supreme Queen.”

The Holy Ghost then said:

“Since She is called my beloved and chosen Spouse, She deserves to be crowned as Queen for all eternity.”

"Having thus spoken the three divine Persons placed upon the head of the most blessed Mary a crown of such splendor and value, that the like has been seen neither before nor after by any mere creature. At one and the same time a voice sounded from the throne saying:

“My Beloved, chosen among the creatures, our kingdom is Thine; Thou shalt be the Lady and the Sovereign of the seraphim, of all the ministering spirits, the angels and of the entire universe of creatures. Attend, proceed and govern prosperously over them, for in our supreme consistory We give Thee power, majesty and sovereignty. Being filled with grace beyond all the rest, Thou hast humiliated Thyself in thy own estimation to the lowest place; receive now the supreme dignity deserved by Thee and, as a participation in our Divinity, the dominion over all the creatures of our Omnipotence.

“From thy royal throne to the center of the earth Thou shalt reign; and by the power We now give Thee Thou shalt subject hell with all its demons and inhabitants. Let all of them fear Thee as the supreme Empress and Mistress of those caverns and dwelling-places of our enemies. In thy hands and at thy pleasure We place the influences and forces of the heavens, the moisture of the clouds, the growths of the earth; and of all of them do Thou distribute according to thy will, and our own will shall be at thy disposal for the execution of thy wishes.

“Thou shalt be the Empress and Mistress of the militant Church, its Protectress, its Advocate, its Mother and Teacher. Thou shalt be the special Patroness of the Catholic countries; and whenever they, or the faithful, or any of the children of Adam call upon Thee from their heart, serve or oblige Thee, Thou shalt relieve and help them in their labors and necessities. Thous shalt be the Friend, the Defender and the Chieftainess of all the just and of our friends; all of them Thou shalt comfort, console and fill with blessings according to their devotion to Thee. In view of all this We make Thee the Depositary of our riches, the Treasurer of our goods; we place into thy hands the helps and blessings of our grace for distribution; nothing do We wish to be given to the world, which does not pass through thy hands; and nothing do We deny, which Thou wishest to concede to men. Grace shall be diffused in thy lips for obtaining all that Thou wishest and ordainest in heaven and on earth, and everywhere shall angels and men obey Thee; because whatever is ours shall be thine, just as Thou hast always been ours; and Thou shalt reign with Us forever.”

OUR LADY OF THE DON, RUSSIA (1380)

A famous icon titled Our Lady of the Don was painted in the latter part of the fourteenth century by a Greek artist named Theophanes of Novogorod, who had assimilated Russian iconographical traditions. The painting dates from 1382-1395. It is double-sided, having a painting of the Assumption on the back. A book kept at Donskoy Monastery states that the image was given by the Cossacks to Dmitry Donskoy the day before the Battle of Kulikovo.

A feast of Our Lady of the Don was observed on August 19, 1380, in thanksgiving for the incredible victory of the Russians over the Golden Horde of the Tartars at Kulikovo Pole, and the capture from them of Kazan in the year 1552.

The Battle of Kulikovo Pole was fought on the river Don. Dmitry (called Dmitry of the Don) Donskoy commanded the Russian forces in the battle, which one chronicle states numbered 400,000 men. The Russians had never won a battle against the Mongols, and the army they faced was a horde that numbered at least as many men. A chronicle, the Zadonscina, captured the patriotic feeling: “ horses neigh in Moscow, horns sound in Kolomna, drums are beaten…glory resounds through the whole Russian land.”

The battle began after the morning fog cleared with a fight to the death between the two great champions from each army. The Russian champion was a monk named Alexander Peresvet, who had been sent to the combat by Saint Sergius. Alexander and the Mongol champion made an initial run at each other, and both received mortal wounds. The Mongol fell from the saddle, however, while Alexander kept his mount.

Dmitry strongly suspected that his army would disband if he were killed in battle, so he came up with an interesting ruse. He had a young man named Mikhail Brenok exchange armor with him and pretend to lead the army. Once the battle commenced, the Mongols drove through the ranks to kill the Russian commander. Mikhail was slain, but Dmitry continued to fight.

Dmitry was severely wounded as the battle seemed to turn against them, though he remained on the field and in command until victory was secured and he fell over from exhaustion and loss of blood. He won due to the cavalry charge of Prince Vladimir of Serpukov, who had been held in reserve by Dmitri until that moment. It has been estimated that 200,000 men were lost on both sides during the battle, and a Russian chronicle relates that, “…the river Don flowed in blood for three days.”

Czar Ivan the Terrible kept the icon with him in 1552 when he went on his Kazan expedition and it was he who, after his victory, gave the image to the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow. In the year 1591, Czar Fedor Ioannovich prayed before the image when besieged by the Khan Kazi Ghirei and received from heaven a miraculous deliverance. The image of Our Lady of the Don is now found in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

OUR LADY OF ST. BERNARD’S “AVE,” BRABANT, NETHERLANDS

Saint Bernard, the first abbot of Clairvaux, was a great ornament and pillar of the Church in the 12th century. Devotion to Mary was his characteristic virtue. Bernard put himself under her protection from childhood, and the Mother of Mercy showed him on many occasions how acceptable to her was his devotion. When young, he had a vision of the Queen of Heaven, by which he learned much on the Incarnation. This vision enkindled in his heart the strongest love for Jesus and Mary. Among other favors he received from Mary was the instantaneous restoration of his health when he lay dangerously ill and physicians had given up all hope of recovery.

