Mary Help of Christians

Biography

Pope Pius V called on the Catholic Princes to come out to defend their religious colleagues. The two armies met in the Gulf of Lepanto; the number of ships and soldiers was much smaller on the Christian side. Before the battle, the soldiers confessed, heard the Holy Mass, took communion, prayed the Rosary and sang a song to the Mother of God. Also in Rome, the Pope, with a large crowd of faithful, walked the streets of Rome praying the Holy Rosary. Upon learning of the victory of the Christians, thanks in part to the wind that changed course and favored them, the Pope ordered that from now on every year the feast of the Holy Rosary be celebrated on October 7 and that this prayer be always prayed in the litanies: Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us. In the year 1868, the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians was consecrated in Turin, Italy. The Holy Virgin had appeared in a dream to Saint John Bosco asking him to build her a temple and to invoke her with the title of Help of Christians. He began the temple work with three twenty-cent pieces. But there were so many miracles that Mary Help of Christians began to perform for her devotees, that in just four years the great Basilica was completed. The saint used to repeat: “Each brick of this temple corresponds to a miracle of the Holy Virgin.” Saint John advised that we repeat this ejaculation many times: “Mary Help of Christians, pray for us.”