Holy Name of Mary
THEOLOGY OF THE FEAST
We venerate the name of "MARY" because it belongs to her who is the Mother of God and, as the Holy Ghost Himself inerrantly prophesies in Sacred Scripture, "All generations will call her blessed." She is the holiest, greatest and most beautiful of all God's creatures. Not all the glory offered to Him by all the rest of His creation equals the glory offered to Him by Mary. In the words of that seraphic Doctor of the Church, St. Bonaventure: “Mary is that being than which God cannot make a greater; He can make a greater earth and a greater heaven, but not a greater Mother!”
On this feast, we commemorate all the privileges given to Mary by God and all graces we have received through her intercession and mediation. Following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great scholar Fr. Cornelius a’Lapide, SJ (+1637) wrote: “Whatever privilege has been granted to any saint, that she too must possess in an over-exceeding measure.” In particular we honor the seven unique graces which she has received and no other saint has been given: (1) Immaculate Conception, (2) Perpetual Virginity, (3) Mother of God, (4) Glorious Assumption into Heaven, (5) Queen of all Heaven and Earth, (6) Co-Redemptrix and (7) Mediatrix of all graces.
LITURGICAL HISTORY
Surviving records indicate that this Feast was well established by 1513 at Cuenca in Spain, although it had already been popularized throughout the Christian world prior to this date in an devotional manner. This was because several centuries earlier, Christian crusaders had defeated the Albigensian heresy in the mountains of Southern France and Northern Spain, on this day, after invoking Our Lady's Name. Yet it was not until the 16th century that the Feast was assigned with a proper Office in the Breviary. In 1671, the feast was then extended to all of Spain and to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, it was raised to a universal feast on account of the following dramatic and miraculous events:
HISTORY: THE BATTLE FOR VIENNA (1683)
In 1683, John Sobieski, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania, in a miraculous military march brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna and, in an equally miraculous military victory, stopped the advance of armed Muslim hordes loyal to Mohammed IV. Had Vienna been over-run, it is likely that huge portions of Europe would have fallen and Christendom would have ceased to exist as we know it. What made it even more amazing is that France, the Eldest Daughter of the Church, had assured the Turks they would be victorious! King Louis XIV (the "Sun King") saw this invasion from the East as an opportunity to make his own territorial gains in Europe. He thwarted the Pope’s plans for defense and earned the nickname “the most Turk of the Christians.” This is the same king who refused to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart as commanded by our Lord through St. Margret Mary Alacoque. Thus we can see how divided Christian Europe was (how un-Christian) and that precisely this opened the door to Muslim invasion (lessons we would do well to learn today).
[Portrait: Sobieski sending message of victory to the Pope after the Battle of Vienna, by Jan Matejko, 1880, National Museum, Kraków]
The victory of John Sobieski was perhaps the greatest military victory of Christendom over the military threat of Islam for it finally and definitively ended the Muslim invasions which had been encroaching on Christian Europe for nearly ten centuries. The Turks continued to fight another couple of decades, but suffered loss after loss. It was this battle that marked the beginning of the end for them. (So in many ways this victory is even greater and more significant that the well-known naval battle of Lepanto, San Juan Capistrano's victory at Belgrade, and the heroic defense of Budapest, but often doesn’t receive as much recognition.) King Sobieski entrusted himself and his army to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and fought under the special protection of her holy name. It is through her, that he and his soldiers thoroughly defeated the Muslims. This great military victory occurred on September 12, 1683. Therefore, a few months later (25 Nov 1683), Pope Innocent XI extended this feast to the entire Church. This feast is a beautiful counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (January 3). The story of how Vienna was saved is one of the most dramatic in history and I would encourage all to be familiar with it. If you want to hear an excellent sermon on this great event, I would encourage you to listen to the sermon named “Why Can the Muslims Take Over Europe?” LINKED HERE
FROM THE LITURGICAL YEAR
Regarding this feast, Abbot Guéranger, OSB writes the following in his great masterpiece, The Liturgical Year, Vol 14:
"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 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 St. Dominic appeared with Mary's Rosary for the defense 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 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, again confided to Mary the defense of the baptized nations. King John Sobieski, mounting his charger on the feast of our Lady's Assumption, hastened from Poland by forced marches. On the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity, 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 in the calendar of the universal Church was the homage of the world's gratitude to Mary, Our Lady and Queen."
PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS
Soul of Mary, sanctify me,
Body of Mary, purify me,
Heart of Mary, inflame me,
Sorrow of Mary, comfort me,
Tears of Mary, console me,
O Sweet Mary, hear me.
With thy benign eyes, look on me,
Through thy holy steps, guide me,
To thy Divine Son, pray for me,
Pardon for my sins, achieve for me,
Devotion to your holy Rosary, infuse in me,
Love for God and my fellow man, grant me,
Permit me not, to ever be separated from thee.
In the hour of my death, comfort me,
From my enemies, defend me,
With the shield of thy holy name, protect me,
With thy mantle, cover me,
In the fatal instant of my agony, assist me,
From dying in sin, free me,
Into the arms of Jesus, deliver me,
To the eternal mansion, bring me,
So that, with the angels and saints, I can praise thee forever and ever, Amen.
Our Lady of Good Success, pray for us.
From a holy card distributed by the Convent of the Conceptionist Sisters in Quito With ecclesiastical approval.