OUR LADY OF THE GOOD REMEDY

Day 149: October 08

Our Lady of the Good Remedy, the Trinitarians' Order



In 1197, a doctor of theology from Sorbonne and newly ordained priest, Jean (John) de Matha, saw while he was saying his first Mass a vision of an angel with a red and blue cross on his chest and his hands on the heads of two prisoners. The following year, St Jean Matha founded a religious order dedicated to the redemption of Christians held as slaves by Muslims – the Order of the Hospitaller of the Holy Trinity and the Prisoners, commonly called Trinitarians.

On their clothes, St Jean Matha placed the cross he had seen on the angel and chose as his patron saint Our Lady of the Good Remedy, a popular devotion in his Provencial homeland. For three centuries he raised funds and traveled from Europe to Africa to buy the freedom of thousands of prisoners with the help of Our Lady and now in the present the Trinitarians are largely dedicated to education and evangelization. A painting in the Trinitarian motherhouse of Cerfroid in northern France shows Our Lady of the Good Remedy giving a lot of money to St John of Matha, while a freed slave and St Felix of Valois watch the scene. The Order celebrates the feast of Our Lady on 8 October.

St. John de Matha always turned to Mary of the Good Remedy for help in his activity of freeing Christian slaves.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Our special devotion to the Blessed Mother is called 'union with the Virgin Mary.' This is both because it is in imitation and in honor of the union of Jesus and each Divine Person with the Blessed Virgin Mary and because it leads us to union with God together with Mary."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, p. 371)

Comments

Post a Comment

Hot Picks

OUR LADY OF MELIAPORE

Image
Day 47: June 26 This is the shrine in the East Indies, where Saint Francis Xavier often retired to pray during his eleven years with the people of India. The Blessed Virgin Mary was Francis’ constant source of strength and inspiration. The image before which Saint Francis used to pray is called Mylai Matha in Tamil, or Our Lady of Mylapore in English. It is an ancient statue about three feet tall, Our Lady of Meliapore can still be venerated at the church. The church of Saint Thomas of Mylapore – spelled somewhat differently from the above – contains Mary’s shrine. According to tradition, the Apostle Saint Thomas came to India in 52 AD. Due to his success making converts to the True Faith, he was persecuted and finally martyred in the year 72 AD. Saint Thomas is buried at the shrine of Our Lady of Meliapore, and there are relics of Saint Francis Xavier. There was a church known to be in Mylapore going back to the 1st century, and built by St Thomas. According to tradition, there was a ...
Read more

Marian Year 2025-26

Image
  MARIAN YEAR The year 2026 marks the first centenary of the apparition of Our Lady to St Justin Russolillo, the Founder of the Vocationists. As the feast of Our Lady of Divine Vocations falls on May 11, the year preceding to that year (May 11 2025 – May 11 2026) has been declared to be celebrated as Marian Year by the Vocationists. The reason behind this year-long celebration is, as Pope Pius XII decreed prior to the Marian Year in 1953 on the occasion of the first centenary of the definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Mother, “that the faith of the people may be increased and their devotion to the Virgin Mother of God become daily more inflamed.” As Rev. Fr. Louis Caputo SDV rightly points out, “the life of Fr. Justin here on earth began with the…apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary…, it developed in the shadow of Mary and ended in union with Mary.” The birth of Justin was preceded by an announcement by the Blessed Virgin Mary to Fr. Sa...
Read more

OUR LADY OF DIVINE VOCATIONS

Image
The Devotion to Our Lady of Divine Vocations The devotion to Our Lady of Divine Vocations has its foundation on the Marian Apparition that St Justin Russolillo had on May 10, 1926. He was praying breviary near a hut made of straws called pagliarella. St. Justin describes it in his diary (Book of the Soul) "May 10, 1926, first day of the Rogations. It was given to me the certainty that the Blessed Trinity has given the Blessed Lady the Office of the Immediate Superior of the Society of Divine Vocations and therefore of all the offices, mansions, studies, works, spheres and everything. She is the authority of the Society. Glory and thanks to God and Mary. Therefore, the established practice of having one person always present and on guard in the room dedicated to Our Lady to honor and venerate her perpetually." After the Marian Apparition, St Justin rushed to the rectory of St George's parish in Pianura where he used to be the parish priest. He asked Fr Luigi Diodato to pre...
Read more