Bernard endeavored to inflame all hearts with devotion to Mary. To excite confidence in her intercession, he would say: “She does not want power to help us, for she is the Mother of God; nor yet good will, for she is the Mother of Mercy, and our Mother also. She is not a Mother merely of the just but of sinners.” His writings would alone suffice to proclaim her praise to the end of the world, and to enkindle the love of her in all hearts.

It was Bernard’s custom whenever he passed an image of Mary to bow his head and salute her with the words, “Ave Maria!” He did this without fail, and Our Lady to show him how much this pleased her, one day bowed low from her image and smilingly and sweetly answered him with the words, “Ave Bernard!”

“Mary,” says Saint Bernard “is the bright Star of Jacob, whose rays enlighten the whole world, whose splendor shines conspicuous in Heaven, and penetrates hell. It pervades the earth and warms not the body, but the soul, banishing vice, and maturing virtue. For she is that bright and splendid star, elevated above this vast and spacious sea, who glitters by her merits, and enlightens by her example. If you find yourself tossed about by the storms and tempests in the current of this world, turn not your eyes away from the brightness of this star, unless you wish to be overwhelmed by its waves. If the winds of temptation arise – if you strike on the rock of tribulation – look up to this star; call on Mary! If you are tossed about by the swellings of pride or ambition, of envy or detraction – look up to the star, call on Mary! If anger or avarice, or concupiscence, agitate the bark of your mind – turn to Mary! When affrighted at the enormity of your crimes and sins, or affrighted at the defilement of your conscience, or terrified with the dread of the future judgment, you feel yourself about to be involved in the whirlpool of despondency, or engulfed in the abyss of despair – think of Mary! In dangers, in difficulties and doubts; think on Mary and invoke her!

Let her name never depart from your mouth or heart; and that you may obtain the benefit of her intercession, forget not to imitate the example of her life. In following her, you cannot go astray; in appealing to her, you cannot despair; and in thinking of her, you cannot wander.

While she supports you, you cannot fall; while she protects you, you cannot fear; while she guides you, you cannot feel fatigue; and if she be propitious, you will arrive in safety.”

OUR LADY OF KNOCK, IRELAND

On the evening of August 21, 1879 Mary McLoughlin, the housekeeper to the parish priest of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, was astonished to see the outside south wall of the church bathed in a mysterious light; there were three figures standing in front of the wall, which she mistook for replacements of the stone figures destroyed in a storm. She rushed through the rain to her friend Margaret Byrne's house.

After a half hour, Mary decided to leave and Margaret's sister, Mary, agreed to walk home with her. As they passed the church they saw and amazing vision very clearly: Standing out from the gable and to the west of it appeared the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John. The figure of the Blessed Virgin was life-size, while the others seemed to be neither as large nor as tall. They stood a little away from the gable wall about two feet from the ground. The Virgin was erect with her eyes toward Heaven, and she was wearing a large white cloak, hanging in full folds; on her head was a large crown.

Mary Byrne ran to tell her family while Mary McLoughlin gazed at the apparition. Soon a crowd gathered and all saw the apparition. The parish priest, Archdeacon Cavanaugh, did not come out, however, and his absence was a disappointment to the devout villagers. Among the witnesses were Patrick Hill and John Curry. As Patrick later described the scene: “The figures were fully rounded, as if they had a body and life. They did not speak but, as we drew near, they retreated a little towards the wall.” Patrick reported that he got close enough to make out the words in the book held by the figure of St. John.

An old woman, named Bridget Trench, drew closer to embrace the feet of the Virgin, but the figure seemed always beyond reach. Others, out in the fields and some distance away, saw a strange light around the church. The vision lasted for about three hours and then faded.

The next day a group of villagers went to see the priest, who accepted the their report as genuine; he wrote to the diocesan Bishop of Tuam; then the Church set up a commission to interview a number of the people claiming to witness the apparition. The diocesan hierarchy was not convinced, and some members of the commission ridiculed the visionaries, alleging they were victims of a hoax perpetrated by the local Protestant policeman! But the ordinary people were not so skeptical, and the first pilgrimages to Knock began in 1880. Two years later, Archbishop John Joseph Lynch of Toronto made a visit to the parish and claimed he had been healed by the Virgin of Knock.

In due course many of the witnesses died. But Mary Byrne married, raised six children, living her entire life in Knock. When interviewed again in 1936 at the age of eighty-six, her account did not vary from the first report she gave in 1879.

The village of Knock was transformed by the thousands who came to commemorate the vision and to ask for healing for others and themselves. The local church was too small to accommodate the crowds. In 1976 a new church, Our Lady Queen of Ireland, was erected. It holds more than two thousand and needs to―for each year more than a half million visitors arrive to pay their respects to the Blessed Virgin.

The Church approved the apparition in 1971, as being quite probable, although it has never been formally stated. The Shrine at Knock is open all year round. In 1994, three life-sized statues were erected of Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John.

THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

The idea of the liturgical worship of "the most pure Heart of Mary" was suggested by the commentaries of the Fathers of the Church upon the book of the Bible, the Canticle of Canticles. The honoring of the Immaculate Heart was first joined to the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the 17th century, by St John Eudes; however, it was only at the beginning of the 19th century that Pope Pius VII allowed some places to keep a feast in its honor, on the Sunday after the octave of her Assumption. Pope Pius IX granted it a proper Mass and Office (Mass Omnia gloria). However, in the 1920 edition of the Roman Missal, made in the spirit of Pope St. Pius X, it was then celebrated on the Saturday after the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

On December 8th 1942, during the terrible Second World-War, Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole mankind to the "Immaculate Heart of Mary." Consequently, he extended the feast to the Universal Church and gave it a new Mass and Office, by a decree of May 4th 1944. That feast of the "Immaculate Heart" is fixed, not to a Sunday, but to the very Octave-Day of the Assumption. Mary, in Heaven, goes on interceding lovingly on our behalf. Her Heart is the symbol of the ardent love, which she fosters first for God and for her divine Son (Epistle), but also of her maternal care for all human souls, which Jesus entrusted her when He died (cf. Gospel, Communion). We exalt the particular holiness of her Heart (cf. Gradual, Offertory), and we pray her (Introit, Collects) to obtain "peace for all nations, freedom for the Church, conversion for the sinners, and for all faithful, love for chastity and the practice of all virtues" (Decree of May 4th 1944).

