The Month of Mary Allsaintsny.net May, 2021

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LIFE OF MARY?

Mary was born into a devout Jewish family in Galilee when it was part of the ancient Roman Empire. Her parents were St. Joachim and St. Anne.

They dedicated her to God in a Jewish temple when she was three years old.

By the time Mary was about 13 years old, historians believe, she was engaged to Joseph, a devout Jewish man. It was during Mary’s engagement that she learned through an angelic visitation of the plans God had for her to serve as Jesus Christ's mother on Earth. Mary responded with faithful obedience to God’s plan, despite the personal challenges that it presented to her.

When Mary’s cousin Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist) praised Mary for her faith, Mary gave a speech that has become a famous song sung in worship services, The , which the Bible records in Luke 1:46-55: “And Mary said: ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me -- holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.’”

The Bible records many instances of Mary with Jesus Christ during his lifetime, including a time when she and Joseph lost track of him and found Jesus teaching people in a temple when he was 12 OFFICEyears HOURS old (Luke 2), and when wine ran out at a wedding, and she asked her Mon-Thurs 9:30 am-3 pm son to turn water into wine to help out the host (John 2). Mary was near the cross as Jesus died on it WEEKDAY for the MASSES sins of the world (John 19). Immediately after Jesus' resurrection Mondayand ascension thru Friday into heaven, the Bible mentions in Acts 1:14 that Mary prayed Except along withthe the 4th apostles Friday of andthe Month others. St. Peter’s Church @ 8:45 Before Jesus Christ died on the cross, he asked the apostle John to take care of Mary for the rest of her life. Many historians believe that Mary later moved to the ancient city of

Ephesus (which is now part of Turkey) along with John, and ended her earthly life there.

MAY 1 Our Lady Queen of the May

When we think of devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary during the month of May, we can be celebrated every day. When you hear “On This Day O Beautiful Mother,” it reminds us of the many wonderful things: the ceremonies that surround a May crowning, the beautiful statue displayed in church of the Blessed Mother with the brightest of spring flowers at her feet, saying the , and so much more. May 1st celebrates all that is the life, the spirit, the soul, the beauty of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Our Lady Queen of the May.

MAY 2 - Our Lady of Oviedo (Spain) In the 8th century, during the battle of Guadalete in Spain, the Visigoths of Hispania, under their king, found themselves gravely outnumbered. As they were able to retreat and get away, they moved to the mountains near Oviedo. A not-so-honorable soldier was to be disciplined, He ran away finding a safe place to stay in a cave on Mt. Auseba. A hermit came out of the cave and said, “This cave is the dwelling place of the Most Holy Mother of God.” Placing himself in the hands of Our Lady, he prayed for her help and guidance. Fighting in Spain continued; this soldier valiantly fought and always returned to, and remained faithful to, Our Lady in Oviedo. When the Moors were finally defeated, he knelt before the image of Mary, announcing that she was the Virgin Patroness of his army and all Spain. The Blessed Virgin is venerated at Covadonga, a village in the Cantabrian Mountains of Asturia, Spain.

May 3 – Our Lady of Jasna Gora / Czestochowais (Poland)

During the Hussite persecution of the 14th century, heretics attacked the monastery. They tried to steal the statue, putting on a wagon that couldn’t carry it. An angry soldier drew his sword, striking our Lady’s cheek twice. As he tried to hit her again, he dropped dead. The other soldiers fled. Under King Ladislaus II, he commissioned it to be restored, but the sword marks couldn’t be repaired no matter what was done to try. From that time forward, the people of Poland knew that she was a symbol of their faith and hope. She is also known as the Black of Czestochowais. The original image is housed at the monastery there and bears the title, Our Lady of the Bright Hill / Jasna Gora. She is the Patroness and Protectress of the Poles.

