Celebrations
- Our Lady of Rennes (Notre Dame de Rennes) in Britanny (France): Tradition holds that in 1357, during the Hundred Years War, the English planned to destroy the city with a mine. However, candles within the church were miraculously lit, and the church bells rang themselves. When the townspeople rushed into the Church, they saw the statue of Our Lady with her arms outstretched, indicating the middle of the church, where the mine was hidden. With that discovery, disaster was averted, and the town was saved.[1]
- In 1797, the miracle of the image of the Madonna of Paradise (Madonna del Paradiso), Mazara del Vallo, Trapani, Sicily, Italy[2]: around 9 pm, Our Lady, with a sorrowful appearance, turned her eyes towards the people gathered. For the next several days, the image opened and closed her eyes, and looked right and left.[3] It seems that this was done in solidarity with the sufferings of those present.
- In Hegge, Germany, in 1940, the last apparition of the Queen of the Universe and Queen of Poor Souls[4]
- In 1637, in the convent of the Discalced Augustinians in Paris, Our Lady appeared to Brother Fiacre de Sainte-Marguerite at 2 am. The brother was praying matins when he heard a baby crying. Looking around, he saw the Queen of Heaven with a child. Her message was: “I am the Mother of God, and the child you see is the Dauphin God wants to give France.” After instructing the brother to tell the Queen to pray three novenas, the brother passed along the instruction. Nine months after the novenas ended, the Queen, childless after 22 years of marriage, gave birth to the future Louis XIV.[5]
Meditation:
- When we hear of Our Lady’s miraculous interventions that save the lives of those who are devoted to her, we’re reminded that She is truly a mother. Even more than just saving the physical lives of those who love her, She is concerned with saving their immortal souls from the eternal death of hell. We see this in a particular way with the scapular; this traditional devotion of wearing an image of our Lady over the shoulders is “an external symbol of [our] internal devotion and dependence on the Mother of Jesus.” We shouldn’t underestimate our Mother’s love for us. In fact, writing about the scapular, Pope Pius XII said: “How many souls even in circumstances which, humanly speaking, were beyond hope, have owed their final conversion and their eternal salvation to the Scapular which they were wearing! How many more, thanks to it, have experienced the motherly protection of Mary in dangers of body and soul.” We can ask ourselves: do we really trust in Mary’s maternal care and protection for us? Do we wear our scapulars, and think of Mary when we put it on? Do we try to live lives that are Marian, lives that are worthy of our Mother in Heaven?[6]
[1] Orsini – Barthe – Hahn, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 553; http://www.infobretagne.com/rennes-notredame-culte.htm.
[2] https://immaculate.one/la-madonna-del-giorno-3-novembre-1797-madonna-del-paradiso-mazara-del-vallo-trapani-sicilia-italia/
[3]http://www.mariadinazareth.it/Immagini%20Miracolose/Madonna%20del%20Paradiso/Maria%20SS%20del%20Paradiso.htm
[4] https://immaculate.one/la-madonna-del-giorno-1-novembre-1937-3-novembre-1940-regina-delluniverso-e-regina-delle-povere-anime-di-heede-germania/
[5] https://www.wherewewalked.info/feasts/11-November/11-03.htm
[6] See Miravalle, Introduction to Mary, 174.
