Feast Days of Our Blessed Mother for Every Day of the Year
From
THE WOMAN IN ORBIT
Compiled by Sister Manetta Lamberty, S.C.C.
Copyright 1966
Click on today's date
APRIL
April 1: OUR LADY OF TEARS
The tears of the Blessed Mother are mentioned only once in the Gospel—at the utterance of her fourth word after finding the Child Jesus in the Temple.The tears of the Mother of Sorrows flowed often during her earthly pilgrimage, especially on the Way of the Cross. Mary’s tears are the very Blood of Jesus Christ. The tears of Mary and the Blood of Christ are a two-fold effusion of one and the same heart; and we may say that the compassion of the Virgin was the Passion itself under its most terrible aspect.Tears are the legacy of the Mother of Sorrows, so much so, that we may not squander it on vain affections of the world without incurring a kind of sacrilegious guilt.Mary’s tears at the Sacred Passion flow alongside the torrent of Jesus’ tears and share potentially in them like two rivers watering one vast continent. Jesus will suffer in the Mystical Body and Mary will weep in her children until the last minute of the last century. The beauty of Mary’s tears quenches all poetry and slays the fancies of human dreams. A tear of Mary! A tear of the Most Pure One for me, a wretched creature steeped in the Blood and the flood of divine Wrath and Divine Repentance. A tear of the Mystical Rose, just for me! Only the way her Son shed His Blood could Mary have wept, that is, for each man in particular, regarded by Mother and Son as of equal value with all the universe.
“In thee is pity, in thee is tenderness, in thee magnificence, the sum of all good.”<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 2: OUR LADY OF GREAT GRACES or THE HIGHEST GRACE
Before the Spaniards began their conquest of America, Pilgrimages were being made to the shrine of Our Lady of the Highest Grace in Higuey, Dominican Republic, Ponce de Leon relates that he and his crew were saved from shipwreck through their prayers to this Virgin. Mary’s miracles have continued down to the present; a multimillion ultra-modern Basilica erected at Higuey in Mary’s honor gives testimony of this.Ponce de Leon’s daughter, La Nina, had a great devotion to the Mother of God. Our Lady appeared to Nina while she prayed before the statue in their home chapel, and told her to request from her father as a gift, a painting of Our Lady of Highest Grace; Ponce de Leon was struck with amazement at the request, for he had never heard of Our Lady under that title. He asked Nina, “How could I identify this image?”“By the white scapular over her robe”, Nina replied.Ponce de Leon searched and inquired everywhere in order to fulfill his daughter’s request. One day while returning from a three-day trip, he asked for lodging at a small hut; his host granted this at the same time to an old man with a long white beard; the latter crouched against the walls, carefully guarding an apparent treasure in his saddle-bags. Ponce de Leon, forgetting the old man, told his host of his daughter’s wish, and added that the Bishop of Domingo had told him no such painting existed. The old man hearing this, exclaimed, “The Virgin of Highest Grace does not exist? I have brought the painting with me.” He then took from his saddle-bags a parchment, unrolled it and displayed a beautiful painting of Our Lady in simple tones of blue, white and red. Mary was depicted adoring the Christ child, while St. Joseph holding a lighted taper, hovered in the distance. Over the Virgin’s starred blue robe hung a white scapular, Ponce de Leon offered all he possessed in exchange for the painting, but the stranger waved aside the offer, saying, “Take it to La Nina”. The two men fell on their knees to give homage to the holy image. When they again looked up, the old bearded stranger had vanished. When Ponce de Leon arrived home, his daughter awaited him under an orange tree in the plaza, stretching out her hands she begged, “The painting, Papacito! Please, let me see it!” When it had been unwrapped, she fell on her knees, covering Our Lady’s face with kisses. Then she cried, “This is exactly how our Mother of Highest Graces appeared to me!” The painting was placed in the chapel where the townspeople came to venerate it. Not long afterward La Nina died and was buried beneath the orange tree, which she loved, for it was there she had received the image.Later the painting disappeared from the chapel and was found in the branches of the orange tree. After this had happened three times, the people were convinced that Our Lady wished a shrine erected on the spot. Countless miracles occurred. FACT: painting brought to island in 1506 from Spain.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 3: OUR LADY OF HOPE
The Atomic Age is an age of despair. In defining the dogma of the Assumption, the Church has given us a great sign of hope to help us overcome our despair. Men have turned away from God more and more since the end of the Middle Ages. At present the advances of science have given rise to the false philosophy that “we do not need God”.The atom bomb is one of the supreme ironies of history. Science was to bring us a heaven on earth; instead it has done the opposite; instead of solving all our problems, science has handed us an overwhelmingly great one that we despair of ever solving. The atom bomb is not the only cause of the pessimism in our age—nor even the basic cause—but it is symbolic of our age.Our optimism at the advance of science was completely wrong, because it left out God; our pessimism is just as wrong for the same reason. True, we cannot solve our problems by ourselves, but we are not expected to do so. The God who created us, the God who died for us, is still watching over us and caring for us. He will help us if we turn to Him. It is Mary’s role to lead us to God. Mary’s Assumption is a great sign of hope in an age of despair.Mary lived on this earth just as we are doing now—this makes it easy to approach her. She who is in Heaven body and soul, is our Mother; she is also the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven. As our Mother, she has a great love for us; as the Mother of Jesus, God, and the Queen of Heaven, she has the power to help us. What we ask in her name, she will obtain for us. With God everything is possible, and God can refuse His Mother nothing. There is no reason for despair as long as we have such a powerful Mother and Queen.The Assumption reminds us our goal is not on this earth, but in Heaven. No matter how great our troubles may seem, they will last only a short time. If we live according to God’s laws, our bodies will be in Heaven some day—reunited with our souls. The Resurrection of Mary forecasts the resurrection of each one of us.Bishop Fulton Sheen claims that within three decades the definition of the Assumption will cure the pessimism and the despair of the modern world. There is every reason to think this forecast will come true, if we turn to Mary, for she will bring the modern world back to God.Mary is our Light, our Sweetness and our HOPE. This may be the atomic age, but it is also the Age of Mary. Let us act our age. When Mary comes into her own, there will be no place for pessimism, no place for despair. Mary is truly OUR LADY OF HOPE!