Walk with Mary throughout the Year

Day 114: September 1 Our Lady of the Olives Our Lady of Olives is to be situated within the larger context of the biblical symbolism of the Olive tree. In the Bible, but also in patristic and medieval writings, the olive tree–together with the vine and wheat ears–was considered a symbol of heavenly blessings, prosperity and fecundity in times of peace. The olive tree is also a symbol of spiritual excellence and distinction such as reconciliation with God, rectitude and innocence as well as fruitfulness of good works. This symbolism applied to Mary is a sign of faithful and loving dedication to the Lord but also a symbol of Mary’s strength, intercessory power and mercy. Originally borrowed from Sirach 24:19 (Vulgate, or v. 14) the expression oliva speciosa (fair olive tree) changes according to specific meanings: for example, oliva fecunda (fruitful olive), oliva pinguissima (fat, rich olive), oliva mitis (meek olive). The use of this symbolism is widespread and multifaceted. We find sa...

Day 113: August 31 Our Lady of the Founders, Constantinople 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 ...

Day 112: August 30 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 ...

Day 111: August 29 Our Lady of Clermont, Poland 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 Pulche...

Day 110: August 28 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 c...

Day 109: August 27 Our Lady of Moustier, France 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...

Day 108: August 26 The Black Madonna, Czarna Madonna, Częstochowa, Silesia, Poland At the urging of a group of holy women in Jerusalem, St. Luke, the Evangelist, painted the Black Madonna from life after Jesus’ death, upon a cypress board the young Christ had fashioned into a tabletop for the Holy Family’s use. The community of Christian women kept the image in Jerusalem until 328, when St. Helena took it to Constantinople along with other relics. In the 1200's, it came into the possession of Lev I of Galicia, whose wife was the granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor. Lev installed it in his castle in Belz, Ukraine, around 1270. Some hundred years later, Vladislaus II of Opole took possession of the castle. Not long afterward, when Tatars attacked, Vladislaus hung the icon on the surrounding wall. A fog arose, in which the attackers retreated, but not before one of their arrows scarred the Virgin’s neck. In 1382, as a gesture of reconciliation with the Catholic Church, which had ex...

Day 107: August 25 Our Lady Acheiropoieta of Rossano, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy Rossano, a town in the province of Cosenza, is proud to have an acheiropoieta image of the Virgin, where devotion for the same has existed since the sixth century. The Greek word ‘acheiropoietos’ means ‘not painted by a human hand’ (typical example on an Acheiropoieta image is that of the miraculous image Our Lady of Guadalupe). It is a frescoed icon on a fragment of a column that is located on a fifteenth century altar inside the cathedral, in the central nave, enclosed in a marble niche. The image, which represents a virgin with the child, is of Byzantine style and is dated between the 6th and 8th centuries, depending on the interpretations. On the right side of the image, vertically, you can read, in Greek letters, the word ‘Theotokos’, meaning Mother of God. It is a full-bodied image of the Virgin holding in Her left arm the child Jesus and who has the right hand towards His Mother with a gesture of impa...

Day 106: August 24 Our Lady of Pietralba, Bolzano, South Tyrol, South Tyrol, Italy Around 1547 the Virgin appeared to Leonardo Weißensteiner (Weissensteiner), a pious and righteous local peasant who owned a large farm called Weissenstein, in the locality of Nova Ponente, in the plateau of Pietralba. In this vast and silent solitude, he lived quietly with his family, leading a virtuous life, even though he was so sorely tried by sufferings. In fact, some time before the apparition, Leonardo’s mental health wavered, and he was even interned in a mental asylum. Here Leonardo often had lucid intervals that made the situation more bitter; but he consoled himself with his faith. In one of these intervals Our Lady appeared to console him and to ask him for the construction of a chapel, as soon as he should be restored to freedom. In one of the excesses of fury, which alternated with moments of calm, he managed to free himself from the chains and escape into the surrounding woods, where he fel...

Day 105: August 23 Our Lady of Victory, Valois, France 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 a...