May 4 – Our Lady of Quick Help

As we understand the story, a Russian artist was staying at a hotel in Ireland where he found that he had not enough money to pay his bill. So he satisfied his bill with payment to a woman, of a Russian icon of Our Lady and Jesus. After she passed away her nephew gave the icon the parish priest. He didn’t feel the need to keep it so he gave it to a dentist friend who kept it in his office. In 1943 a Jesuit scientist went to examine it and discovered it to be over 300 years old, telling this to the priest who didn’t keep it. The priest was then given the opportunity to take the icon and share it in conversations everywhere. The Russian inscription on the original icon translates to “Our Lady of quick Help, pray for us.” (The right hand of Jesus points to His Mother suggesting “You want help quickly? Ask My Mother. She is the Help of the afflicted, the help of Christians.”

May 5 – Queen of the Apostles The apostles understood better than anyone else the great privileges of Mary. They realized her sanctity; they recognized her virtues; they knew how she had cooperated in the work of redemption; they knew how Jesus loved her. During the public life of Christ they were closely associated with the Blessed Mother. They were with her through the suffering of our Lord. With Mary they persevered in prayer in the upper room, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. During this long association, even before the death and resurrection of Jesus, the apostles came to know her as their Queen and Mother. This feast is observed in Pallotine Redemptorist churches. The Pallotines are a Society of Apostolic Life within the Roman , founded in 1835 by the Roman priest Saint Vincent Pallotti. They are part of the Union of Catholic Apostolate and are present in 45 countries on six continents. The Pallottines administer one of the largest churches in the world, the of of Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire, on the Ivory Coast.

May 6 – Our Lady of Charity or Our Lady of Miracles

According to various traditions, the Saint Andrea de Aquarizariis church was built because of an incident where a drunken soldier had stabbed a statue of the Madonna in the breast, then the statue started bleeding as if it were alive. There is also another legend that maybe a stone was thrown at the statue that now sits above the high altar in the church of Our Lady of Peace, subsequently started bleeding. Whatever the believe, the church was in built on the foundation of the Saint Andrea de Aquarizariis church. The venerated painting of Our Lady of Miracles shows our Lady holding Jesus. This is now hanging over the high altar of Our Lady of Peace or Santa Maria della Pace, in near Piazza Navona.

May 7 – The Seven Joys of Our Lady

There is almost no one singular picture that can depict today’s feast day of Our Lady. It has to be a beautiful compilation of those joyful moments. But what brought us this feast was the enthusiasm of the Franciscans, especially from the efforts of St Bernadine of Siena, Italy, St. John Capistrano, from Germany and Blessed Mary from France. Canadian devotion to the Seven Joys of Mary has a rosary known as the Franciscan Crown or Seraphic Rosary,

May 8 – Our Lady of Pompeii

Most celebrations for Our Lady are centuries old. This one is not – it is less than 100 years old. Near the end of the 1800’s the Valley of Pompeii, near Naples, had very few people living there and most, lost their faith and and belief in God. Most had become superstitious of any faith. In 1872, the husband of a countess, who had property there, arrived to assess its value. He was raised Catholic, but was not very devout. Walking along an empty road a voice suddenly spoke to him. It told him that if he wished to be saved, he should spread devotion to the Rosary and that the Blessed Virgin had promised, that was the way to find salvation. Falling to his knees, he answered that if this was truly promised that he wouldn’t leave there until he had popularized the Rosary. At first, efforts failed, but he kept going until he gathered a group that did recite the Rosary in a little chapel every day. After a visit and encouragement from their Bishop, a church was built there in honor of Our Lady of Pompeii with hops that someday a basilica would be built on the same spot. Numbers participating in the prayers grew so it was decided to bring in a picture of Our Lady to help the faithful mediate and pray. Without enough money to pay for this painting, a picture was purchased from a junk store. A trucker not knowing what the package contained pitched it on top of a load of garbage and so the picture arrived at the chapel. The people were happy with this dilapidated picture and enshrined it. Almost immediately several miracles took place through Mary’s intercession as Our Lady of Pompeii. A church was built, 1876-1891 and a new basilica, 1934-1939, ordered by Pius XI.

