Blogs
Mary in the News: June 24, 2019
By Michael Duricy
Read recent items about Mary in both Catholic and secular news. Also, see International Marian Research Institute as well as Marian Library news and updates.
Marian Library and International Marian Research Institute Features
Updates
Marian Library Hiring Announcements
Henry Handley will be starting as Collections Librarian in the Marian Library on July 8, 2019.
Also, Jillian Ewalt is joining us as Lecturer/Librarian in the Marian Library. Jill's office will be in Roesch Library room 712.
Jillian is the 2019 recipient of the Sister M. Claude Lane, O.P., Memorial Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in conjunction with the Society of Southwest Archivists.
The award will be presented at a ceremony during the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Austin, Texas, July 31-Aug. 6, 2019. The award honors an archivist who has made a significant contribution to the field of religious archives.
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.
Marian Music online
Judith Lungen informed us about some Marian classical music that she found on the internet.
From the Marian Treasure Chest
Brother John Samaha, S.M., sent us the text below with the following comments: "July 5 is the feast of Our Lady of Refuge, Patroness of Both Californias."
Our Lady of Refuge: Patroness of Both Californias by Brother John Samaha, S.M.
Our Lady of Refuge, Nuestra Señora del Refugio, is Patroness of Both Californias (Ambas Californias). This festival is celebrated as an obligatory memorial on July 5 in California.
The Franciscan missionary Francisco Diego Garcia y Moreno was the first Bishop of the Californias--Baja California (lower California in what is now Mexico) and Alta California (upper California in the present U.S.A.). It was he who proclaimed Nuestra Señora del Refugio, Patrona de las Ambas Californias. The official proclamation was made by Bishop Garcia Diego on January 4, 1843, at Mission Santa Clara in Alta California.
The Episcopal Proclamation
The entire text of Bishop Garcia Diego's declaration is recorded in Mission Santa Clara's Libro de Patentes. After citing the early Fathers of the Church on the practice and spiritual benefits of naming patron saints, the first bishop of the Californias stated: "We make known to you that we hereby name the great Mother of God in her most precious title, 'del Refugio,' the principal patroness of our diocese … With so great a patroness and protectress, what can we not promise ourselves? What can be wanting and whom need we fear?
"If through the centuries this most worthy Mother of God has shown goodness and compassion to all peoples and nations … will she not do likewise for those peoples who bind themselves to her as their refuge and special patroness?"
All California missions, and the parishes established later, celebrated this patronal feast with great solemnity. In the many political and historical shifts, interest in celebrating the feast had waned. But now the feast is attracting fresh attention.
The Liturgical Feast
In 1981, the California Catholic Conference of Bishops petitioned the Vatican Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship for authorization to observe the feast of Our Lady of Refuge on July 5 as an obligatory memorial. This was approved by official document dated January 15, 1982, and signed by Archbishop Giuseppe Casoria.
The dioceses of Baja California celebrate this patronal feast on July 4. Because of Independence Day, the dioceses of Alta California chose July 5, and the memorial is listed for that day in their Ordo. The feast of Our Lady of Refuge (sometimes called Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners) has its own proper prayers for the Eucharistic Liturgy and the Liturgy of the Hours.
Over the last century and a half, the original Diocese of Ambas Californias has been divided many times on both sides of the border as the local Church has grown. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco prayed a special liturgical office for the feast of Our Lady of Refuge. In the Dioceses of San Diego the feast has always been observed.
The renewal of interest in this Marian feast honoring the patroness of the Golden State was stimulated by the 1987-1988 Marian Year observance and Pope John Paul II's encouragement to revitalize interest in special, local feasts of the Virgin Mother Mary.
The entire coat of arms of Bishop Garcia Diego included only the image of Our Lady of Refuge. A painting of Our Lady of Refuge holding her Child, usually the product of a local or native artist, graced each mission church after the bishop's proclamation. To this day, most of the twenty-one missions of Alta California still display this image in the churches or in their museums.
The original painting of Our Lady of Refuge came to the Franciscan Apostolic College of Guadalupe at Zacatecas in Mexico from Italy. An Italian Jesuit missionary brought it to Mexico to explain the enthusiastic interest in Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners, that had developed in parish missions in eighteenth century Italy. Devotion to the Mother of Jesus under this title and in this pictorial representation gained wide popularity among the Mexican and Californian Franciscans and the people they served.
Paintings of Our Lady of Refuge are, with few exceptions, quite similar in design and execution. The heads of the Infant Jesus and His Mother, Mary, lean together with no background between them. Both figures wear a crown. Mary's eyes are turned toward the observer, while the gaze of the child seems to turn left of the viewer.
In the Santa Clara Mission church, the painting of Our Lady of Refuge is found above the larger picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in one of the side altar niches on the left as one nears the sanctuary. Another painting by Eulalio, a local Native American, is on display in Santa Clara University's De Saisset Museum near the mission church.
Other known and attractive portrayals of Our Lady of Refuge are found at Mission Santa Barbara, Mission San Francisco de Asis, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, and the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
The proper name, Refugio, was and still is given to both male and female Mexican children at the time of birth and Baptism.
Church historians and native Californians applaud the move for restoring the Patroness of Both Californias to her original and rightful prominence in the local Church's liturgical calendar.
Marian Events
Title: Evening with the Saints
Theme: Our Lady of Fatima
Date: June 26, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
Location: Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 6245 Wilmington Pike Centerville, Ohio 45459-6639
The Parish Liturgy committee invites parisioners, 21 years or older, to learn more about Our Lady. Each night a speaker will talk about one of their Madonnas. This week's speaker will be Dr. Gloria Dodd from the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton.
Please RSVP no later than June 24, 2019. Contact Jane Moore by email at jmoore@sfacc.org.
Mary in the Catholic Press
Archbishop Follo: At Pentecost What Happened to the Virgin Mary Occurs to Us (Zenit) June 7, 2019
The Solemnity of Pentecost is the feast of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It is not the feast of the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity because it proceeds from the Father and the Son or from the Father for the Son in the intimate mystery of the divine life. On the contrary, it is the feast of the Spirit because the Holy Spirit has been given to us and has spread over the earth and because the Spirit is the gift of God, the gift of Himself that God has given us to live in our hearts....
Benedict XVI told the Consecrated Virgins: "Be by name and de facto maids of the Lord in imitation of the Mother of God" (RCV, 29) and invited them to persevere in giving God all of their being by indicating in the Virgin of Nazareth and in her "yes" the first extraordinary realization of this offer of self (cf. Audience to the Participants in the Congress of the "ORDO VIRGINUM" May 15, 2008). And six years ago, Pope Francis reminded them that the consecrated Virgins are "Icons of Mary and of the Church" (May 7th, 2013).
Mary in the Secular Press
Paris Archbishop Celebrates First Mass in Notre Dame Since Fire (Catholic Telegraph) June 19, 2019
The Archbishop of Paris wore a hard hat as he celebrated the first Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral since a huge blaze devastated the landmark building in April. The Mass was celebrated in the Chapel of the Virgin June 15 by Archbishop Michel Aupetit to mark the anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral's altar, an event that usually takes place June 16 each year. About thirty invited guests--mostly clergy, cathedral employees, and building contractors--wore protective headgear because of dangers of falling masonry, although the Virgin chapel, situated behind the choir, had been designated as safe.
In his homily, Archbishop Aupetit did not mention the fire, but stressed the purpose of Notre Dame as a place of Christian worship, and not an ornament of the secular state. He said the building could never be reduced to a cultural or "patrimonial good" and warned the congregation that if Jesus was removed as the cornerstone, it would collapse in a spiritual rather than a physical sense