Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 22: June 01 This feast day, Our Lady of the Star, is so called because of a miracle that occurred at Aquileia when Saint Bernardine arrived and began to preach. It is affirmed that a bright light similar to a star was seen on the head of St Bernardine, a star that was easily visible even during the hours of daylight when he preached at Aquileia, applying to the Blessed Virgin that passage of the Apocalypse where it is said that there were twelve stars on her head. Saint Bernardine preached that this glorious woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was in the mind of God before the time of creation, and who is the Mother of God and of the Church, as well as the Queen of Heaven. The miracle of Our Lady of the Star seems to confirm Saint Bernadine's teaching that Pope Saint Pius X and other popes later affirmed. Aquileia was Roman city that was founded as a stronghold along the Natiso River on the frontier of the growing Roman Empire in about the year 180 BC. It soon became an impor...

 Day 21: May 31      The devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Visitation consists in considering the visit of the Blessed Mother to her cousin Elizabeth. This charitable act of Mary has become a permanent status or way of being or the perpetual mission of Our Lady. What happened in the Visitation continues and repeats itself in the perpetual visitation of Mary to many souls. Over the centuries we have already had innumerable apparitions of Our Lady to different classes of people at different parts of the world. St Justin Russolillo writes, "The Visitation of Mary Most Holy signals a change in the conduct of Mary who until this time has lived a private and hidden life. This is now the beginning of her public life. Why? It is because of something that happened in between, the Incarnation! Mary was not anymore alone. Jesus was already with her. Jesus was for all because God belongs to everyone and so, with Jesus, Mary becomes the mother of all. And the same is true in the ...

 Day 20: May 30 The devotion to Our Lady of Sacred Heart has its origins in the Marian apparition to Fr Jules Chevalier (15.03.1824-21.10.1907), a French Catholic priest and founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the lay associated collectively known as the Chevalier family. This title and devotion do not come from any extraordinary apparition or pious cult. Neither was it a new doctrine. Instead, Mary’s title comes from a life of prayer and reflection on her unique, profound communion and commitment to do the will of the Heavenly Father. It was not until 1857 when Chevalier brought up the question of what title should the MSC (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Congregation) give to Mary, exemplifying her intimate relationship with the Sacred Heart. Various suggestions surfaced from a few MSC confreres present with him at the time. Finally, Chevalier announced that her title shoul...

Day 19: May 29 In 1105, Arras was hit by the fire disease, which had already affected part of Europe, and invaded the Artois region. Fiery disease, also known at the time as “hellfire”, was one of the infectious diseases that ravaged the West in the Middle Ages. Those who suffered from it had a burning sensation and saw their limbs turn black and decay. The bishop of Arras, Lambert, seeing his city decimated by the terrible disease, implored the protection of the Virgin. He was granted. During the night of May 24th to 25th 1105, the Virgin appeared successively to two minstrels, Itier and Pierre Norman. They lived far from Valenciennes, the former in Brabant and the latter in the castle of Saint-Pol en Ternois, and they hated each other because Norman had killed Itier’s brother. The Virgin appeared to Itier and gave him a message that the chronicle, written less than 20 years later, reports as follows:  “You are sleeping, are you sleeping? Listen to what I have to say to you: Get u...

Day 18: May 28      The veneration of the Marian relics can be traced back to the old Byzantium. Among those relics of the Blessed Mother, her Girdle and Veil are the most important. While the Girdle was associated with the Chalcoprateia church, the Veil was with the Blachernae church. These relics were believed to have been brought to Constantinople from Jerusalem by Arcadius along with the painting of the Blessed Mother by St Luke the Evangelist.         The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Catholic Dogma which teaches that she was assumed body and soul into heaven. The dogma suggests that nothing of her body remains here on earth as relic. However, some objects that have had some associations with the Blessed Mother have been handed down to us. In AD 326 Her Majesty Helen, the Empress of Rome (Saint Helena or Helen of Constantinople), made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she paid visit to many holy sites including Mary's tomb or the p...

 Day 17: May 27        In Naples, Italy, Mary is venerated in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine under the title  Santa Maria della Bruna —the “Brown One,” because of the brownish color of the image’s face.  The picture was brought to Naples about the middle of the twelfth century by some eastern monks migrating from Mt. Carmel in Palestine, and who settled outside the walls of Naples.  After 1268, Empress Elizabeth rebuilt the church on a magnificent scale to commemorate her son, Conradin, lawful heir of the throne.  He was beheaded by Charles of Anjou, when assuming the throne of the two Sicilies.  The “della Bruna” picture proved too small for the vast edifice and was put into a side chapel, where after two hundred years it fell into neglect in both the veneration and the affection of the people of Naples.      In the year 1500, a jubilee year, a number of pious Napolitans decided to go on a Pilgrimage to Rome. ...

Day 16: May 26      The story behind this title of Our Lady of Caravaggio ( Madonna di Caravaggio or del Fonte ) goes back to the first half of the fifteenth century. Giovannetta, daughter of Pietro Vacchi, wanted to become a nun as she grew up, but her father dreamt of marrying her off. She consented to marriage only to please her loving father. Her husband, Francesco Varoli, made her life miserable. On 26th May 1432, Francesco forced her wife to go to the fields to cut grass for the cattle, even though she was not feeling well. After gathering a few bundles of grass, she rested a while. Once she opened her eyes, she saw the Blessed Virgin Mary right in front of her. The Blessed Mother communicated to her the message of peace. She confided her that her troubles were to come to an end soon and that Jesus was really upset with the sins of the people. Unless they repent and mend their ways, they would be punished. The Blessed Mother mandated her to disseminate the message ...

Day 15: May 25 The emperor Justinian I (r. 527-565) is known for building the famous Hagia Sophia (the Church of Holy Wisdom), which is now a mosque in Istanbul. He is known for constructing another church in Jerusalem in honor of the Mother of God, which is sometimes referred to as "the Nea Church" or simply as "the Nea."  Recent archeological excavations have uncovered the foundation to the church, but there was also one of Justinian’s court historians, a man named Procopius of Caesarea, who wrote in great detail about the construction of the Nea:  “These things the Emperor Justinian accomplished by human strength and skill, but he was also assisted by his pious faith, which rewarded him with the honor he received and aided him in this cherished plan. The church required throughout columns whose appearance would not fall short of the beauty of the building and of such a size that they could resist the weight of the load which would rest upon them. However, the sit...

 Day 14: May 24 John Chrysostom was the first to use this title and that was in the year 345. The Latin for Mary Help of Christians is Sancta Maria Auxilium Christianorum . In 1571  the whole of Christendom was saved by Mary Help of Christians when Catholics throughout Europe prayed the Rosary. The great battle of Lepanto occurred on October 7, 1571. For this reason this date has been chosen as the feast of the Holy Rosary. In 1573 Pope Pius V instituted the feast in thanksgiving for the decisive victory of Christianity over Islamism. Near the end of the 17th century, Emperor Leopold I of Austria took refuge in the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Pasau, when 200,000 Ottoman Turks besieged the capital city of Vienna, but a  great victory occurred thanks to Mary Help of Christians: on September 8th, Feast of Our Lady's Birthday, plans were drawn for the battle. On September 12, Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, Vienna was finally freed through the intercession of Mary He...

Day 13: May 23 The church of Our Lady of Miracles, Brescia (Santa Maria dei Miracoli) is located in Corso Martiri della Liberta in Brescia, Italy. History has it that an epidemic of bubonic plague affected the place between 1480 and 1484. The symptoms of the plague started with a severe headache and then the lymph glands would be swollen. In extreme situations, the victim's body would start to decay before he/she would have a sudden death. It is reported that on an average of two hundred people died daily due to the plague. As a result, the city population which was just below forty thousand dropped to less than four thousand in a matter of a year. There was a painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the outside of a house. Those who prayed before this image received some miraculous healing. The popular piety of the town grew rapidly and a church was built to honor the image of this miraculous image. The Catholic church began negotiations with the family to buy the house in 1486. The...

Day 12: May 22 Back in 1091, Sicily was under the sway of the Normans, a warlike yet Christian people that had come from France. A few years later, these same Normans would play a decisive role in the First  Crusade , retaking Jerusalem and other cities and establishing the Crusader states. For the citizens of Scicli in Sicily, an event that would be remembered for centuries took place in May of 1091. Suddenly, a fleet of Muslim Turks appeared on the horizon, heading for this vulnerable seacoast town. King Roger of Sicily gathered what forces were at his disposal and prepared for battle. Meanwhile, the concerned citizens prayed and fasted, asking for Divine Intervention to counter the impending threat. The Muslim forces landed on the beach of Donnalucata and faced King Roger’s forces, which had been bolstered by the townspeople. However, as the battle raged, the Christian forces began to falter. The enemy’s victory seemed certain when suddenly a miracle occurred. Our Lady...