<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 4: OUR LADY OF GRACE
A feast of Our Lady of Grace is observed in various churches at different times. Mary accordingly, is considered “full of grace” or, as the Mother who brings down graces and benefits on us. She does both, as the collect for the Mass of Our Lady of Grace states: “God conferred the grace of regeneration upon mankind through Mary’s fruitful virginity; may we then share her happiness in Heaven.”The familiar image of Our Lady of Grace depicts Mary with hands outspread toward her devotees, and from those hands rays of light flow, symbolizing that always she is ready and able to shower upon us, her children, all the graces and blessings we desire.“Hail Mary, Lily of spotless whiteness, thou dost ravish the gaze of the adorable Trinity dwelling in the eternal sojourn of light and peace. Hail, rose of celestial sweetness, Virgin immaculate, whom the King of Heaven and Earth chose for His Mother and whom thou didst nourish with thy virginal milk, pour into my soul torrents of divine graces. Amen.” Mary promised St. Gertrude, as we are told in the 19th chapter of the REVELATIONS, that the inestimable treasures of her loving compassion would be given to those who saluted her in the above prayer, known as the “Golden Ave Maria”, and in the words of the Blessed Virgin, “And at the hour of their departure, I will appear to them clothed with radiant beauty and I will pour into their souls heavenly sweetness and consolation.”<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 5: OUR LADY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The shrine of Our Lady of Divine Providence is situated or located in a rural district of the diocese of Fossano, Italy, called Cussanio. In 1521 the Blessed Virgin appeared to a deaf mute, Bartolomeo Coppa. She appeared to him for the first time on May 8 when she cured him of his disability and told him to preach penance to the inhabitants of Fossano.In a second apparition she brought him three loaves of bread and again asked him to preach penance to the Fossanese. The latter, however, only ridiculed the visionary. A short time later a plague broke out among the inhabitants who then had recourse to Our Lady and after having been granted a release from the plague, had a chapel built which was later enlarged.In 1856 the Bishop of Fossano, Mons Manacadda, enlarged the sanctuary and proclaimed the Madonna of Cussanio Mother of Divine Providence.
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April 6: OUR LADY OF THE CONCEPTION
No more beautiful words can be applied to the Immaculate Conception of Mary than those of the Canticle of Canticles, used by the Holy Spirit: “Thou art all fair, O my Love and there is no spot in thee.” Thus Holy Mother Church reveals the unique privilege of her Queen. From the very beginning of revelation, belief is found in this mystery. The figure of one conceived without sin was placed by God Himself upon the first pages of the Bible. In God’s curse upon the human race for Adam’s sin, He tempered His words with the promise of a Redeemer, saying, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel”. From that moment on, God patiently awaited the birth, the coming of her who was to be His first-born, so to say.As the “fullness of time” drew near, God created the immaculate soul of Mary. Many centuries before He had created the world with all its wonders, the myriads of stars, the souls of saints like Abraham and Moses, but never before had He created anything so beautiful as Mary. This creature was the masterpiece of His handiwork. Out of nothingness He drew the beautiful essence of Mary’s immaculate soul, which glowed with the white fire of God’s grace, against the dark background of the sin-stained world. The stream of original sin halted in its course; never before did any purely human being escape contamination; Mary is the sole exception – “our tainted nature’s solitary boast”. The all-loving God preserved her from every stain of sin; she was rendered immune from original sin.Why did God grant such a wondrous grace to Mary? -- “The Most High hath sanctified His own tabernacle…” Almighty God prepared the Blessed Virgin as a worthy habitation for the Word made Flesh. The divine Motherhood is the source, reason demanded a fitting abode. The sublime holiness of the Godhead demanded a special privilege of grace in the vessel chosen to bear the Son.Christ chose this vessel into which He was to descend, and He consecrated it a vessel of purity.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 7: OUR LADY OF PUIG
The fort and the church of Our Lady of Puig are a short distance out of Valencia; both date from Roman times, when a temple of Venus stood on the hill overlooking the pleasant valley. At the coming of Christians, it was turned into a monastery. Early in the history they acquired the image of Our Lady of Puig, in bas-relief, carved on a slab of marble, which supposedly formed part of the tomb of Mary. How it got to Spain is not known, but the pious insist that it was brought there by angels. It was the principal object of devotion at the shrine, and thrived and grew beautiful until the ancient kingdom of Valencia fell to the Moors in the 8th Century. In the year 712 the monks sadly buried their treasure, along with the church bell, under the floor of the monastery, and fled for their lives.
After five centuries the Moors were expelled from Valencia, and the plaque of Our Lady of Puig played a part in its liberation. James I, victorious in other parts of Spain, moved on Valencia with his armies. The Moors, in an effort to trick the Christians into sending their troops to the wrong place, moved to attack the ancient fortress of Puig. This was done with great secrecy, but Our Lady warned the Christians and helped them to win the desperate battle.
St. Peter Nolasco, who helped to found the Society for the Redemption of Captives under Our Lady’s guidance, was in Puig when the battle took place. One of the soldiers came to him and reported that when he had been on night guard he had seen strange lights over the old ruined church of Our Lady of Puig; sometimes the stars seemed to come down from the sky and circle around the building. Especially on Saturday nights there were bright lights around the mount of the church. Peter suggested to the king that all the soldiers should receive the Sacraments and pray to know what God was trying to tell them. After this had been done, he led them to the top of the hill and directed them to dig under the floor of the old monastery. Here they found the plaque and the bell, buried for 500 years, but unharmed.The plaque was first carried to the chapel of the castle fortress. As soon as possible a new church was built on the mountain and given into the charge of the Mercedarians under St. Peter Nolasco.
The ancient bell which was dated as being cast in 660, was placed in the tower of the church. This bell was supposed to be powerful against storms and always rung in time of trouble. In 1550 the bell broke and a new one was cast from the fragments of the old one.The church built by St. Peter Nolasco was called “the angelic chamber” because angels were often heard singing there in the night, especially on Saturdays.
Our Lady of Puig has been the patroness of Valencia for hundreds of years, and not longer ago than 1935 was honored by the Spanish Armies who have carried her image in so many successful battles. She was at this time named as a General in the Army and invoked as patroness in the Christian War against Communism.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 8: OUR LADY OF THE VALLEY
The Sicilian shrine to Our Lady of the Valley, or of the Green Valley, is said to have originated about the year 1040, when a bandit, who operated around Mount Etna, was converted by a vision of Our Lady, who appeared to him in an earthquake (Etna is a volcano). The robber turned hermit, and built a chapel at a spot in a green valley to which he was directed by a flight of cranes; it was provided, so the story goes, miraculously with a picture of Our Lady in the form of a Byzantine icon, which is still venerated.A feast of St. Mary of the Valley is kept throughout three dioceses of Sicily.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 9: OUR LADY OF MYANS
Myans in Savoy, near the Mont Cenis tunnel, has been a pilgrimage center since at least the thirteenth century. Its small “black virgin” was an object of the devotion of St. Francis de Sales. The church was half destroyed at the French Revolution, but the statue was saved and later enshrined again in the restored building, where it was crowned in 1905.The sanctuary is particularly resorted to by pilgrimages of men, and the image was taken to Rome by a Savoyard pilgrimage for the definition of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950.It is believed that this image, in the year 1249, prevented the lightning, which had already consumed the town of Saint Andre with sixteen villages, from going farther and was the cause of its stopping at Myans.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 10: OUR LADY OF LAVAL
“Fair and comely art thou, terrible as an army set in battle array”, Holy Mother Church chants in her Office; and truly, Mary proved herself such in the battle of “La Naval” or Laval in 1646. Some Dutch privateers, bent on foraging and possible conquest, sailed dangerously close to the shores of the Philippine Islands. To both the Filipinos, recently converted to the Catholic faith, and the Spanish conquistadores, devoid of arms and ships, the invasion was a serious threat.To preserve their faith and their island, two commercial galleons were obtained and made ready for battle; they rechristened them: LaRosario and LaEncarnacion, and placed them under the special patronage of the Most Holy Rosary. On the special altars on deck, sailors carried the image of their beloved Queen. Here on their knees, officers and men in two choirs prayed the rosary daily.At the same time on both ships, officers and men—neither knowing what their comrades-at-arms had done—the Catholic forces made a vow, promising to make an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin of the Most Holy Rosary, should they survive the odds they were taking. With this heavenly protection the two galleons met the fifteen Dutch ships in an open encounter. Hail Mary’s mingled with the roar of the battle; the beads dangling from the necks of the men as they launched into the fray and stood their ground against an enemy vastly superior in physical strength. Firing and praying incessantly, they met the enemy five times, and each time the enemy was put to flight. Though the fighting was bitter, only fifteen of the Filipino-Spanish forces were killed.Grateful to their heavenly protectress the men after the battle, fulfilled their vows which consisted in going to the Church of Santo Domingo at Manila, barefoot, and instituting a public and perpetual feast in honor of the Mother of God. Even to this day that promise has been fulfilled by the Filipinos, who since the memorable time have taken as their own, that pledge made by their ancestors.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 11: OUR LADY OF FOURVIERE
This famous French shrine of Our Lady stands upon a Roman site at Fourviere: but old as the sanctuary is, the building is recent, its predecessors having been much damaged by the Calvanists and again at the French Revolution.During the Franco-Prussian War the people pledged themselves to build a new church for the shrine, should their city be spared: accordingly the present basilica was begun in 1873 and consecrated in 1896. The older building dedicated in honor of St. Thomas of Canterbury, still stands. The new church overtopping the town of Fourviere, is a great pilgrimage center, especially on Our Lady’s birthday, when the Lyonnais fulfill their 300-year old promise of an annual pilgrimage in Mary’s honor.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 12: OUR LADY OF CHARITY of Cuba