May 9 – Our Lady of Loreto (Ancona, Italy)

We are told that a house in Nazareth made of three stone walls, was the place where the Blessed Mother was born, where she was visited by an angel and conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit and where she, Joseph and Jesus lived. This house, was carried by angels from Nazareth to the Italian hillside town of Loreto the night of Dec. 9-10 in 1294 after making a three-year stop in Croatia. Now called the Holy House of Loreto, a decree said the in Loreto “recalls the mystery of the Incarnation” and helps visitors “meditate both on the words of the angel announcing the Good News and on the words of the Virgin in response to the divine call.”

May 10 - Our Lady and Our Lady of Saussaie (Paris, France)

Near the city of Paris there was once a shrine dedicated to Mary at the abbey of La Joie- les-Nemours, or Our Lady of Joy, or Notre- Dame de la Saussaie. According to legend, the title was given to the abbey when Saint King Louis IX was returning from an expedition against the English and met his mother, Queen Blanche, near the convent. So happy to see each other, they gave each other a warm embrace. On that happy occasion the church was named for the joy they felt at the reunion. The shrine was located in a church of a Benedictine Priory, and was dedicated to the Virgin of Saussaie by Pope Clement V in the year 1305.

May 11 - Our Lady of ()

History tells us of three fishermen from Guaratinguetá: Domingos Garcia, Filipe Pedroso and João Alves. They went to the Paraiba River one day to work casting their nets many times without any luck. They then They moved their boat several miles to an area called Porto Itaguaçu, casting their nets there. Soon, João Alves felt that his het was very heavy. Pulling up the net, he found a statue that looked like Our Lady of the but it was missing its head! He dropped his net again, coming up the head of the statue. All three fishermen then cast again, and each net was filled with fish. The Blessed Mother is portrayed here in a clay statue bearing the title “Our Lady of Aparacida.” On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1904, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1854 proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the statue of Our Lady Aparecida was Canonically crowned by the archbishop of São Paulo, in the name and on behalf of who granted this approval. The statue is now in the Basilica of the National Shrine of in Aparecida, São Paulo, .

May 12 - Our Lady of Power [Aubervillers, France] In 1336, an event occurred in Aubervillers known locally as the “Miracle of the Rain.” A little girl went to church to pray to Our Lady to help the drought-ridden land. As she prayed, she saw that the statue was covered in what she thought were drops of sweat. But then the sky got dark and it began to rain. Pilgrimages started immediately, especially from parishes in Paris. Over centuries, miracles include cures and healings, as well as the miracles of two children who were brought back to life. The Archbishop of Paris confirmed the celebration of a festival to be on the second Tuesday of May as dedicated to The Blessed Mother. During the French revolution, in 1789, the statue of the miraculous Virgin was profaned. It was dragged on the road with a rope around its neck; the Sans-Culottes movement burned it singing an emblematic song of the revolution. Only one small piece of the statue was saved: her hands, which were preserved. The present statue of the virgin made out of wood. May 13 - Our Lady of Fatima and

Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three Portuguese children–Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia dos Santos– received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners, and for the conversion of Russia.Mary gave the children three secrets. Following the deaths of Francisco and Jacinta in 1919 and 1920 respectively, Lucia revealed the first secret in 1927. It concerned devotion to the . The second secret was a vision of hell. When Lucia grew up she became a Carmelite nun and died in 2005 at the age of 97.Pope John Paul II directed the ’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000; it spoke of a “bishop in white” who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows into him. Many people linked this vision to the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. The feast of Our Lady of Fatima was approved by the local bishop in 1930; it was added to the Church’s worldwide calendar in 2002.

Dedication Our Lady of Martyrs, Rome

This basilica is built inside the frigidarium (the Cold Room) of the in the Piazza della Repubblica. The basilica is dedicated to the Christian martyrs, known and unknown. In July 1561, Pius IV ordered the church “built”, to be dedicated to the Beatissimae Virgini et omnium Angelorum et Martyrum (“the Most Blessed Virgin and all the Angels and Martyrs”). Impetus for this dedication had been generated by the account of a vision experienced in the ruins of the Baths in 1541 by a Sicilian monk, Antonio del Duca, who had been lobbying for decades for papal authorization of a more formal veneration of the Angelic Princes. A story that these Martyrs were Christian slave laborers who had been set to constructing the Baths is modern. It was also a personal monument of Pope Pius IV, whose tomb is in the basilica.

