October is designated the Marian month honoring Our Lady of the Rosary

In the Roman Catholic tradition, October is a Marian month because she is honored for her intercession as Our Lady of the Victories*. October is also commonly known by most Roman Catholics as the month dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary**

Echo essay by Aleksandar Mishkov published on line at DocumentaryTube.com.

Our Lady of Victory

Mary, or the Virgin Mary, or Saint Mary is one of the most controversial woman in the history of religion.

In the New Testament, Mary is the mother of Jesus. She was an ordinary Jewish woman of Nazareth, and she was impregnated by God in a sinless way. Protestants believe she was not sinless, while Catholics and Orthodox Christians honor her virginity. She is known also as Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Mary and Virgin Mary. Here are some interesting facts you need to know about the woman.

Infant Jesus of Prague alter shrine in the Our Lady of Victories church in Prague Czechoslovakia. (Kostel Panny Marie Vítězné, also referred as the Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague.)

What we know about Mary? We know almost everything Mary-related from the New Testament. The only people in the New Testament that are mentioned more are Jesus, Peter, Paul and John. 

People who read the New Testament know her husband Joseph, her relatives Zechariah and Elizabeth. We also know Magnificat, the song she sang. The Holy Book also states she traveled from Galilee to the hill country and to Bethlehem. We know that she and her husband visited the temple where baby boy Jesus was dedicated when Jesus was 12 years old.  (? She walked from Nazareth to Capernaum carrying her children with her to visit Jesus? Hmmm, first I ever heard about that New Testament report!)

And we know she was at the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem.

Mary- The woman with courage and strategy. In Western Christian art, Mary is most often portrayed as a pious person. Yet, Mary of the Gospels is a completely different person. Mary tried to protect Jesus from getting in trouble, and she took charge when found out what was going to happen to Jesus. She was the one constantly pushing and pressing Jesus to provide wine, and she approached him when Jesus was left behind at the temple.

The Immaculate Conception (This report by Mishkov omits the Marian message given to Saint Bernadette when she described the Lourdes, France apparitions, beginning in February 1858 and ending on July 16, 1858. Speaking to Bernadette in the local Lourdes patois, she said 'I am the Immaculate Conception'. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception had been proclaimed only a few years before, in 1854. Bernadette saw her last apparition on July 16th, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.)

Pope Benedict XVI at the Lourdes shrine in the grotto where Bernadette experienced the Marian apparitions.

One of the most controversial theories surrounding Mary is the Immaculate Conception. According to the New Testament, the conception does not refer to her sexual condition when she gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. The belief among Catholics is that she became pregnant by a miracle, not by a sexual intercourse. That way, she is believed to be sinless, which makes her a suitable mother for the Son of God. The belief is that she was immaculated by an act of God.

Mary and her Virginity. Whether Mary is sinless and her virginity are the two key areas of conflict among believers. According to Protestants, for example, only Jesus was sinless. Protestants also believe that Mary had other children with her husband Joseph in the normal manner, before she gave birth to Jesus. Catholic tradition, on the other hand, teaches that she was sinless and she was perpetually virgin. The conflict can never be settled, as there is no proof of her sinlessness in the Bible. The sinless aspect of Mary is a matter of church tradition. However, her virginity can be proved by Matthew’s Gospel. In it, Matthew writes “Joseph had no marital relations with her until she had born a son”.

Both Protestants and Catholics are correct. When it comes to Mary, Protestants believe that Catholics overdo it with her. Catholics, on the other hand, believe that Protestants ignore Mary. And in an interesting way, both are right. Some Catholics emphasize Mary in a way that one can think of her as a divine person, which for Protestants is wrong, since they believe it is taking glory from Jesus. Protestants base their beliefs of Jesus, Mary and everything religion related only on the Bible, while Catholics base their beliefs on the bible and the tradition by the Roman Catholic Church.

Mary and the Qur'an- Written in the Qur’an, or the Holy Book of Islam, Mary is honored in more ways than the Bible. In fact, she is honored as the only woman in the book that has a whole chapter titled after her. The chapter “Maryam” refers to Virgin Mary, where she is singularly distinguished. What is even more interesting, Mary is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than in the New Testament.

Mary's concern for economic justice- In a letter to James, Mary shows and echoes her concern for economic justice. In the letter, she writes “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world”. The letter shows that Mary knew poverty and believed that religion should take care of people in need.

Mary's Death- There is no word in the Bible about Mary’s death. With that being said, everything we know or don’t know about her death, comes from apocryphal narratives. There are many stories flourishing, but many stick to the same story, describing her last days, her funeral, burial and resurrection. In almost all of the stories, Mary has been resurrected by Jesus and welcomed into heaven. One of the most popular versions describing Mary’s death is the early story by bishop John of Thessalonica. In the story, an Angel tells Mary that she will die in three days. She then summons relatives and friends to stay with her for two nights, and they sing instead of mourning. Three days after the funeral, same as with Jesus, the apostles opened her sarcophagus, only to found that she was taken away by her son, Jesus Christ.

*Regarding the month of October, October 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. That day and, apparently by extension, the month of October, was chosen to honor Our Lady of the Rosary, because on October 7th, a great victory took place. 

In October 1571, the Church in Europe faced a seemingly hopeless challenge. The Muslim Turks had already conquered the Middle East, slaughtering millions and forcing the survivors to convert to Islam. They then moved across the Mediterranean Sea, taking the crucial islands of Crete and Cyprus. From these islands, they set their sights on the Christian kingdoms of the central Mediterranean, threatening Sicily, Venice, and even Rome herself.

Pope Pius V called on the Christian princes of Europe to rally to defeat the Islamic threat. In addition, he called on rosary confraternities in Rome and all over Europe to undertake special processions and public recitation of the Rosary, asking the intercession of the Blessed Mother. What ensued was the famous Battle of Lepanto. The Christian fleet was far outnumbered and appeared to have no human hope of winning. On the first Sunday of October 1571, the Christian fleet met the invading Muslims off the coast of Greece in the Gulf of Lepanto.

As Christians all over Europe prayed for Our Lady’s intercession, the Turks surrounded the Christian ships. But the European fleet broke through. By days’ end, almost all of the Turks were driven to shore or drowned. Europe was saved. Pope Pius established an annual commemoration to honor Our Lady of Victory, and his successor, Gregory XIII, decreed that the first Sunday in October would be the feast of the Holy Rosary.

**In fact, the Rosary is one of the most cherished prayers of our Catholic Church. Tradition tells us that St. Dominic (d. 1221) devised the Rosary as we know it.