Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/393

 OUR LADY

361

OUR LADY

of the Church after 8o much agony and distress to the Blessed Virgin, visited many of her sanctuaries on the way and crowned her images (e. g. the "Madonna del Monte" at Cesena, "della Misericordia" at Treja, " della Colonne " and "della Tempest^" at Toleutino). The people crowded the streets to catch a glimpse of t?ie venerable pontiff who had so bravely withstood the threats of Napoleon. He entered Rome, 24 May, 1814, and was enthusiastically welcomed (McCaffrey, "History of the Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Cent.", 1909, I, 52). To commemorate his own suf- ferings and those of the Church during his exile he extended the feast of the Seven Dolours of Mary (third Sunday in September) to the universal Church, 18 Sept., 1814. When Napoleon left Elba and returned to Paris, Murat was about to march through the Papal States from' Naples; Pius VII fled to Savona (22 March, 1815), where he crowned the image of our Lady of Mercy, 10 May, 1815. After the Congress of Vienna and the battle of Waterloo he returned to Rome, 7 July, 1815. To give thanks to God and Our Lady he (15 Sept., 1815) instituted for the Papal States the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, to be celebrated, 24 May, the anniversary of his first re- turn. The Dioceses of Tuscany adopted it, 12 Feb., 1816; it has spread nearly over the entire Latin Church, but is not contained in the universal calendar. The hymns of the Office were composed by Brandi- marte (Chevalier, "Repert. Hymnolog.", II, 495). This feast is the patronal feast of Australasia, a double of the first class with an octave (Ordo Australasias, 1888), and in accordance with a vow (1891) is cele- brated with great splendour in the churches of the Fathers of the Foreign Missions of Paris. It has attained special celebrity since the Ven. Dora Bosco, founder of the Salesian Congregation, 9 June, 1868, dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Christians, the mother church of his congregation at Turin. The Salesian Fathers have carried the devotion to their numerous establishments.

HOLWECK, Fasti Mariani (Freiburg, 1892) ; Gu^RANGER, Lit-dT~ pirai !/tar, 24 May. F. G. HoLWECK.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, Feast of. — Records dating from the reign of Paul II (1464-71) relate that the picture of Our Lady, at first called " La Madonna del Paradiso" and now better known as "Madonna del Buon Consiglio", appeared at Genazzano, a town about twenty-five miles southeast of Rome, on St. Mark's Day. 25 April, 1467, in the old church of Santa Maria, which had been under the care of Augustinians since 1356. The venerated icon itself, which is drawn on a thin scale of wall-plaster httle thicker than a visiting-card, was observed to hang suspended in the air without the slightest apparent support ; thus early tradition, which furthermore tells how one might have passed a thread around the image without touching it. At once devotion to Our Lady in Santa Maria sprang up; pilgrim-bands began to resort thither; while miracles in ever-increasing numbers, of which a register was opened two days after the event, were wrought, as they still continue to be, at the shrine. In July following. Pope Paul deputed two bishops to investigate the alleged wonder-working image. Their report, however, is not known to be extant. The cult of Our Lady increased. In 1630 Urban VIII him.self went to Genazzano on a pilgrimage, as did Pius IX in 1864. On 17 Nov., 1682, Innocent XI had the pic- ture crowned with gold by the Vatican Basilica. In 1727 Benedict XIII granted the clergy of Genazzano an Office and Mass of Our Lady for 25 April, anniver- sary of the apparition, elsewhere the feast being kept a day later so as not to conflict with that of St. Mark the Evangelist. On 2 July, 1753, Benedict XIV ap- proved of the Pious Union of Our Lady of Good Coun- sel for the faithful at large, and was himself enrolled therein as its pioneer member; Pius IX was a member,

and also Leo XIII. On 18 Dec, 1779, Pius VI, while re-approving the cult of Our Lady, granted all Augus- tinians an Office with hymns, lessons, prayer, and Mass proper of double-major rite; with a plenary in- dulgence also for the faithful, to which Pius VIII added another for visitors to the shrine. On 18 Dec, 1884, Leo XIII approved of a new Office and Mass of second-class rite for all Augustinians, while on 17 March, 1903, he elevated the church of Santa Maria — • one of the four parish churches at Genazzano — to the rank of minor basilica; and, on 22 April following, authorized the insertion in the Litany of Loreto of the invocation "Mater Boni Consilii" to follow that of "Mater Admirabilis". The same pontiff, ten years earlier (21 Dec, 1893) had sanctioned the use of the White Scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel for the faithful. In the United States there are many churches and institutions in honour of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

NoRTHCOTE, Celebrated Sanctuaries (Philadelphia, 1868) ; Dil- lon, The Virgin Mother of Good Counsel (Rome, 1884) ; Bennett, Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano (New York, 1888) ; GouGH, Our Lady of Good Counsel (London, 1894) ; Vanutelh, Cenni Storici. ., di Genazzano (Roma, 1839) : Buonanno, Delia Immagine di Maria SSa. . . . memorie storiche (Naples, 1874); PiFFERl, Relatione. . . del Saniuario (Roma. 1903); De Orgio, Istoriche notizie della prodigiosa Apparizione (n. p. n. d.).

Thomas C. Middleton.

Our Lady of the Fields, Brothers op, a Cana- dian congregation founded in 1902 at St-Damien de Buckland in the Diocese of Quebec by Rev. M. J.-O. Brousseau. Its object is to train orphans in industrial and agricultural pursuits, and the arts of colonization. The Sisters of Notre Dame of Perpetual Help, also founded by Rev. M. J.-O. Brousseau in 1892, care for the orphans up to the age of twelve years: they are then confided to the care of the Brothers for the pur- poses above indicated. The mother-house is at St- Damien, Bellechasse Co., Lac Vert, P. Q., Canada. There are at present six brothers and four novices.

Our Lady of the Snow, Feast of ("Dedicatio Sancta- Maria; ad Nives"), a feast celebrated on 5 August to commemorate the dedication of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The church was originally built by Pope lii- berius (352-366) and was called after him "Basilica Liberii" or "Liberiana". It was restored by Pope Sixtus III (432-440) and dedicated to Our Lady. From that time on it was known as "Basihca S. Ma- riae" or "Marise Majoris"; since the seventh century it was known also as "Maria ad Pni'sepe". The ap- pellation "ad Nives" (of the snow) (irJKinated a few hundred years later, as did also the Ic^jcnd which gave this name to the church. The legend runs thus: Dur- ing the pontificate of Liberius, the Roman patrician John and his wife, who were without heirs, made a vow to donate their possessions to Our Lady. They prayed her that she might make known to them in what man- ner they were to dispose of their property in her hon- our. On 5 August, during the night, snow fell on the summit of the Esquiline Hill and, in obedience to a vision which they had the same night, they built a basilica, in honour of Our Lady, on the spot which was covered with snow. From the fact that no mention whatever is made of this alleged miracle until a few hundred years later, not even by Sixtus III in his eight-lined dedicatory inscription (edited by de Rossi, "Inscript. christ.",II, i (Rome, ISS.S), 71 ; Grisar (who has failed to authenticate the alleged miracle), "Ana- lecta Romana", I (Rome, 1900), 77; Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis", I (Paris, 1886), 235; Marucchi, "Ele- ments d'arch^ologiechrdtienne", III (Paris and Rome, 1902), 155, etc] it would sccrii that the legend has no historical basis. Originally the feast was cele- brated only at Sta Maria Maggiore; in the fourteenth century it was extended to all the churches of Rome and finally it was made a universal feast by Pius V.