May 14 - Our Lady of Bavaria

Also known as Our Lady of Altotting, the shrine of the Chapel of Grace in Bavaria lies up in the mountains in upper Bavaria. The miraculous healings that have occurred there are so numerous that the shrine is thought of today as the “Lourdes of Germany.” The most famous miracle occurred in the year 1489. A young boy had drowned, and his mother, full of faith, brought his body to lay at the feet of the image of the Mother of God looking for a miracle. And in front of many people, her son came back to life.

May 15 - Our Lady of France

A volcanic rock that is over 2,500 feet tall in LePuy, France on Mt. Corneille, has a metal statue of the Blessed Mother and Jesus on it since 1860. It is the second largest statue in the world, second only to the Statue of Liberty. The figure of the virgin, approximately fifty- five feet high, stands upon a globe; above her head is a starry crown, her feet crush a serpent. The Infant sits on her right arm, His right hand raised in blessing of the entire countryside. According to tradition, at some time between the third and fourth centuries, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a local woman with an incurable disease, telling her to climb Mt. Corneille where she would be cured by the simple act of sitting on the great stone. She did this and the woman was miraculously cured of her disease. The Mother of God appeared to the woman a second time, telling her to contact the local bishop and let him know that she wanted a church built on the hill. When the bishop climbed the hill himself, he found the ground and stones covered in deep snow, even though it was the middle of July. A doe, all alone, walked gracefully though the snow, tracing the ground plan of the that the desired to be built. Sometime later, when the bishop visited the spot again that same summer, he was amazed to see flowering blooms that had taken the place of the thorn bushed that had previously outlined the chapel. Convinced by these miracles of the authenticity of Mary’s wishes, the bishop decided to have a chapel built here.

May 16 - Apparition of Our Lady to St. Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, in her teenage years, received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Her Son Jesus Christ. In this vision, the Mother of God gave Catherine to her Son in a mystical marriage. Mystical marriage is in some senses very similar to a marriage ceremony, as Christ presents the chosen soul with a ring that is often visible to others, and often there are saints and angels present. There have been well over 70 documented mystical marriages with saints, and although the action is mysterious and not well understood, it appears that Christ gives special attention to these saints. Saint Teresa explained that it was the highest state a soul could achieve in this life, and represents a transforming and constant union with the Blessed Trinity.

May 17 – Our Lady of Tears (Spoleto, Italy)

In 1572, during the expansion of the Islamic Ottoman Empire intended to invade Christian Europe, Pope Pius V petitioned Christian armies and the victory that was achieved was attributed to the intercession of Mary. It wasn’t until Pope Leo XIII in 1903 granted a towards the Marian image of Our Lady of Tears that she is now permanently enshrined at the Basilica of in Turin, Italy.

May 18 - Dedication of Our Lady of Bon-port Abbey, Diocese of Evreux King Richard the Lion Heart, King of England and Duke of Normandy founded Our Lady of Bon- port Abby or Notre-Dame de Bon Port in 1190. As the story is retold, the king was overcome by Seine River, almost drowning, during a hunting party. Fearing for his life, he vowed that he would build a monastery on the banks of the river because it would be à Bon-port (a good harbor. The Blessed Mother saved the king from drowning, and Richard built the abbey. Our Lady of Bon-port is one of the few remaining Cistercian abbeys in Normandy with monastic buildings from the Middle Ages, including a magnificent 13th century vaulted dining hall. Before the French Revolution the abbey looked different than it does now. Here is what was written about that time. “A fine rose-window in the church of the abbey of Bon- port, and two specimens of painted glass from its windows, the one representing angels holding musical instruments, supposed to be of the thirteenth century, the other containing a set of male and female heads of extraordinarily rich color, probably executed about a century later, were given by Willemin in his very beautiful Monumens Francais inedits. In the same work, you will likewise find two still more interesting painted windows Pont-de-l’Arche; some boatmen and their wives in the Norman costume of the end of the sixteenth century, and a citizen of the town with his lady, praying before a fald-stool [a folding stool used by the bishop], bearing the date 1621.”