In the mountains outside Santiago in Cuba is an old pilgrimage church, “Nuestra Senora de la Caridad”—“Our Lady of Charity”. It is the national shrine of Cuba. A few hundred years ago, three sailors were shipwrecked, drifting in a small boat on the roaring ocean. Our Lady appeared to them. They invited her into their boat and rowed her to shore. She indicated the place where she wanted a church, near the copper mines outside of Santiago.The Village of Cobre, where the shrine is, is surrounded by high hills that roll back to the Sierra Maestra Mountains. The village is named Cobre because of the rich deposit of copper. A lamp of copper is kept burning before the statue of Our Lady. Twice the statue mysteriously disappeared and returned just as unaccountably. In each case Our Lady indicated where richer deposits of copper could be found.In 1936 after the completion of a beautiful church in honor of Our Lady of Charity, the statue was solemnly crowned amid great rejoicing and religious festivity.The shrine has much of old-time charm. Literally hundreds of lights burn before the shrine’s statue. Our Lady is dressed richly in silken garments; she is dark like a Cuban girl with a sun-tanned Infant on her arm, smiling down on her brown Cuban children, who come to her in great numbers and with great confidence. The prayers of centuries seem to hang down from the walls in heavy folds. It is a place where prayer comes easily, and its answer seems to be a matter of course.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 13: OUR LADY OF MANTUA
The solemn crowning of Our Lady commonly called Santa Maria dei Voti was urged by the pious princess Maria Gonzaga in the year 1640, when the dam of the Po River in Italy broke. At the time the princess determined to place herself, her son Charles II and the states of Mantua and of Monferrate under the special protection of Mary. The coronation took place with great solemnity on November 28, 1640. Every year on that day a great celebration is held in honor of the Blessed Virgin.The three following centenary years in particular saw an unanimous and grateful expression of love on the part of the Madonna who said, “Mantua is mine, and as mine I will always defend it.”<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 14: OUR LADY OF GUAM
Our Lady of Guam, the miraculous statue to which the natives have such deep devotion, is three feet high, all ivory from the delicate classical face of Our Lady to the hem of her exquisite gown. She has a head of brown hair, adorned with a beautiful crown, and golden rings hang from her tiny ears. According to the Jesuit history of the island, Our Lady’s coming was miraculous.A Spanish soldier some 150 years ago, was fishing a distance from the shore between the village of Mirizo and Umatac when he saw a strange object floating upon the waves. He moved closer and saw that it was a statue, supported by giant golden crabs, holding lighted candles in their claws. The soldiers claiming the statue as their own, installed it as Patroness in their barracks. They made a shrine for her, a wall recess with doors like a cupboard or Camarino, from which Our Lady of the Cupboard takes her name. She is called Santa Maria de Camarino.She made her home many years in the barracks, but the atmosphere did not always please her. She would be found missing, only to return with the edge of her mantle full of burs. When the soldiers were drunk with coconut brew, she would slam the doors of her cupboard shut against them. No one remembers how she came to leave the barracks for the cathedral of Agana, but on the fourteenth of April a great earthquake occurred, terrorizing the natives and destroying their homes. It is believed that on that day she deserted the uncouth soldiers and showed herself to be the Patroness of the people and of Guam in particular. Many miracles of protection are attributed to her on this day.On the eve of this day the people place a lighted candle outside their tight-closed shutters; they do this in memory of their Fathers who made the promise to Santa Maria de Camarino. In 1825 and again in 1834, they vowed to celebrate yearly a special feast for her protection from Linao, the earthquake and Pagyo, the typhoon. On its part the miraculous statue has seen to it that no devout life has since that time been lost. Earthquakes and typhoons have come and left destruction, yet they have never taken one life or harmed the children of Santa Maria de Camarino.Such is the story of Our Lady of the Cupboard, the miraculous Virgin of Guam; to the eyes of fact simply a beautiful statue, some three feet high, executed with all the refinement of eighteenth century art, yet to the eye of the faith, she is power incarnate. She is all ivory, but where came that ivory, or what artist fashioned those exquisite hands; she alone can tell, just as she is the only one who knows the truth of her coming to Guam.Flags of various nations have flown over the royal coconut trees of Agana: admirals, governors, have come and each in his proper time has departed; Spanish architecture has had its day, and the Seabee buildings are now mushrooming all over the island. Yet, Santa Maria de Camarino abides through all changes to cherish her strangely chosen people. She reigns affectionately in the hearts of the people, the natives, as their Queen and Patroness.When American Marines and Soldiers during the latter part of July, 1944, captured the island of Guam, the native population was for the most part Catholic. The Faith was brought there no doubt, by Spanish priests who accompanied Magellan when he sailed around the world. The natives are called Chamorros, off-spring of Spanish and Micronesian ancestors, religious, most progressive, most cultured of the people of the Mariana Islands. The greatest majority of them are brown-skinned, pleasantly featured, shy, well mannered, scrupulously clean. They know the American way of life, since they have lived for more than fifty years under the benevolent guidance of the Stars and Stripes. And Mary, Our Lady of Guam, Our Lady of the Cupboard, loves them and protects them.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 15: OUR LADY OF KIEFF
