Since the Apostolic Age, Christians have turned with great confidence to the Blessed Virgin Mary for spiritual and temporal help. Our Lady's solicitude at the Wedding Feast at Cana manifests this maternal trait of anticipating the needs of her children. Mary notices that the young couple has run out of wine at their wedding feast. No one had said a word about it to her, yet she mentions the plight of the married couple with tact and delicacy to her Son. And our Lord hears and answers her prayer!
The tradition of this advocation goes back to 1571, when the whole of Christendom was saved by Mary, Help of Christians when Catholics throughout Europe prayed the Rosary. Pope St. Pius V inserted the title of Help of Christians in the litany of Loreto in 1571 in thanksgiving to Our Lady for the victory of the inferior Christian fleet over the Muslim Turks at the Battle of Lepanto. Centuries later, Pope Pius VII was imprisoned by Napoleon in 1808, but after the battle of Leipzig, the 74-year-old Pontiff was once more set free, and in 1814 he returned to Rome in triumph. After Napoleon's "Hundred Days" had been brought to an end in 1815 by the allied victory at Waterloo, Pius VII instituted the Feast of Mary, Help of Christians in thanksgiving to God and the Blessed Virgin, and to commemorate the anniversary of his return from Napoleonic captivity.
The church has traditionally focused on two aspects of Our Lady's help on this feast day. Firstly, the church focuses in this feast on the role of Our Lady's intercession in the fight against sin in the life of a believer. Secondly, the church focuses on Our Lady as one who assists Christians as a community, through her intercession, in fighting against anti-Christian forces. St. John Chrysostom was the first person to use the Marian title: Mary, the Help of Christians, in 345 AD.
The devotion to Mary under this title was later fostered and popularized by St. Don Bosco, who had a very deep devotion to Mary, Help of Christians. He even erected a Basilica in her honor under that title in Turin in 1868. Later, in 1872, he founded the Salesian Sisters under her patronage, namely the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. St. John Bosco said, "May the Blessed Virgin help us to be faithful to the teachings of the Church and obtain for us the grace of perseverance in serving God on this earth, so as to join her one day in the kingdom of heavenly glory." At the foot of the cross, Mary was formally commissioned by Our Lord himself to take care of all the redeemed. "Woman, behold thy son" (Jn 19:26). St. Bridget once heard our Lord say to his Immaculate Mother, Mary, "I promise to hear graciously all who ask a favour of me in your name, even if they are sinners, provided that they have the will to amend their ways."
Mary, Help of Christians, throughout history, you have aided in defending the Christian faith. We humbly seek your intercession, asking for deliverance from infidelity and the fortitude to persevere in living an authentically Christian life free from sin.
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love (Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)
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