MOTHER OF MERCY OF THE GATE OF DAWN

Day 188: November 16

Mother of Mercy of the Gate of Dawn

(Aušros Vartu Gailestingumo Motinos), Vilnius, Lithuania



On the eastern gate called "Aušros Vartai" (Gate of Dawn, in Lithuanian) or also "Ostra Brama" (Sharp Gate, in Polish and Russian), an icon of the Savior looked towards the enemy lands of Russia and Mongolia, and inside, the Virgin of Kherson looked towards the people of Vilnius.

In 1626, an adjacent Carmelite monastery took it upon itself to maintain the image of the Virgin and conduct services in her honor. During the 1655-61 war with Russia, citizens prayed before the image of Our Lady for help, and many saw the same image in the sky above the city. After the Polish-Lithuanian victory in 1661, a chapel for the icon of the Virgin was built on the door, which Vilnius jewelers covered in gold and silver.

But in 1702, Protestant Swedes occupied Vilnius and forbade the public veneration of the image of the Virgin, who was wounded by a bullet in a battle for the Gate of Dawn. A few years later, after the Russian army defeated the Swedes, a great fire destroyed the wooden chapel on the Gate, but the Carmelite monks saved the image and rebuilt the stone chapel. After Russia took over Lithuania in 1795, the Tsar had the walls of Vilnius demolished, but left the Gate of Dawn, long a site of devotion for Catholic and Orthodox Christians. Between the two world wars, Lithuania returned to Catholic Poland. In 1927, the Catholic Church crowned the icon "Mother of Mercy." The Soviet regime also respected the sacred shrine – although it was said that they had plans to build a highway there, stopped by Lithuania's independence in 1991 – and even allowed pilgrims to enter from other communist lands. Some art historians believe that the current icon is not the original Virgin of Kherson, but a work from the 1600's. Catholics in Lithuania and neighboring countries celebrate the Black Madonna of Vilnius on November 16. The Orthodox commemorate Ostrabramskaya on January 8 (December 26 in the old calendar).


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Glory to the Most Blessed Trinity in you, O Mary! Glory to you, O Mary, in the Blessed Trinity, for the prayer of Jesus with you and St Joseph, for the work of Jesus with you and St Joseph, for the obedience of Jesus to you and St Joseph, for the death of St Joseph, for your presence at the wedding at Cana, for your departure from Nazareth, for your sharing in the public life of Jesus, for your fellowship with the pious women, for your life of suffering, for your co-redeeming compassion."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1997, p. 398)

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