In the Divine Praises we pray:
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
A few days ago, 8 September, we celebrated the Nativity of Mary.
Today, 12 September, is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary.
Devotion to the name of Mary was at first in Spain, by Carmelites. It was associated with the Octave after the Nativity of Mary. However, in 1683 Pope Bl. Innocent XI – his tomb was long in St. Peter’s upper Basilica but I think he has been moved – put the Feast on the Church’s universal calendar. Pope St. Pius X established the Feast on 12 September.
This Feast commemorates the defeat of the Islamic invaders in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. Vienna was surrounded by the Turks when the King of Poland, John Sobieski, arrived.
The King served Mass in the morning and lead his smaller force against the invaders, winning a great victory.
81,000 against the Turks’ 130,000. In the afternoon there was a famous charge by Poland’s 3000 impressive “Winged Hussars”, the largest cavalry charge in history. Game over for the invaders.
You might not be a Winged Hussar, but your baptism and earthly breath make you, right now, a mighty spiritual warrior whose prayers receive their wings from devotion and intention.
What can not be accomplished through the sincere, focused, confidently loving invocation of the Blessed Virgin by means of the Holy Rosary, repeating her name and the Most Holy Name?
Winged Hussar’s helped to save Christendom. Christendom, our patrimony, has been squandered. That doesn’t mean that there are not Christendom causes in our day. One of them – with painfully blatant urgency – is the preservation of the Traditional Roman Rite.
Will you be a shirker? Do your part, through grace and elbow grease. We have to do our part to receive the graces we need.
The Collect of the Feast:
Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut fideles tui, qui sub sanctissimae Virginis Mariae Nomine et protectione laetantur; eius pia intercessione a cunctis malis liberentur in terris, et ad gaudia aeterna pervenire mereantur in coelis.
Loading ...
SUPERIOR MOVIE!!!
O, HOLY NAME OF MARY, HELP US, PROTECT US, AND SAVE US.
Went to daily mass (NO) this morning and was happy to see this feast celebrated. I had forgotten that this celebrates the victory in the battle of Vienna. Wasn’t this the occasion where the bakers made crescent shaped rolls to celebrate the victory (the crescent being the symbol of the Islamic forces), which is where the croissant came from? I guess it would be politically incorrect to bring this up these days.
Love that scene from the movie; it brings tears to my eyes because we are in that kind of battle today. However, Mother Mary and the rosary will help us defeat evil again. I can’t imagine not having her in my life always!
Some years back I was told that the date for tragedy of 9/11 was chosen by the terrorists to commemorate the battle at Vienna in 1683.
I have been praying a novena in honor of the Holy Name of Mary for an important event which just happened to be scheduled today. Got very good news this morning, praise be to God.
An interesting historical tidbit relating to King Jan III Sobieski’s journey to Vienna which I learned during a pilgrimage to Poland this past summer: The King came to Piekary ?l?skie in Silesia on his way to Vienna to battle the Turks. Piekary was then and still is a great Marian shrine, the site of a miraculous image of Our Lady which had already become famous in the area for cures from diseases, plagues, etc. Dismounting outside the city, the King walked to Our Lady’s shrine to petition her prayers for success–this would have been an unthinkable thing, for the king to dismount outside a city and walk into it! As we know, Our Lady heard his prayers because the Siege of Vienna ended in an historic Christian victory. In honor of the King’s humility and Our Lady’s favor, the feast of Our Lady of Piekary is held on 12 September, the same day as the Victory at Vienna. At Mass (V.O.) on the 12th, at a church named for that great Polish Saint, Stanislaus, I prayed in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s intercession at the Battle and for the steadfastness of the Poles, petitioning God that they (and we!) remain steadfast in their fidelity to and defense of the faith.
JonPatrick: “Wasn’t this the occasion where the bakers made crescent shaped rolls to celebrate the victory (the crescent being the symbol of the Islamic forces), which is where the croissant came from?”
There’s also another story – probably a legend – that the famous Viennese coffeehouses originated in a fortunate discovery among the booty in the Ottoman encampment:
https://www.tasteofaustria.org/the-coffee-house-legacy
Now *that’s* what I call “cultural enrichment”…