The feast of the Immaculate Heart takes on an even more special role in view of Our Lady's pronouncement at Fatima, in 1917, when she said to the three children, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, that God wanted to establish, in the whole world, devotion to her Immaculate Heart. This desire of God's, should make us raise her Immaculate Heart to an even higher pedestal in our own hearts, and lead us to promote devotion to her Immaculate Heart in our family, amongst our friends and relations, and all those whom we come into contact with in our daily lives. At Fatima, in 1917, Our Lady promised salvation to all those who would embrace this devotion to her Immaculate Heart.

OUR LADY OF VICTORY OF VALOIS (France 1328)

The feast of Our Lady of Victory of Valois has to do with Our Lady’s intercession in the Battle of Cassel, which was fought between the French, under Philip of Valois, and the Flemish, near Mount Cassel, on August 23 in the year 1328. Philip of Valois, or King Philip VI, “Philip the Fortunate,” was the King of France beginning that year until his death in 1350.

Philip was nearly forced to lead his army against the band of Flemish rebels under Nicolas Zannekin, who were seeking independence from French rule. Having refused to pay what they considered to be excessive taxes to the Count of Flanders, they eventually imprisoned the king’s representative and captured several French towns. The Pope asked Philip to do what he could with the rebels, but after having restored the Flemish aristocracy, the Flemish rebels had turned even on them, killing many of them.

Philip was certain of victory, taking 2,500 knights and 12,000 infantry and archers with him into battle. Not knowing where he would attack, the Flemish rebels would have to divide their forces to protect their territory. Even so, the Flemish under Zannekin brought 15,000 soldiers into the field at Cassel.

For three days the two armies did nothing but taunt each other, though the Flemish commenced a direct attack on the French on the third day. Apparently the French were caught off guard, for many of them had taken off their armor because of the extreme heat that day. Fleeing in panic, the knights left the field, while much of the French nobility, who stood their ground, were wounded. The Duke of Lorraine was slain, and the situation appeared desperate.

It is recorded that Philip of Valois, being surrounded by Flemish soldiers as the flower of his nobility fell, had recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who immediately delivered him from that danger. The Dauphin of Vienne, Guigues VIII de la Tour-du-Pin, had been given the command of Philip’s 7th Corps. He led a counter attack which shattered the Flemish assault, while the knights regrouped and attacked the Flemish from the rear. The Flemish were defeated and victory assured by Our Lady of Victory Valois.

Our of gratitude for this favor, when he made his entry into Paris, Philip went straight to Notre Dame Cathedral. Going into the church on horseback, he proceeded the whole length of the nave to the crucifix, and there laid down his arms. The picture, of this monarch, on horseback, was for a long time to be seen in that church, to which Philip gave a revenue of 100 livres, to be levied on his domain of Gatinais.

OUR LADY, HEALTH OF THE SICK
OUR LADY OF BENOIT-VAUX (France)

Our Lady was well used to the sick-bed, the death-bed. There is silence in the Gospels about most of the details of her life, only those being told which concern the vital facts of her cooperation in the Incarnation. So much is told, however, that we know her character, the fundamental principle of which was her dedication to duty. She had her duty as daughter, as wife and as mother. Every one of these relationships demanded that she serve as an Angel of Mercy.

Art has been very fond of St. Joachim and St. Ann, the parents of Our Lady. It sensed the deep affection of that religious family. Joachim and Ann took good care of their Heaven-sent child. It was but a fair return that she take care of them, who were already old when she was born. It is no stretch of imagination for us to see Mary waiting hand and foot on the old couple, sitting by their sick-bed and folding their hands in death.

More so with St. Joseph. Theirs was a virgin marriage, but as it is souls that love, not bodies, their mutual love was the greatest love-match the world has ever seen. St. Joseph is the Patron of the Dying because Jesus and Mary sat by his sick-bed, his death-bed. Mary wet his parched lips, smoothed his pillow, kept vigil through the night, folded his hands, and closed his eyes. One likes to think that it is in memory of that, that she is first called "Health of the Sick," that her love followed Joseph to the grave and after.

But it was as Mother—Mother of God—that Mary was consecrated "Health of the Sick." Jesus was immune to sickness and death, but He willed that He be struck as a leper, and He died. Who will try to estimate the source of strength Mary was to Him in His dereliction, in His scourging, His crowning with thorns, His way of the Cross, and finally in the three-hour passion and death? Every line of the Stabat Mater is a commentary on Her title--"Health of the Sick," with its final prayer for a happy death, applying to us: "Christ when Thou shalt call me hence, be Thy Mother my defense; be Thy Cross my victory. While my body here decays, may my soul Thy goodness praise, safe in Paradise with Thee." And "Health of the Sick" (Salus Infirmorum) primarily means our eternal health, our eternal salvation—for "salus" means not only "health," but "salvation."

That Mary should have a special love for the sick was necessary if she was to follow the example of Jesus. He was the Divine Physician for bodies as well as souls. To narrate the many cures of the sick, by Him and His Disciples, would be to quote most of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. He had come to destroy sin; He had sympathy for the sickness, which man had brought upon himself by Original Sin. The healing of the sick man was not only a proof of His Divine Mission, a proof that He was Lord of Life and Death, and therefore God, but also a work of pure Mercy, the compulsion of His love. His love for the sick was so great that He instituted the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, one of the purposes of which is to restore the body to health, if it is to the spiritual benefit of the patient.