May 19 - Our Lady of Flines, Douay

In 1274, the Archbishop dedicated the shrine to Our Lady of Flines. This Shrine became a place of pilgrimage as a result of the miraculous cure of a child protégé of Margaret of Constantinople. The little girl was seriously injured near the horse stable yard and doctors believed she would always be crippled as a result. Margaret took her to a neighboring shrine for weeks, asking the Blessed Mother to be merciful to the child and her parents. After the fifteenth visit, the little girl jumped from the arms of her mother. “I can walk straight, see?” and proved that Our Lady had indeed cured her at that instant. When Margaret died in 1280, she was buried in the middle of the choir area of the shrine. Even with the many, many pilgrimages to the shrine over the years, the abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, and there is no trace of that once thriving Abbey anymore.

May 20 - Dedication of the Church of La Ferte in Honor of Our Lady, Burgandy, France

The first daughter-house of Citeaux, L’Abbaye de la Ferte, was founded by Saint Bernard’s Cistercian Order. It was one of the largest of four Cistercian abbeys. These abbeys had a major role in the future organization of the Cistercian Order. Like many abbeys, la Ferte suffered immensely during the major wars and upheavals in French history, but most especially during the hundred years' war, the religious wars, and the French Revolution. The whole complex was surrounded by a strong wall and moat with a single door served by a drawbridge. Even so, this defensive system could not hold back the determined Protestant troops, who attacked and set the abbey church and several other buildings on fire. Over time, the housing for the abbey cloister, and even the front of the abbey house, were rebuilt. In 1791, the abbey was unlawfully seized and sold as the property of the French national government. It was purchased by a family that has owned the site since the Revolution, although today only the magnificent abbey ‘palace’ with its interiors remains, and it is nothing now more than a bed and breakfast inn. The church, however, was never restored, and there is now no trace of the magnificent structure.

May 21 - Our Lady of Vladimir, Russia and Our Lady of Sweat, Salerno, Italy

It is believed that the painting of Our Lady of Vladimir was created in Constantinople in the 12th century. However, it was moved to Moscow when it became a religious capital. Tradition tells us that the ruthless conqueror, Tamerlane, had a dream where a beautiful woman appeared to him ordering him to leave Russia. He told his advisors about this, wanting to know what was the significance of the vision. He came to believe that it was an apparition of the Blessed Mother, so he left Moscow. The icon was enshrined in 1395 in the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin. Through many difficult times, the icon got the city of Moscow to stand up and defend itself. It was even taken into battle during WWI where it is understood that Stalin took it by plane and flown around Moscow while the German’s were invading. A few days later, the German army retreated. Today it is in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. May 22 - Our Lady of Monte Vergine, Naples Italy

It is also known as Our Lady of Montevergine, or as “Mother Schiavona. The image was preserved from the flames at the monastery and church consecrated in her honor. This is a Benedictine sanctuary located in the village of Montevergine in the Campanian region of Italy. During World War II the church was used to hide the famed Holy Shroud of Turin, the burial cloth of Christ. A new basilica was begun in 1952 in the Romanesque style, and this structure was consecrated in 1961. There have been numerous miracles attributed to this portrait of Our Lady and Jesus.

May 23 - Our Lady of Miracles of Brescia in Italy

The origin of the painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary was first seen outside of a house in Lombardy, Italy in 1478. There was an epidemic of bubonic plague in Brescia then, and many miracles were recorded. It has been documented that the severe symptoms of the plague lasted over a year killing over 40,000 people. In 1488 the church of Our Lady of Miracles in Brescia was built by those who survived to honor the image of the Blessed Virgin before which so many people were miraculously healed. During World War II, the church was hit by allied bombs and nearly (Statue in Brescia church) destroyed. Following the war, it was completely rebuilt.

There are several other of this name in Italy and elsewhere (Aubervilliers and Mauriac in France) where there were a series of miracles recorded in several parts of Italy in 1796-97.