Kieff on the banks of the Dneiper River was the first resting place of this famous image of Mary. Here, according to legend, the Apostle St. Andrew had once stopped on his way from Constantinople to Rome. Waking in the morning to the sights of the heights of Kieff, he was moved to prophecy: “See those hills? On those hills shall shine hereafter the grace of God.” However, it was nearly 1,000 years, 1010, to be exact, before the Russian Prince Vladimir was baptized at Kieff with all his people, and the teachings of the Gospel began to go out from the heights that had so impressed the Apostle.The prince set to Kherson for a picture of Our Lady which was, according to legend, painted by Constantine, and according to another, commissioned by him, which seems more likely. The Prince endowed the monastery in Petchersk to house the famous picture and here it remained until the fifteenth century. In 1467 Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, built the Church of the Assumption in the Kremlin as a memorial of his marriage. As a crowning jewel of his new church, he asked for the famous picture of Kieff. This aged city was both grieved and frightened at the demand. The people rose in protest; they did not want to lose their dearest treasure. Then the Blessed Virgin appeared in sleep to the prince and told him to give up the picture, because she would personally see that it was replaced. He gave it to the agents of the Duke of Moscow on the following morning and returned to his church to find that another picture exactly like it had mysteriously appeared in the place of the one he had returned.Kieff and Moscow were still disputing vigorously up to fifty years ago, the 400-year old custom of which city had the original picture, and which had the one placed there by the Blessed Mother. Now both Petchersk monastery in Kieff and Treitza monastery in Moscow have had to abandon the custom of having the care of the beloved images, and both pictures are lost.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 16: OUR LADY OF VICTORIES OF ST. MARK
In the year 1683 a formidable army of the Turks invaded Austria and laid siege to Vienna. The town was on the point of surrendering to the enemy. The people were filled with fear and anxiety. Had this happened, the Turks would easily have invaded the rest of Europe, and filled it with blood and strife.From all parts of the Christian world prayers were offered to the Queen of Heaven, that she would avert this disaster. Our Lady, consoler of the afflicted did not fail her people. The pious and valiant King of Poland, John Sobieski, with an inadequate army marched against the enemy. When he came in sight of the Turkish camp, before beginning battle, he ordered Holy Mass to be celebrated, at which he himself served; then he begged the celebrant to bless the whole army. Full of confidence in the help of Mary, he threw his forces into the conflict. The enemy though more numerous, turned and fled, while the king’s army were masters of the field. The rejoicing of Christians was great at this news, and from all Christendom fervent prayers were offered to the Blessed Mother in thanksgiving for her protection.Pope Innocent XI, reigning at the time, placed all his trust in Mary. He had vowed to institute a feast in her honor, if she would liberate the Church from this terrible danger. In fulfillment of this vow, he extended to the whole Catholic world the solemnity of the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which had up to that time only been observed in particular churches.The famous image of Our Lady of Victories, is the one which Emperor John Simiarnes and John Commenus carried in a triumphal car after having besieged the enemy. The statue is now borne in procession at Venice to obtain rain or fine weather, as the need may be.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 17: OUR LADY OF ARABIDA
The shrine of Our Lady of Arabida is popular with sailors and with all those who travel by water. It owes its beginnings to a miraculous occurrence during the 16th century.At some time during this century an English merchant was standing off the entrance to the Tague River when a great storm caught his ship and immediately plunged him into the dangerous waters at the mouth of the river. The ship was in great danger and the merchant, being a pious Christian, knelt before a picture of Our Lady which he always kept on board. Soon after this a bright light was shining through the darkness and the ship came to rest in calm waters. When daylight came, it could be seen that the vessel was safely anchored at the foot of a very steep wooded mountain. Since it had been from that direction of the mountain that he had seen the light the night before, the merchant went on land and climbed the steep trail to the top. There, on the very top of the mountain, amid the dense woods, was his picture of Our Lady, before which he had prayed in his hour of need. Greatly moved, the merchant finished his business as soon as possible in England and returned to Portugal. He gave away his goods to the poor and settled down in a small hermitage at the top of the mountain, where the picture had indicated that our Lady wished a shrine to be.The shrine is there today, and still popular with all who travel by water. Numerous votive tablets surround the picture, testifying to miracles worked by Our Lady of Arabida for those who come to her in need. Sailors going on a long voyage usually go for a farewell visit on departure and return to give thanks when they come back.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 18: OUR LADY OF LIFE
Beautiful in the morning sun is the tree of life, which is devotion to Mary. Lifting its green branches into the blue sky, it gives shelter to the birds of the air, and shade to those who rest beneath it. In its thick foliage small animals find refuge from beasts of prey.Mary’s devotion is a sturdy tree of life, deeply rooted and firm in the storm. Though it may bend before the blasts of temptation, it will never fall until it is transplanted to that paradise at the end of the world where it will shine, jeweled and splendid, in the land of eternity.Here is the cool shade of Mary’s care, the quiet ease of her constant companioning. She speaks in soft murmur of its leaves and tells us of God.Here is the refuge of her mercy. Beasts of evil desire cannot harm those who flee to her sanctuary. She will protect the least of her children in the arms of her love.Other trees bloom and die. The tree of Mary is always green. Its fruit is always ready at her children’s hands; and that fruit is Jesus. He is her first fruit and her only fruit. To her faithful ones, she gives Him continually. To those who find it, death holds no terror; nothing can harm those who live by Mary. “Happy the soul in which Mary, the Tree of Life, is planted; happier the soul in which she has acquired growth and blossom.”<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 19: OUR LADY OF LYONS