It is the Law of Love of Neighbor, of which He gave the supreme example. Hence, with this great incentive, Christians always have had a special love for the sick. The corporal works of merc,y as well as the spiritual, have always been a special mark of Christianity. True, there was care of the sick among the civilized pagans. The old Irish, for example, had a hospital three hundred years before the coming of Christ. But it was a Christian institution, par excellence. Almost as soon as the Church emerged from the Catacombs, we find the beginning of the modern hospital, established in Rome, in 400, by the noble Roman lady, Fabiola. Hospitals grew apace. In the Middle Ages, especially, they multiplied. Every place there were the Hôtels-Dieu—God's Hospitals, one of the loveliest expressions in any language. La Scala Hospital in Siena, where St. Catherine (1347-1380) served so devotedly, could be taken as a model for the most modern hospital.

There were hospitals for the sick, for orphans, foundlings, the poor, the aged, the sick pilgrims. Many Confraternities and Religious Orders were founded just for the care of the sick. Even the Military Orders, at the time of the Crusades, considered it a special duty to care for the sick and the poor.

It is an interesting item that the first hospital in America was established before 1524 by Cortes, in the City of Mexico, and was called the Hospital of the Immaculate Conception, a tribute to Our Lady as "Health of the Sick." And in speaking of hospitals, let us remember that one of Our Lady's titles in an old litany is "Hospital of sinners."

While on earth, Our Lady was ever kind to the sick. She has not ceased to help them now that she is in Heaven. The lives of the Saints are filled with manifestations of her power over sickness. We have but to remember the case of the Little Flower. When she was a little girl, she was given up for dead, but the statue of the Blessed Virgin smiled upon her and she was instantly restored to health, in order to work out her life of extraordinary sanctity. In that instance Mary was, as St. Ephrem calls Her--"the joy of the sick." The restoration of health, to the little Thérèse, was not only for the welfare of her soul, but for the greater glory of God. That cannot always be said. Many a sickness is a true blessing from God. St. Thomas More, when he was in prison waiting for death, wrote a book--The Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation. It is one of the loveliest spiritual books ever written. One thought of his is this: "How many men attain health of body, that were better for their souls' health their bodies were still sick." Mary does not make such mistakes. She is concerned with what is effective for the soul's salvation.

But even so, through all the ages of Christianity, She has been the constant nursing-mother at the sick-beds of her children. It would be impossible to number, let alone name, the shrines where she has established her hospital. At every one of these shrines, she has worked miracles of healing. Lourdes is the most notable, because it is of our day, but there were many in ages past no less famous than Lourdes. The miracles already wrought there are innumerable. There is no doubt that she has chosen certain places to be specially dedicated to Her—Loreto, Le Puy, La Salette, Fatima, Altötting, and innumerable others, but her help is not confined to any one place. Every sick-bed is her shrine, every hospital is her basilica. There are so many Orders, with her as Patroness, founded for the alleviation of suffering. When you think of the sick, you think, for example, of St. Camillus de Lellis, who was a true world hero, because he spent himself so much for the sick. The Order, which he founded, has a confraternity and scapular of "Our Lady, Help of the Sick." In the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, in Rome, which belongs to the Clerics Regular of St. Camillus, there is a picture of the Blessed Virgin under this title, which is attributed to Fra Angelico. It was before this picture that Pope St. Pius V prayed for the victory of Lepanto. A confraternity to help the sick was erected in 1860. The Black Scapular of the Confraternity has a copy of the picture, and, at the feet of Our Lady, is a picture of St. Camillus, Patron of the sick.

This is but one of the religious organizations devoted to the sick. Who can number the nuns in our hospitals who have given their lives to the care of the sick? Who can number those who in every war have been the Angels of the Battlefield? What is the motive power of their sacrifice? Is it not because they have taken as their model the merciful Mother of God, the Health of the Sick?

Health of body, yes; Mary wants us to have that, as her Divine Son gave health of body. But most of all, she wants for us health of soul. "Salus" means "salvation". And she, who cooperated in the Redemption, wants to see us healed of the disease of soul. Father Damien became a martyr to disease for love of God and love of souls. The world honors his memory because he saved bodies and eased their torments. More than all, he gave his life for souls. But what was Father Damien, in his zeal for souls, compared with Our Lady? There is an old Irish prayer that runs--"O Lady, Physician of the most miserable diseases, behold the many ulcers of my soul." So St. Simon Stock called her--"Medicine of sinners," as St. Ephrem called her "Robust health for those who have recourse to her." Thus the Church applies to her the words of Proverbs--(8: 3, 5) "He that shall find me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord."

Mary is called the Cedar of Lebanon. It is interesting to note that healing virtues were attributed to this tree. St. Bernard has among his beautiful tributes to her, this one: "O Mother of God, Thou dost not disdain a sinner, however loathsome he may be: if he send up his sighs to thee, Thou wilt deliver him with thine own hand from despair." We can learn from Our Lady’s love for the sick.

Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton loved the sick; indeed all her life she was kneeling by death-beds. She said to her sisters--"Love the sick; they are the blessings of the community." But most of all we should learn that Our Lady loves our poor sick souls and will watch by them till the end. An old Irish poem runs--"There is no hound in fleetness nor in chase, north wind or rapid river, as quick as the Mother of Christ to the bed of death."

That is ever our confidence, as we pray the ancient prayer--"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."

PRAYER TO OUR LADY, HEALTH OF THE SICK
Virgin, most holy, Mother of the Word Incarnate, Treasurer of graces, and Refuge of sinners, I fly to thy motherly affection with lively faith, and I beg of thee the grace ever to do the will of God.

Into thyr most holy hands I commit the keeping of my heart, asking thee for health of soul and body, in the certain hope that thou, my most loving Mother, will hear my prayer.

Into the bosom of thy tender mercy, this day, every day of my life, and at the hour of my death, I commend my soul and body.

To thee I entrust all my hopes and consolations, all my trials and miseries, my life and the end of my life, that all my actions may be ordered and disposed according to thy will and that of thy Divine Son. Amen.

OUR LADY OF ROSSANO (Calabra, Italy)

It is said that the Saracens had come ashore with a raiding party near the Italian town of Rossano, probably in the year 981. Seeking to surprise the slumbering inhabitants of the town, they sneaked up to the walls and silently placed their ladders against them and began to climb. When the first of them reached the top, they were met and repulsed by Our Lady, who appeared attired in purple, while holding in her hand a lighted torch. The sight, of the glory of the heavenly Queen, so terrified the invaders that they advanced no further and took to flight. Thus, the Muslims were driven from the walls by Our Lady of Rossano, who appeared to save the people of this town, located in southern Italy, in the province of Calabria.

Rossano, or Roscianum as it was known in Roman times, when it was an outpost of the budding empire, was thought to have actually been founded well over a millennium before the time of Christ. The town experienced attacks from the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Lombards when the Roman Empire fell in the west, although it was never subjugated by any enemy. The town reached its peak of wealth and influence during the 6th through the 11th century, when it was ruled by Byzantium. Located near the Gulf of Taranto, and being close to the water, Rossano was subject to Muslim raids over the following centuries.

The island of Sicily was conquered by Islamic forces in the 10th century, and was used by them as a base of operations for raids into Italy and other vulnerable cities in the region. Although they gained small footholds here and there, on the Italian peninsula, the Muslims were not able to hold their possessions for long. Toward the end of the 10th century, the Emir Abu al-Qasim commenced a string of assaults into Calabria. At the same time a Muslim fleet, under the command of the Emir’s brother, made raids along the coasts of Apulia, overwhelming unwary strongholds, looting towns and taking slaves.

Although Our Lady of Rossano commemorates the Marian apparition that saved Rossano, the town is probably most famous for an ancient image of the Blessed Virgin that can be seen in the Cathedral of Our Lady Achiropita. It is known as the Madonna acheropita, or “The Madonna not made by hands.” Like the Virgin de la Antigua of Seville, which was miraculously revealed to Saint Fernando III, the image of the Blessed Virgin, holding the Christ Child, was revealed beneath a layer of plaster, in the cathedral of Rossano, and has been dated to sometime between the years 580 and 750 AD.

OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA (Poland)
OUR LADY DE LA TREILLE (Douay, France)

The image of Our Lady in Czestochowa, Poland [at right] is among that small group of Black Madonnas recognized throughout the entire world, largely due to the recent manifestations of public piety shown by the reigning Polish Pope, John Paul II. The image is sometimes called Our Lady of Jasna Gora after the name of the monastery site, in which it has been kept for six centuries. Joan Carroll Cruz relates the following 'miracle story' regarding the selection of this site:

St. Ladislaus was determined to save the image from the repeated invasions of the Tartars, by taking it to the more secure city of Opala, his birthplace. This journey took him through Czestochowa, where he decided to rest for the night. During this brief pause in their journey, the image was taken to Jasna Gora [meaning "Bright Hill"]. There it was placed in a small wooden church, named for the Assumption. The following morning, after the portrait was carefully replaced in its wagon, the horses refused to move. Accepting this as a heavenly sign that the portrait was to remain in Czestochowa, St. Ladislaus had the image solemnly returned to the Church of the Assumption.

Another 'miraculous' aspect of this image is that its antiquity is so great, that its origins are unknown, as if "dropped from the heavens." Legend attributes its creation to St. Luke, the evangelist, who "painted a portrait of the Virgin on the cedar wood table, at which she had taken her meals." St. Helena, the Queen-Mother of Emperor Constantine, is said to have located the portrait during her visit to the Holy Land and to have brought it to Constantinople in the fourth century. After remaining there for five centuries, it allegedly was transferred in royal dowries, until it made its way to Poland, and the possession of St. Ladislaus in the fifteenth century.

The legend continues: During Ladislaus' time, the image was damaged during a siege, by a Tartar arrow, "inflicting a scar on the throat of the Blessed Virgin." In 1430, Hussites stole and vandalized the precious image, breaking it into three pieces. Adding insult to injury:

One of the robbers drew his sword, struck the image and inflicted two deep gashes. While preparing to inflict a third gash, he fell to the ground and writhed in agony until his death ... The two slashes on the cheek of the Blessed Virgin, together with the previous injury to the throat, have always reappeared—despite repeated attempts to repair them.

However, modern scholarship has its own views on this legend. Leonard Moss claims: "the figure is distinctly thirteenth-fourteenth century Byzantine in form." In general, its Byzantine style is obvious, a variant on Hodegetria. Janusz Pasierb states of the image that "in 1434 it was painted virtually anew" due to the extensive damage caused by vandalism. He adds that "the authors of the new version were faithful to the original as regards its contents." This might explain the persistence of the damage marks mentioned earlier. Finally, note that Pasierb sees the prototype of Our Lady of Czestochowa as "a Byzantine icon ... which from the fifth century on had been worshipped in a church in Constantinople's ton hodegon quarter."