May 24 - Our Lady Help of Christians And Our Lady of the Way

The feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians was instituted by Pope Pius VII. By order of Napoleon, Pope Pius VII was arrested on June 5, 1808, and was imprisoned at Grenoble, France. After the Congress of Vienna and the battle of Waterloo, the pope returned to Rome in 1815. To give thanks to God and our Lady, he declared May 24th, the anniversary of his first return to Rome, the Feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians.

Our Lady of the Way or or Santa Maria Della Strada, is the name of the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that has been enshrined at the Church of Gesu, in Rome, the mother church for the , or the Jesuits. The co-founder of the order, St. , was said to have been protected by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary during battle in his service as a soldier. The painting is a 13th-14th century fresco given to St. Ignatius by Pope Paul III in 1540. St. Frances Xavier was the other co-founder of the society. A reason also linked to the naming of the Parish where the fresco was painted, was that people “on their way” traveling north from Brisbane where horses were changed and passengers rested.

May 25 – Our Lady of New Jerusalem

Dedicated to the Blessed Mother, the church of Our Lady the New Jerusalem was built on Mount Zion and completed in 543, but was later destroyed during an earthquake in the year 746. Recent archeology confirms that the church was very large for the time Antoninus of Piacenza, who visited the basilica in about 570, wrote: [It had a] “great congregation of monks, and its guest houses for men and women, catering for travelers they have a vast number of tables, and more than three thousand beds for the sick.”

May 26 – Our Lady Queen of Caravaggio

In 1492, an Italian peasant woman took feed for her animals on the road to Misano. The Blessed Mother appeared to her, dressed in a blue dress and her head covered in a white veil. Our Lady spoke to her, saying "Do not be afraid, daughter, because I am here. (She stopped and knelt in prayer.) Now, do what I want from you. The Most High Almighty, my Son, wanted to destroy this Earth because of the iniquity of men, because they do what is evil every day and fall into sin by sin. But for seven years, I prayed mercy to the Son for their sins. Therefore, I want you to tell each and every one that you must fast on bread and water every Friday in honor of my Son, and that, after vespers, celebrate me every Saturday for devotion. That must be dedicated to me this half a day as gratitude for the many and great favors that you received from my Son through my intercession." The woman responded to the vision saying, "People will not believe me." Our Lady said: "Arise, do not be afraid. You must relate what I ordered. I will confirm your words with signs so large that no one will doubt you've spoken the truth."

May 27 – Our lady of Naples

The dedication of Our Lady of Naples was in 533 by Pope John II. A picture of the Blessed Virgin, painted by Saint Luke, has been carefully preserved in this church. The Basilica Sanctuary of Carmine Maggiore is one of the largest in Naples. Dating back to the thirteenth century, it stands in the Piazza Carmine in Naples, on one side of what once was the market square. According to tradition, the Carmelites fled from the Holy Land during the persecution following the Islamic invasion of the Holy Land, bringing with them the icon of the Virgin of Tenderness believed to be painted by Saint Luke the evangelist. It was said to be the first image venerated by the ancient Carmelite Order, and once in Naples, it was enshrined above the high altar of their church. The icon became known as La Bruna, or Madonna Bruna, because of the dark tone of the skin caused by the votive candles which had burned before it for centuries. In the year 1500 the was taken in procession to Rome. Many miracles occurred in the course of the pilgrimage, and the icon was displayed at Saint Peter’s Basilica for three days. There were so many miracles that occurred that when the icon returned home the ruler of Naples, Federico d’Aragona, King Frederic II, decided to test the Mother of God. King Frederic had the audacity to seemingly demand a miracle from heaven. He ordered all of the sick, the lame, the blind, the crippled, and anyone of his kingdom with any kind of malady to come to the church on June 24th to implore a cure from heaven. He instructed that they were all to assemble having had examinations and with written documentation as proof of their sickness or disability on the appointed day. On June 24th of that year a Holy was celebrated in the presence of the king, his nobles and all the people. During the consecration a ray of vivid light was seen to rest on the face of the Madonna, and at the same time reflecting its light upon each of the sick and infirm. In that instant they were cured of their maladies, and this miraculous cure was authenticated by many witnesses. May 28 – Feast of the Relics of Mary, Venice Italy