St. Pothinus, the Apostle of Gaul, is said to have enshrined a picture of Our Lady in an underground chapel which is now beneath the church of St. Nazaire in Lyons where many Christians suffered death in the Old Forum on the Hill of Blood.In 1186 the Canons of the Cathedral started building a larger church over the shrine. In thanksgiving for the cure of his son by the Saint, Louis VII of France made a pilgrimage to Lyons, where he had an ex-voto tablet set up before the shrine of Our Lady. In 1466 Louis XI founded a daily Mass in perpetuity, to be followed always by the Salve Regina, solemnly sung.Vast pilgrimages came to seek Mary’s aid especially in time of famine and plague. During the plague of 1643, it was decided to dedicate the city to Our Lady. Instantly all traces of the plague vanished and, until 1792, twenty-five Masses were said daily in thanksgiving.During the years of the French Revolution, the sanctuary was profaned. Sometimes pilgrims would come to visit the shrine at night under peril of their lives. In 1805 Pius VII himself presided at the opening or re-opening of the shrine. Shortly before the battle of Waterloo, the shrine was threatened with destruction when Napoleon wanted the hillside fortified. The marshall was to give the order to demolish the shrine but refused to do so.Because the city was spared many vicissitudes during the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, the people of Lyons decided to show their gratitude by building to the church a tall tower surmounted by a great bronze figure of Our Lady. After the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, a vast basilica to Our Lady was built next to the old shrine, which remained almost untouched.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 20: OUR LADY OF SCHIER
Arnaud, the odd son of the Bavarian House of Schier, sullen and disgruntled, left the dining hall before the meal was finished. He did not favor the idea of giving the castle to the Virgin. Why did the family wish to give up the ancestral home? And for a Lady shrine at that! He wanted no more of this continued discussion on the subject. On he walked, oblivious of where, nursing his grievance against the Mother of God.The church of Our Lady of Schier in Bavaria—was built on the spot where stood the castle. Which those of the House of Schier voluntarily conceded to our Lady, all except Arnaud, who in punishment of his obstinacy, was drowned in a neighboring lake.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 21: MOTHER OF GOD
We cannot conceive the greatness of Mary’s dignity in being made the Mother of God, but we may learn from her divinely inspired lips the cause of this mysterious elevation, which so far surpasses our limited conceptions. “The Lord,” says she in the canticle with which she responded to the pious congratulations of Elizabeth, “has regarded the humility of His handmade.” It was then the humility of Mary, in a special manner, rendered her the object of God’s complacency.If we are to form any estimate of the perfection of this virtue in her, by the elevated dignity with which God rewarded it, how great must have been the humility of her, who, enjoying more abundant graces than God had bestowed on any other creature, was still particularly agreeable to God by the humility with which her other extraordinary virtues were accomplished? St. Bernard when inculcating the necessity of this virtue, says of Mary, “Without humility, I am certain that even her virginity would not have been acceptable to God; for although she pleased Him by her virgin purity, still, it was her humility that caused her to be made the Mother of God.By the mystery of the Incarnation our nature has been wonderfully ennobled. Jesus Christ, as the Son of Mary, is our brother, being made in all things like unto us—without sin. If then, the humility of Mary was so wonderfully rewarded, we should remember our obligation to practice this virtue, as that which will most assimilate us to our divine model, Jesus Christ, the first-born of many brethren, and to Mary, His mother by nature, and ours by adoption. This is the only condition on which we can hope to be co-heirs with Him in that glory which He has acquired by humbling Himself “to death, even to the death of the cross”.Let us learn humility of Him, who the Lord of all, God of God, Light of Light—annihilated Himself according to the expression of the Apostle, by taking on Him the lowliness of our nature, and whose whole life was a continual practice of the most profound humility.Let us look on the translucent rewards He has bestowed on the humility of His Mother, and let us learn from her bright example to imitate Jesus, and “be meek and humble of heart.”<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 22: OUR LADY OF THE JESUITS
A picture of the Madonna with the Infant Jesus in her arms, as she appeared to St. Ignatius of Loyola in the cave of Manresa, was painted recently by Norbert Schrader of St. Louis, Missouri. It will be hung in the St. Louis University High School.The Jesuits have been called the light infantry of Christ. As such, they travel with lightning speed at a mere word of command. For that they must keep free, unrooted, never “at home”.Therefore, their Lady is the Madonna of the Wayside. They meet her as climbers of the Alps meet snow covered shrines of Mary, solitary as themselves on the perilous slope, steadfast in the midst of blizzard and avalanche.They meet her in jungles where their sole reminder of her is the medal worn about the bare bronzed neck of the runner before them.They meet her in the frozen Arctic, among the men who live in furs. They see her carved in rough totem-pole fashion, with the features of the people among whom they dwell. She is the Madonna of the snow to the natives there, but to the missionary, his Lady of the Way.No matter what her features or the nature of her shrine, for the men who travel to far places for the Son of God, she is Mother. Paint her as they please, this one characteristic predominates. She is the Mother of all men because she is the Mother of Christ. Black skin or white or yellow or brown—she is the woman who befriends the children of Him who called Himself the Son of Man. It is her heart that is their home however far they travel. She will lead them in the way that is Christ.Since the time of the earliest Fathers, devotion to Our Lady has been a touchstone of authentic spirituality. Ignatius initiated his apostolate by hanging up his military armor in Our Lady’s shrine at Montserrat. In nearby Manresa he spent a prolonged period of intense prayer and reflection during which he wrote the Spiritual Exercises. He paid tribute to his liege lady by skillfully etching her role into his portrayal of the Christian life through meditations which illuminate Mary’s privileges and powers. Through prayer, reflection and God’s special graces Ignatius bore further witness to the adage, “To Jesus through Mary”. St. Ignatius thereby tells us, “Take today’s helpful hint from me; meditate on your prayers to Mary; see in them a powerful force for holiness of life.”<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 23: OUR LADY OF MENDE