The miracles worked by Our Lady of Czestochowa seem to occur mainly on a public scale. During her stay in Constantinople, she is reported to have frightened the besieging Saracens away from the city. Similarly, in 1655 a small group of Polish defenders was able to drive-off a much larger army of Swedish invaders from the sanctuary. The following year, the Holy Virgin was acclaimed Queen of Poland by King Casimir. It is also recorded that Our Lady dispersed an army of Russian invaders, by an apparition at the River Vistula, on September 15, 1920. In more recent times, the Czestochowa Madonna has also been acknowledged for her protection of and cooperation with the Polish nation. Beyond these public prodigies:

The miracles attributed to Our Lady of Czestochowa are numerous and spectacular. The original accounts of these cures and miracles are preserved in the archives of the Pauline Fathers at Jasna Gora.

A final question remains: why is Our Lady of Czestochowa black? Cruz mentions a possible link to the Canticle of Canticles: "I am black but beautiful."; but concludes that "The darkness is ascribed to various conditions [e.g. accumulated residue from candles], of which its age is primary."

Broschart, by contrast, opines:
the shrine was destroyed by fire, but the picture was not burned--however, the flames and smoke had darkened it and from that day it has been known as the "Black Madonna."

Recall that Moss saw the image as Byzantine in form, dating from the Medieval period. He added: "the skin pigmentation is characteristic of this stylized portraiture."

Interestingly, Ernst Scheyer, an art historian, who studied the image, believed that "the present image was restored in the nineteenth century and painted somewhat darker than previously."

Adding to all this confusion, a notable Swiss copy, completed by Kosmoski, in 1956, and kept in the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard Pass, is much darker than the version in Jasna Gora, while a copy at a shrine in Doylestown, Pennsylvania is depicted in lighter flesh tones. All of which makes the question of authorial intent extremely complicated. Her miraculous reputation, though, is beyond dispute.

OUR LADY DE LA TREILLE
There was a church known as Saint Peter’s at Douai, France, which was dedicated in the year 1066 by Baldwin V, Count of Flanders. It was a very important religious center even in that century, as the collegiate church had forty canons and a prosperous school attached to it as well. A statue of the Virgin Mary, that later became known as Our Lady de la Treille, was venerated there. This church of Saint Peter was known to have been visited by Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and Pope Innocent III.

On 14 June in the year 1254, fifty-three cripples, who had come to the church to pray for a miraculous cure, were suddenly healed at the same instant. There were other extraordinary miracles, involving the image of Our Lady de la Treille, that occurred between the years 1519 to 1527, as well as from 1634 to 1638. It was also at this church where, in 1481, the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, held the first chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, which he had founded for the defense of Christendom against the threat of Turkish aggression.

It is related that when some children were playing disrespectfully before the image of Our Lady de la Treille, the image of the Blessed Virgin made a sign of disapproval with her hand. This miracle induced the inhabitants of Douay to build a chapel for it in the year 1543. This chapel was built at Lille, France, and was known as Our Lady de la Treille. The statue is also known as Our Lady of Arbour (Arbor).

The church of Our Lady of Treille was destroyed during the French Revolution, and the whereabouts of the statue became unknown. It was not until 1802, when Napoleon I permitted the practice of the Catholic Faith again, that the statue resurfaced. It was purchased by a chaplain and given to the church of Saint Catherine in 1801. It was not until 1842 that the pastor of Saint Catherine restored the devotion to Our Lady of Treille, which once again thrived. A short time later, plans were made to erect a magnificent Gothic style church to house the statue, and it was constructed in the heart of Old Lille, upon the site where there had once been a castle. The construction of the choir began in 1856, and the miraculous statue was installed in 1872, even though construction did not end until 1999.

OUR LADY OF MOUSTIER (France)
SEVEN JOYS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
(Annunciation, Visitation, Birth of Jesus, Adoration of the Magi, Finding in the Temple, Resurrection, Assumption)

Twenty-five or thirty miles from Sisteron, in the direction of Marseilles, France, is the shrine of Our Lady of Moustier, known in the native French as Notre Dame de Beauvoir at Moustiers. The chapel is some 800 meters above the town nestled in the rocky peaks, and there are 262 steps carved in rock, that make a wide path that leads up to the shrine from the beautiful little village below. Along the way, one will pass the Stations of the Cross that have been used by pilgrims since the 5th century.

It is said that, in the year 470 AD, there already was a small shrine occupying the location in honor of the Blessed Virgin, possibly having been founded by a group of monks from the Abbey of Lerins, who had taken up residency in the caves located among the rocky peaks. The first actual chapel, Notre-Dame de Beauvoir, was built upon the ruins of the earlier shrine, and dates back to the eighth century and the time of Charlemagne. It was restored in the 12th century in the Romanesque style, and again in the 16th century in a more Gothic style.

An ancient tradition records that a lord of the country, the Duke de Blacas, who was also a Knight of Saint John of the Hospital, had been captured by the Turks during a Crusade. While in captivity he made a vow to the Blessed Virgin that he would build a chapel in her honor, Our Lady of Moustiers, if she were pleased to deliver him.

The Blessed Virgin heard his prayer; and an angel appeared to him and took him on his wings, carrying him back to his country. The Duke de Blacas immediately set to work making good on his promise, erecting a magnificent chapel to the Blessed Virgin where numerous miracles have been wrought. The town of Moustiers is also often called “the village under the star,” because, in addition to building the chapel, the knight suspended a gold star from a chain, that he hung high above the village, by fastening the chain into the solid stone atop two rocky peaks. The original star had sixteen rays, which was the emblem of his family, and was poised directly over the chapel. The present star, that can now be seen, is a replica dating back to 1882, having only five rays.

The church of Notre Dame de Beauvoir was last restored in the year 1928, and is now a national historical monument, as well as a popular place of pilgrimage.

OUR LADY OF KIEV (Ukraine)

Around 862, a band of Norsemen settled in Novgorod and organized the Slavs of that region into an independent state—the nucleus of the future Ukraine. Kiev, about 20 years later became the capital. By the end of the ninth century, missionaries from Constantinople had converted many of the inhabitants to Christianity.

During the three succeeding centuries, Kiev become the intellectual and religious center of the country, and numerous convents and monasteries arose in Kiev and the surrounding territory. One of these was staffed by the Dominicans. To it there came in the early years of the thirteenth century a Dominican Father by the name of Hyacinth—Saint Hyacinth, the Apostle of the North; also Apostle of Poland and Russia. Hyacinth had a burning ambition to convert the pagans and infidels of China, Mongolia and outer Russia (the Tartans), to the Christian faith. In this dedicated task he made numerous journeys, mostly be foot, into the far countries lying beyond Kiev. Between these travels he rested and recuperated at the Dominican House at Kiev.

During one of these rest periods (1240), word came to the monastery that the Mongols had invaded the country. They had marched across the Caucasus, swept over central and southern Russia and the Ukraine, so that now Kiev itself was in imminent danger of attack by the pagan hordes. Hyacinth, on hearing the tragic news, rushed to the nearby church to save the Blessed Sacrament from capture and desecration. He had removed the Sacred Host from the Tabernacle and was hurrying down the aisle, when he heard a voice call out, “Hyacinth, are you going to leave me here at the mercy of the Tartans?” The voice seemed to be coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin, on one of the side altars. Hyacinth stopped and turned his gaze toward the statue, which was of alabaster, fairly large in size, and obviously much too weighty for one man to carry. What should he do? Then the voice spoke again: “Take me with you, Hyacinth, I will make the burden light.” So, holding the Blessed Sacrament in one hand, he picked up the statue with the other, and, to his surprise, found he could easily carry it. Leaving the church, he fled from the city, and saved the Blessed Sacrament and the statue of Our Lady from harm.

Eighty years later after the Mongols had been driven away, the statue was returned to Kiev. That city became the center of great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and it was natural that people soon gave the statue the name of Our Lady of Kiev.

The statue was later taken to a Dominican convent in Lwow in Poland. What has happened to it since the Communists took over Poland is unknown. But surely, Our Lady still pleads to each of us, “Take me with you; I will make the burden light.” She will always make all our burdens light and bearable, as long as we keep her with us always and everywhere.

OUR LADY OF CLERMONT (Poland 1380)

The Abbot Orsini states that Our Lady of Clermont was located ten leagues (around 30 miles) from Cracow, Poland. At some point, in the Middle Ages, there was a picture of the Blessed Virgin, believed to have been painted by Saint Luke, that was displayed there and annually taken on procession.

According to this account, the picture was originally sent to the Empress Saint Pulcheria, a princess, who placed it in the Church of Our Lady of the Guides, at Constantinople. From there it was taken by Leo, Duke of Russia. The Duke of Opolia wanted to remove it to his duchy in the year 1380, but when he had got to the mountain of Clermont, it became so heavy that it was impossible to carry it farther; and seeing by this miracle that the Blessed Virgin had chosen that mountain for her abode, they built a church there.

The Empress Saint Pulcheria was certainly a real person, living in Constantinople in the 5th century. Her full name was Aelia Pulcheria, and her father was Arcadius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. When the emperor died, Pulcheria’s seven-year-old brother, Theodosius, was made emperor, though there was a regent necessitated by his young age. When Theodosius became a teenager, Pulcheria became his regent and took a vow of virginity. Based on her charitable works, she appears to have lived her Catholic faith, as she built many churches, hospitals and public houses for the destitute. There is also a letter addressed to the saint by Pope Leo I in which the pontiff states in part, “…you clearly show how much you love the Catholic faith and how much you despise the errors of heretics.” Pulcheria is responsible for at least three churches in Constantinople that were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin—the Blachemae, the Chalkoprateia, and the Hodegetria.

In Greek, Hodegetria translates to something like, “She who guides, or who knows the way,” which sounds quite similar to “Our Lady of the Guides,” or even, “Our Lady of the Way,” a title by which the icon was often known. The image, which shows the Blessed Mother and the Divine Child, was said to have been brought to Constantinople from the Holy Land. It was venerated at the Monastery church of the Panaghia Hodegetria, which was said to have been built specifically to house the icon, and was considered the most important “cult object in Byzantium.” On the reverse side of the icon was an image of the crucifixion.

The current location of the original icon of Our Lady of Clermont is now unknown. There are many copies that have been made from the original, and many of these are miraculous, but none of them are thought to be the original. The account above mentions a Leo, Duke of Russia, and there was a Leo, Duke of Russia, who rode with the Golden Horde under Talabuga in 1287 when a raid was made into Poland, so perhaps this is the Duke Leo mentioned who took the image back to Russia. Although Constantinople did not fall to the Turks until the year 1453, it was taken by siege during the Fourth Crusade, and many important relics were taken to the west. Perhaps the icon was one of those relics.

The Duchy of Opolia, or Opole, was a region situated along the Oder River in Central Europe, which was once an important trade route, and Opolia was a fortified city at about this time. There are numerous Catholic churches in Studio Clermont, Wroclaw, Poland, which is also located along the Oder River, and it may be that this was the region where the image became so heavy that it would not move any further, and that somewhere, in Wroclaw, was the last known location of the icon of Our Lady of Clermont.