Day 104: August 22 Queenship of Mary The queenship of Mary, mother of the King of Kings, is a concept with both spiritual and political meaning. “Especially in time of crisis,” as Pius XII wrote, believers take comfort in the faith that Mary “reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world.” And intermittently throughout the Christian era, leaders have claimed an alliance with the Queen of Heaven to bolster their spiritual or secular power.    As early as the 500s, a fresco in the Roman church of Santa Maria Antiqua depicted Mary as a crowned Byzantine ruler. During his brief papacy from 705-707, John VII added several images of Queen Mary to Roman churches. By the 1000's, devotion to Mary as Queen had spread through Europe. The hymn “ Salve Regina ,” attributed to Bl. Hermann of Reichenau (d. 1054), became the anthem of the Crusaders and is still sung often in Catholic services: Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope .  In the 1100's...

Day 103: August 21 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 w...

Day 102: August 20 Holy Mary of the Cross, Crema, Cremona, Italy There is a sanctuary of the Madonna on the Bergamo Road, about a mile away from the city of Crema, Italy.  The structure is a circular form, with four additions in the shape of a cross, which gave rise to the name: “Holy Mary of the Cross”.  The sanctuary is located in a place where, in years gone by, there stood a dense little wood called “Il Novelletto”. In the late 15th century a young woman named Caterina Uberti lived with her brother in the city of Crema.  When she arrived at marriageable age, her brother induced her to wed one Bartolomeo Petrobelli; it was an unfortunate arrangement – Caterina was good and pious; Bartolomeo was quite the opposite, tending toward the wicked and corrupt.  The marriage was unhappy for Caterina and uncomfortable for Bartolomeo – his rather crude and brutal ways shamed her, while her refined and holy life was a silent reproach to his somewhat scandalous mode of living....

Day 101: August 19 Our Lady of the Chain, Scillato, Palermo, Sicily, Italy The cult of Our Lady of the Chain begun in the year 1392 in Palermo, when King Martin I the Younger reigned in Sicily. Three men were unjustly convicted and on August 18th they were taken to Piazza Marina, where they were supposed to be hanged. Just as they were preparing the forks, a great storm broke out that forced the executioners to take refuge in the Church of Our Lady of the Port and the people fled from the storm. While waiting for the execution to be resumed, the three convicts were tied with double chains to the altar of the Virgin, but the storm continued for the whole day, and the guards had to spend the night in the church to watch them. The three wailed at the feet of Our Lady invoking her with the title of Virgin of Graces and began to beg her insistently, and suddenly, while the soldiers fell into a deep sleep, the chains that held the three broke and the voice of the Madonna reassured them: “Go ...

Day 100: August 18 ​Our Lady's Veil (Sancta Camisia) The first church at Chartres claims to have one of the most venerated relics in Christendom, Our Lady's Veil, which tradition declares was worn by the Virgin while giving birth to Jesus Christ and also as she stood at the foot of the Cross. It had been transferred in the early years of the Christian Church from Jerusalem to Constantinople and presented by the Empress Irene to the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (742-814). In 876 his descendant Charles the Bald gave the relic to the cathedral at Chartres. Our Lady's Veil is kept in a golden reliquary beside the high altar and has formed the focus of many traditions throughout the centuries. For instance, in 911 when the bandit Rollo and his henchmen were besieging Chartres, local people took the veil from the church and paraded it as a flag of war. Rollo and his men were defeated and the siege was lifted. The shrine is renowned for pilgrimages made by many of the great doct...

Day 99: August 17 Our Lady of Belmonte, Valperga, Turin, Piedmont, Italy In 1016 the Virgin appeared to a Benedictine monk, Arduino (formerly Count and Marquis of Ivrea, who in 1002 had been elected King of Italy by the princes intolerant of the German yoke) while he was lying seriously ill in his castle, ordering him to build three churches in her honor: in Belmonte (Turin) where the Benedictines were to officiate, in Turin (under the title of Consolation) and in Crea in Monferrato. High on the hill, at 727 meters above sea level, clearly visible from all the surrounding area, the Sanctuary of Belmonte has been a beacon of Christian faith in Canavese for a millennium. Its white silhouette stands out in isolation at the summit of the characteristic mountain whose reddish granite , already clearly visible along the road from Prascorsano, and the vast expanses of pink sand on the northern slope, the "sabbionere," contribute to creating a highly evocative landscape around the re...

Day 98: August 16 ​ 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, th...