The episcopal city of Mende, although it no longer has properly speaking, a place of pilgrimage dedicated to the Mother of God, has for centuries honored in the cathedral a statue of the Virgin that is completely black.In 1579 the Calvanists destroyed the basilica, built by Francis and clement de la Rovere, bishops of the city and nephews of Pope Julian II. The statue was thrown into the flames, but a pious woman seized it and saved it at the peril of her own life. The statue formerly venerated on the main altar, was placed in a side chapel when Catholicism was restored to Mende.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 24: OUR LADY OF BONARIA (Good Air)
The shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria (Good Air) dates back to the latter years of the fourteenth century, at Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia.According to tradition, on March 25, 1370, enroute from Spain to Italy, a ship ran into a terrific storm at a spot some miles off the coast of Sardinia. Soon the ship seemed in imminent danger of sinking, and the sailors in a last desperate effort to save her, began to get rid of the cargo.When they heaved a large packing case into the sea, the waves immediately died down and the sea became calm. The ship was saved. The case floated away, and pushed by the tides, eventually landed on the shore of Sardinia at the foot of a hill called Bonaria.There the Mercy Fathers found it and took it to their church, where it was opened in the presence of a large group of people, and, to the surprise of all, they found it contained a beautiful statue of the Virgin and Child. Thus, a prophecy was fulfilled—the church had been built around 1330 by Father Carlo Catalan, while he was the ambassador to the Argonese Court. At the dedication he told the monks, “A Great Lady will come to live in this place. After her coming, the malaria infecting this area will disappear and her image will be called the Virgin of Bonaria.”So when the statue floated in from the sea, and the Fathers placed it in their church, remembering what Father Carlo had said, they named it Our Lady of Good Air.The statue is in colored wood, probably of Spanish workmanship. Pius X in 1908, declared Our Lady of Bonaria the patron Saint of Sardinia.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 25: OUR LADY OF GARDE or GUARD or GUIDE (Hodegetria)
The Greek word Hodegetria means Guide of the Way and distinguishes a large number of icons of Mary of a primitive type, in which the Child is held in the Mother’s left arm.Mary, our Guide, is the patron of icon painters.Today Our Lady of Guide, Guard, and what other loving title we may give her, is our Lady of the Highway. Recently the Catholics of Lesterville, Missouri, got together and built a most attractive shrine to Our Lady of the Highway with the hope that this shrine would bring Our Lady closer to the predominantly non-Catholic population of that part of our country. Their hopes have been realized. Our Lady smiles a blessing on motorists passing on Route 21; since, many of the non-Catholics showed such a great interest in the building of the shrine, and thus Mary has been the cause of an awakening of interest in the Catholic Church on the part of our “separated brethren”.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 26: OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL
The sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel, upon a hill to the northeast of Rome, tells the story of Mary’s solicitude and concern for her human family. Shortly after the conversion of the Lateran into the Basilica of the Savior, a church dedicated to Mary began its work of purifying the hill once given over to licentiousness (the shrine of the goddess Venus). April 25 was dedicated to the budding harvest. At Geniazano, Christians instituted a feast in honor of St. Mary of Good Counsel for the same purpose.During the centuries the church fell into decay; the Franciscans took over the ruins and obtained help from a widow who gave all of her possessions for rebuilding it; yet it remained unfinished. In the midst of the fun of the carnival day, the feast of St. Mark, people saw a cloud heading their way; on it came until it reached the church where, after it clung, it revealed a picture of Our Lady with the Child Jesus in her arms. It was hailed clamorously with “Viva Maria.” The church was completed within three months after this. The people claimed the picture from Heaven and called it “Our Lady of Paradise”. Two strange Christians arrived one day from Albania—across the Adriatic—and said it belonged to their homeland, where it had been venerated far and wide, but the love of the Virgin had grown cold, and the picture had disappeared.A hundred years later Pope Paul III had the picture studied and authenticated; Innocent IX had it crowned; many other Popes have granted favors to the shrine. As late as 1936 a commission formed to study the picture, reported, if struck a slight blow it reacts as if it were hollow; if set in motion, it oscillates visibly. Pope Leo XIII raised the sanctuary to the dignity of a basilica and had the invocation, “Mother of Good Counsel” added to the Litany of Loreto. Pope Pius IX had a great devotion to Our Lady under this title; he offered his first Mass before its image; in 1864 he made a pilgrimage to Beniazano to have counsel of her who is “Seat of Wisdom”. He kept her image in his study and fostered a cult to Mary under this title; thus he exemplified the filial confidence of all true sons of Mary.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 27: OUR LADY OF LA MORENETA
