September 12: The Most Holy Name of Mary and Militant Islam

Liturgical Year; Church's Year of Grace ^ | September 12, 2007 | Dom Gueranger, Pius Parsch, et al

[TaxachusettsMan]

(Dom Guéranger's, The Liturgical Year, Volume XIV.)

'Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array' (Cant. vi 9.). Such the growth, O Mary! Not the holiest life, were it even of patriarchal duration, will ever attain the degree of progress made under the influence of divine power by the soul of the most pure Virgin, in these few days elapsed since her coming on earth. First, there is the progress of her intellect: not subject to the obscurity which envelopes the minds of all men at their entrance into the world, it is a faithful mirror, into which the Word of God pours floods of that light which is also life. Then the progress of love in that heart of the Virgin and the Mother, wherein the Holy Spirit already delights to awake such ineffable harmonies, and to dig still deeper depths. Lastly, the progress of that victorious power, which made Satan tremble at the moment of the Immaculate Conception, and which has constituted Mary the incomparable Queen of the hosts of the Lord.

Two glorious triumphs, two victories won under the protection of Our Lady, have rendered this present day illustrious in the annals of the Church, and of history.

Manicheism, revived under a variety of names, had established itself in the south of France, whence it hoped to spread its reign of shameless excess. But [Saint] Dominic appeared with Mary's Rosary for the defence of the people. On September 12, 1213, Simon de Montfort and the crusaders of the faith, one against forty, crushed the Albigensian army at Muret. This was in the pontificate of [Pope] Innocent III.

Nearly five centuries later, the Turks, who had more than once caused the West to tremble, again poured down upon Christendom. Vienna, worn out and dismantled, abandoned by its emperor, was surrounded by 300,000 infidels. But another great Pope, Innocent XI, confided to Mary the defence of the baptized nations. [King Jan] Sobieski, mounting his charged on the feast of Our Lady's Assumption, hastened from Poland by forced marches. On the Sunday within the octave of the Nativity [of Mary], September 12, 1683, Vienna was delivered; and then began for the Osmanlis that series of defeats which ended in the treaties of Carlowitz and Passarowitz, and the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire. The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, inscribed on the calendar of the universal Church, was the homage of the world's gratitude to Mary, Our Lady and Queen.

[TaxachusettsMan]

This feast was dropped from the General Roman Calendar in 1969, as one of the liturgical changes introduced after the Second Vatican Council.

It was quietly restored to the calendar the year after the 9/11 attacks, by John Paul II, who - no doubt - had a particular devotion to this feast, given Poland's role in that victory over Islam.

In the ANGLICAN BREVIARY (Frank Gavin Liturgical Foundation, 1955), this entry appears as "The Second Nocturn" at Matins:

Particular honours were already paid to the venerable name of Mary in divers parts of the Christian world, and a feast had in some places been kept in honour thereof. Which same in 1683 was by Innocent XI extended to the whole Western Church as an everlasting thanksgiving for the great favour which she was believed to have obtained. This favour was none other than a military victory which saved western Christendom from destruction. For the brutal Sultan of the Turks, who was trampling upon the necks of the Christian population, was thoroughly beaten before the walls of Vienna, upon the twelfth day of September, in the year 1683; after the Christian soldiers had placed themselves under the protection of the august name of our Lady.

[Salvation]

BTTT on the Optional Memoriual of the Most Holy Name of Mary.

Things ARE changing, aren’t they?

[Pyro7480]

Wow, that’s my blog! I forgot I had posted that!

[Salvation]

American Catholic’s Saint of the Day

September 12, 2007

Holy Name of Mary

This feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (January 3); both have the possibility of uniting people easily divided on other matters.

The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, John Sobieski, king of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV in Constantinople. After Sobieski entrusted himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he and his soldiers thoroughly defeated the Muslims. Pope Innocent XI extended this feast to the entire Church.

Comment:

Mary always points us to God, reminding us of God's infinite goodness. She helps us to open our hearts to God's ways, wherever those may lead us. Honored under the title “Queen of Peace,” Mary encourages us to cooperate with Jesus in building a peace based on justice, a peace that respects the fundamental human rights (including religious rights) of all peoples.

Quote:

“Lord our God, when your Son was dying on the altar of the cross, he gave us as our mother the one he had chosen to be his own mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary; grant that we who call upon the holy name of Mary, our mother, with confidence in her protection may receive strength and comfort in all our needs” (Marian Sacramentary, Mass for the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary).