MARY IN HISTORY 5

Mother of Mercy
One more stage in the journey of Traces to discover Mary’s incidence in history: Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America; Guadalupe, Lepanto and Loreto; the growth of pilgrimages in the age of the Protestant Reformationby Fidel González

October 12, 1492. The lookout on the mast of the Santa Maria cries out, “Land Ahoy!” Christopher Columbus starts and says, “We’ve reached the Indies.” He didn’t know yet that he had discovered the New World and opened new horizons. After him, other adventurers would sail the Ocean–ambitious and, at times, unscrupulous men, but who were, after all, “Christian sinners,” as Taviani wrote, speaking of Columbus himself. It is a description that fits almost all of them. Pizzarro would die tracing a cross on the ground with his own blood. Cortes wanted his flag to bear a cross, with the writing “In hoc signo vinces” on one side and an image of Our Lady on the other. Mary’s name was given to many cities and regions in the New World. Mary, as Mother of Mercy, is invoked particularly in that historical moment when different cultures and religions were coming into contact. Mexico was to witness one of its most painful moments, in which the indigenous world and the Spanish world would find themselves in armed conflict. There seemed no way to peaceful coexistence, so much so that the religious Fra Turibio de Benevente Motolina wrote to the Spanish Emperor Charles V, acknowledging the impotence of the missionaries to prevent the disaster. Only the faith of Our Lady and her intercession would be able to change the situation. The friar writes, “That land was so ruined by the afore-mentioned wars and the woes, that many homes were destroyed and abandoned. Not a place was left where sorrow and weeping could not be seen. This went on for many years, and to remedy so much evil, the friars had recourse to the Blessed Virgin Mary, star of the lost and consolation of the afflicted.” Our Lady, Mother of Mercy, heard their prayers, and answered much more powerfully than they could have imagined, as always.

The cloak of roses
December 1531. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, a recently baptized Indio, is on his way to the nearby Franciscan mission. Not far from Mexico City, on a hill called Tepeyac–a place consecrated to the cult of the indigenous deity Tonantzin, which had to be fed with horrible human sacrifices–the Mother of Jesus appears to him. She introduces herself, saying, “I am the Mother of Him for Whom we live,” quoting a verse by one of the greatest poets of ancient Mexico. The Virgin then tells him to go to the bishop, the Franciscan Juan de Zumarraga, and ask him to build in that place “a house, a home, a temple” for her Son and for herself, a dwelling where all can be welcomed, because she wants to wipe away all tears, since she is the mother of all. Lastly, she orders Juan Diego to collect roses (flowers unknown in that place), and to carry them in his mantle to the bishop, as a divine sign. In the half-caste face of Our Lady of Guadalupe, takes place the miracle of the encounter between two worlds.

The Battle of Lepanto
Not only is there war in the New World. The Ottoman Empire is threatening Europe, and reaches the gates of Vienna, holding the city under siege. Christendom is in danger. In the second half of the fourteenth century, the confrontation becomes dramatic. Tunisia, Cyprus and other Christian lands are in Turkish control. Philip II fears an attack on Spain. It’s time to act, to resist. The Holy League is formed, uniting Spain, Venice and the Holy See under Pius V. The Christian fleet is under the command of John of Austria, Philip II’s brother. On his masthead is the flag, today kept in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, with the image of Our Lady to whom he had entrusted the difficult task. On October 7, 1571, the two fleets face each other; in Rome the Pope is on his knees saying the Rosary, asking Our Lady’s intercession. Even before the news arrives, the Pope has a vision telling him the outcome of the battle. At Lepanto, the victory has gone to Christendom. Our Lady has listened. From that moment, the Turkish threat fades away; Europe is saved. In the following year, Pius V institutes the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, to be held on October 7th.

The Holy House of Loreto
These are tragic years, due to war, famine and plague, but Our Lady makes her presence felt. Throughout Europe, news abounds of miracles worked by the Mother of Jesus, and often these things happen apparently “by chance.” They are pure graces bestowed through apparitions to children and shepherds, or through the discovery of Marian icons. Shrines, chapels and churches become places of pilgrimage, where people gather to pray to the Mystery that makes itself so clearly present. The places where shrines are built are indicated often by Jesus Himself, by Our Lady or by saints in all kinds of different ways–through the discovery of a miraculous image, through roses that bloom in midwinter, or through a statue that sheds real tears. There the faithful go to pray and ask for miracles.
In 1473, we find the first account of the transportation of the house of Nazareth from the Holy Land, the Holy House of Loreto. The mystery celebrated at Loreto stresses above all the Fact of the incarnation of the Word in Mary’s womb. It is not by chance that it is the Jesuits in America who will spread the devotion of Loreto, and will build many churches dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, giving her name to many of their missions.

The Name of Mary
The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries witnessed a change in some aspects of Marian devotion. Some new feasts of Our Lady are instituted, like Our Lady’s Betrothal, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Our Lady of Grace and Mary’s Expectation. Whole religious families will espouse a particular Marian piety and become heralds of Marian devotion, such as the Cistercians, the Dominicans, the Servites and the Franciscans. New groups of consecrated life, too, will spring up with Mary as their point of reference. And amongst the people, more and more children will be given the name of God’s mother at baptism.
In an age in which the crisis in the European consciousness witnessed tragic consequences for Christendom with the break-up caused by Protestantism, the most important phenomenon is the increase in the number of pilgrimages. The Protestant contestations and the humanistic currents have little effect on this; the faithful continue to visit the shrines. In his autobiography, written in 1553, St Ignatius Loyola signs his name as “pilgrim,” since the pilgrimage was the pivotal point in his experience of conversion. It was precisely at Montserrat in Catalonia, at the shrine of Our Lady, that he offered his sword along with all the symbols of his noble birth. Pilgrims would go to visit Our Lady in the places where she made her presence felt, so as to obtain graces or to ask for conversion. The Mother of God always answers.
(In collaboration with Paola Bergamini)