The one and only “Lady of Spain” is a black Madonna who reigns from the lofty heights of Montserrat. The Virgin smiles down from her place of honor above the main altar of the Basilica of Montserrat. La Moreneta means the “Little Black One”. The statue is four feet high and made of wood, blackened from the smoke of innumerable candles which have burned before her through the ages. She is seated upon a chair and holds her Divine Child who has a fir apple in His left hand. Our Queen is clothed in a golden mantle, a tunic and a veil of diverse colors; the Infant wears a simple tunic, and He and His Mother wear matching wooden crowns. The miraculous statue reposes upon a gleaming throne of marble, and over all, the sunlight diffuses glow.The origin of the statue and the manner in which it first came to a lowly grotto in the mountain side is not known, but is told by an uninterrupted folklore describing its descent from heaven. The legends date from the 9th century when it is believed the hermits who dwelt in caves kept watch over a tiny chapel known as Santa Maria de Montserrat. Reliable documents have it that a great monastic center was founded among the same cliffs in the 11th century and that a small black statue of the Madonna drew the kings of Aragon, the monarchs of Spain, Emperor Charles V, saints, and celebrities, as well as common folks to the difficult mountain. Here arduous pilgrimages terminated, and here wondrous miracles were wrought. As the fame of La Moreneta spread her original chapel underwent many transformations before the basilica was constructed in the 16th century. Now the first chapel is called the “Holy Grotto” and is decorated within with marble, fine tapestries, and two altars; one to St. Scholastica, the other to St. Benedict so that Mass can be said on feast days and other special occasions.Montserrat or “Saw-tooth Mountain” which Our Lady chose for her shrine is believed to have an intrinsic holiness. Its highest peak bears the name. Tradition says this is the place the devil took Christ after His forty days’ fast; there is possibility of this being true. Legend further says it was the sight of the Holy Grail in Wagner’s opera “Parsifal”. The mountain of the shrine is 4,070 feet high, multicolored and interspersed with lush patches of tropical vegetation.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 28: OUR LADY OF QUITO
This image in the capital of Ecuador is said to date from the first Spanish settlement in 1534; it has certainly been venerated there for a long time and is popularly called Our Lady of the Earthquake. It represents the Sorrowful Mother, and in the early years of the 20th century, devotion to Mary, under the title of Quito, was introduced into England by the Servite Friars in London. Pope St. Pius X accorded them an indulgence for those who should pray before her picture, and the devotion was greatly promoted in England by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, Mother Cornelia Connelly’s congregation. The original image at Quito was crowned in 1918.On April 20, 1906, thirty-six boys attending the boarding school of the Jesuit Fathers at Quito, Ecuador, together with father Andrew Roesch, witnessed the first miracle of this famous picture. While in the refectory they saw the Blessed Mother slowly open and shut her eyes. The same miracle occurred seven times after that, in favor of the boys at school, but this time in the chapel to which the picture had been taken.Ecclesiastical authorities investigated and ordered the picture to be transferred in procession from the college to the church of the Jesuit fathers. At the church the prodigy was repeated several times before crowds, and many conversions took place; at one time the wonder continued for three consecutive days. At Riobamba, before a reproduction, the same wonder was seen by more than 20 persons, including the president of the city. In Quito this picture is known as the Dolorosa del Colegie.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 29: OUR LADY OF THE ORPHANS
In one of Our Lady’s chapels in the grand cathedral of Burgos, the capital of Old Castile, there is a picture representing a beautiful waxen statue of the tender Mother of God clasping in her arms a dead little girl, barefooted and in tatters; while above, an ascending angel speeds heavenward bearing an unfolding lily – type of a pure child’s soul.Wondrously beautiful and life-like is that waxen image robed according to the country’s custom, in real stuffs—a mantle of azure velvet printed on gold stars, like a summer-night sky; veil of white, cloud-fleecy gauze; the arms outstretched; the tinted face full of tenderness, the ruby lips full of sympathy.In the darkest corner of a gypsy’s hut a little child lay weeping as only the motherless can weep. It was Christmas Eve—bells were calling to Midnight Mass. Suddenly the girl ceased to weep, or to fear the now sleeping gypsies. Praying to the Madonna she made her way to the church door. It was open (for in Spain the doors of all churches, like those of Mercy, stood open day and night.) The pitying old sacristan departed, and left the little wanderer kneeling before the fair Madonna, sobbing, “Mia Madre! Mia Madre!”But on entering the church to light the candles for sunrise mass, he found no kneeling form where he had left one. “Gone back to the sorrowful world, poor weeper; may the Virgin’s care go with her!” And, so murmuring, he looked up—and behold, the miracle! Within her shadowed niche stood the same lovely, loving Mother; but, the arms were no longer outstretched. Closely, tenderly, they clasped the poor orphan; now smiling happily—hushed in the sleep that knows no waking.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
April 30: OUR LADY OF AFRICA
The statue of Our Lady of Africa venerated in Algiers, is a bronze image, very dark in color, but with European features. It was brought from France in 1840 and was for long entrusted to the Cistercian monks of Staueli; then Cardinal Lavigiers, founder of the White Sisters, enshrined it in the new basilica at Algiers, where in 1876 the image was crowned.At this and other North African shrines the veneration given to Mary by Mohammedans is very marked. The full name of Cardinal Lavigiers’ congregation of White sisters is Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa; and there is an indulgenced prayer to Mary under that title for the conversion of the Africans. There is a proper feast commemorated for the crowning of the Algiers statue on April 30.<> <> <> <> <> <> <>
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