OUR LADY OF CARQUERE (Portugal)

According to tradition, Our Lady of Carquere, on the river Douro in Portugal, is associated with the miraculous healing of Prince Afonso Henriques, who was to become the first King of Portugal.

Prince Afonso Henriques had been born a cripple, paralyzed from the knees down. The knight, Egas de Monis, was chosen to be the governor of Prince Afonso, as, at that time, children of nobility were given personal tutors to educate and accompany the child throughout their lives. Monis, himself from one of the most prominent families of the region, was also a man of faith, and had a great deal of pity for the young prince. He prayed fervently for his charge, seeking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin that the boy’s legs might be straightened through her intercession. His prayers were answered, and his holy intention perfectly fulfilled.

One night in about the year 1113, when the prince was four years old, Egas de Monis put him to bed and fell asleep himself. Our Lady appeared and wakened the governor, asking: “Are you asleep?”

The governor replied: “Lady, who are you?”

“I am the Virgin Mary,” she replied, and commanded the governor to go to a particular place in the hills, above the Douro River, that she indicated to him. “There dig, and you will find a church that, in another time, was started in my name, and you will also find an image of me. Thou shalt place the child, overnight, on the altar, and he will be cured and made well, because my Son wants him to destroy many enemies of the Faith.”

The Governor, comforted and joyful after the apparition, was a man who truly loved his Lord. Trusting in God, whom he knew could give the boy strength and vigor, the knight sought out the ruined chapel and found it, and the small stone image, just as the Blessed Virgin had said. Later, when everything was ready, accompanied by the Queen and her entourage, he carried the young prince to the ancient chapel, intending to place him on the altar, to spend the night with him in vigil.

Instead, after entering the chapel, the entire entourage fell into a mysterious sleep, excepting the prince, who remained wide awake. The boy sat for a time and watched the candles on the altar burning, and at one point observed that one of them was leaning dangerously. Finally, it fell over and started a fire. Prince Afonso was unable to awaken his mother, or his governor, and so climbed up to the altar and put out the fire himself. It was then that he realized he had been cured, and began jumping for sheer joy when he awakened the whole entourage, who gave thanks to Our Lady for the miracle she had granted.

Now the knight, Egas Monis, gave praises to God and His Blessed Mother, for he would be able to train the prince to ride and in the use of arms, so that he might become a great warrior, as God desired. He had a new church built there, which became famous as the location of the “Miracle of Carquere.”

The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Carquere is carved in ivory and is only about 2 inches tall, and is assumed to date from the time of the Visigoths. The sculpture depicts the Blessed Mother with the Divine Child sitting on her knee. The Child holds a book in his left hand, and gives his blessing with his right. Perhaps the precious statue, being so small, was worn by a Catholic warrior, and lost in a battle against the Moors, or was hidden during the time of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula to protect it from desecration.

The Church of Our Lady of Carquere, or Santa Maria de Carquere, can still be visited in Spain.

OUR LADY OF THE FOUNDERS (Constantinople)

The Abbot Orsini tells us the Empress Saint Pulcheria had this church built, and gave to it the girdle of Our Lady. A feast of this relic is kept at Constantinople, under the title of the Deposition of Our Lady’s girdle. The French having taken this city, this precious treasure was carried off by Nivellon, Bishop of Soissons, and placed in the celebrated abbey of Our Lady, with a portion of the veil of that Queen of Heaven.

The Empress Saint Pulcheria lived in Constantinople in the 5th century, and she built many churches, hospitals and public houses for the destitute. She is responsible for at least three churches in Constantinople that were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin—the Blachemae, the Chalkoprateia, and the Hodegetria.

The Church of the Virgin of Blachernae, now known as the Church of Panagia of Blachernae, is located in Istanbul. It was once the most celebrated shrine in Constantinople, and lies inside the high walls of the city, only a short distance from the Golden Horn. The church was begun by the Empress Pulcheria, and completed by her husband, the emperor Marcian. It was built upon the site of what was thought to be a sacred spring, the waters of which are still thought to have therapeutic value. The Emperor Leo I made several additions, including the Hagai Soros, which was actually a small chapel next to the church where the Holy Robe and Girdle of the Blessed Virgin Mary were kept in a silver and gold reliquary. The relics had been brought from Palestine in 458.

In the year 911 AD, it was reported that there was a Marian apparition at this church. The city was under siege by a large Muslim army, so the citizens of Constantinople had recourse to Mary, praying for relief at the Blachernae church. Very early one morning the Blessed Virgin, preceded by a host of angels, was seen to enter through the church doors, escorted by Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Theologian. She advanced to the center of the church and knelt there to pray fervently, with tears in her eyes. After a time she moved to the altar and continued praying, then she removed her veil and held it out over the faithful, as she ascended back into Heaven. This was seen as a sign that she was taking the city under her protection, and so it happened that the Christian’s won a striking victory over their enemies, who were driven off.

The city of Constantinople came under siege during the Fourth Crusade in the year 1203, and was captured in April of 1204. The Bishop Nivelon de Cherisy was one of the first men to scale the walls of mighty Constantinople, when it was finally opened to the Crusaders. Despite the fact that there was a stern prohibition against plundering relics from churches and monasteries, many holy relics were obtained and brought back to the West. Bishop Conrad of Halberstadt, Abbot Martin of Pairis, and Nivelon of Soiccons were known to have taken relics. Nivelon of Soiccons enriched his cathedral at Soissons with several important relics. Robert of Clari later includes in a list of relics, that he viewed at the church of the Blessed Virgin of the Pharos (Lighthouse), the crown of thorns, the Virgin’s Robe, the head of John the Baptist, and two large pieces of the True Cross. The robe was a large portion of the sleeveless shirt worn by the Virgin Mary, as well as her girdle.