According to legend the city had been founded on the feast of the . It therefore seemed to the people of Venice that their city had also assumed her attributes of purity, perfection and mortality. All of Mary’s feast-days were also days celebrated by the secular government throughout the entire Republic. Portions of her robe, her mantle, veil, and girdle have been preserved in Venice in a spectacular 18th century reliquary that also contains an extremely rare relic of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Within this reliquary, which bears the personal seal of Pope Pius VI, is a bundle of the Blessed Virgin's own hair. Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken into heaven both body and soul after her death, it is not possible that any other physical relics of her could exist. The sole possible exception would be her hair, and this bundle of her hair had been preserved and venerated since the time of her Assumption in the Holy House of Nazareth. Recent archeological excavations have proven that the Holy House was treated as a Christian sanctuary as early as the 1st century AD. The bundle of the Blessed Virgin's hair is believed to have been brought from the Holy Land by the Crusaders, and is venerated in Venice in the Basilica of Saint Mark.

5/29 - Our Lady of Ardents Arras, France

According to legend, there was a terrible epidemic that was given the name ‘the hellfire’. It ravaged the countryside in 1105 attacking men, women and children. During this time, two mintrels, Norman and Itier, lived nearby. There was hatred between their families, and Norman killed Itier’s brother. One night they both had the same dream: the Virgin Mary, dressed in white, appeared to them and told them to go to the cathedral. Norman, who was closer, arrived first. As he entered the cathedral he saw all the patients who had taken refuge there. He found the bishop and told him of the apparition, but Bishop Lambert thought that Norman was mocking him and sent him away. Itier arrived the following day and also spoke to the bishop. When the bishop told Itier that someone named Norman had come to tell him of the same vision, Itier asked where he was, because he intended to kill him on the field to avenge his brother’s death. Bishop Lambert then understood that the Blessed Virgin had sent the two men to be reconciled. The bishop spoke to each separately and then put them in each other’s presence and asked them to give each other the kiss of peace and then spend the night in prayer inside the cathedral. Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 1105, the Virgin Mary appeared to both of them in the Cathedral. Norman and Itier witnessed a sudden light as the Blessed Virgin descended from the height of the nave, carrying a lighted candle in her hands. She gave the men the candle intended for the healing of the sick, and explained to them what they must do. A few drops of the wax that fell from the candle were to be mixed with water, giving it miraculous property, then the people should drink from it. All who believed were healed. The two minstrels, now brothers, distributed the miraculous water and the epidemic was stopped. This relic, the Holy Candle, can still be seen today.

5/30 - Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Mexico

During the invasion of Paris by Hitler’s army in 1939 a young woman fled France to live in Mexico. She had very little but did bring a large picture of Our lady of the Sacred Heart. She gave it to the Church of San Jose in 1940 where it was hung on the wall of the vestibule.

The day that it was hung, a young boy with infantile paralysis, was cured after praying before the painting. He left his crutches there and ran home. Of course, the story of the miracle spread and hundreds visited the church. With such large crowds showing up, the pastor moved the painting to a place in front of the church so more people could see it. There have been thousands of cures that have come from the intercession of the Blessed Mother that have been verified by reliable doctors and affidavits legally signed. The documents are still at the shrine for all to see.

5/31 – The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This feast day commemorates the Virgin Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth. Both found themselves pregnant in unusual circumstances: Elizabeth was older and suffered from infertility, and Mary, by the Holy Spirit. At their meeting, Jon the Baptist, leaped in the womb of Elizabeth. Mary responded with the famous Magnificat, praising the Lord. The visit was detailed int Luke 1:39-55. Pope Benedict XVI said, “This feast day is a day to recognize Mary’s humility and willingness to be used by God. “

Mother of Mercy

O Mary, Mother of Mercy, watch over all people, that the Cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power, that man may not stray from the path of the good or become blind to sin, but may put his hope ever more fully in God who is “rich in mercy.” May he carry out the good works prepared By God beforehand and so live completely “for the praise of his glory.” Pope John Paul II