Chapter 9/48 – Our Lady Protectress of Austria, Brazil and the World

 

In the 1200s a certain monk named Magnus, departed from the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Lambrecht, to reach Mariazell in the region of Styria, Austria. Magnus carried a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was carved out of linden wood. In 1200 he built the first church in honor of the ‘Mater Gentium Slavorum.’ In 1370, following the victory against the Ottoman powers, King Louis rebuilt a church on the same site. The ‘Magna Mater Austriae’ is the Basilica, which today stands at the site and was erected in the seventeenth century. In September 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Mariazell and at this shrine, His Holiness invoked Our Lady’s Motherly aid.

The Austrian born Adolf Hitler, embarked on his invasion of Austria in March 1938, with the intention of joining both the Austrian and German Nations into one country. In 1943, following the end of the Second World War, the Allies split Germany and Austria into four zones, each zone was handed over to the victors; the USA, England, France and the USSR. The Soviets held their grip on many countries, including; Bulgaria, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the newly formed German Democratic Republic. The world was steeped into the Cold War, set between the world’s Western and Eastern hemispheres. In this period, a priest by the name of Father Petrus Pavlicek would help galvanize a complete change in the Austrian political scene. He performed a pilgrimage to the ancient site of Mariazell and on February 2, 1946, on the Feast of ‘Our Lady of Lights,’ the priest ardently prayed to the Blessed Virgin for a sign or an instruction, for the protection and deliverance of Soviet dominated Austria. Father Pavlicek founded a ‘Rosary Crusade of Reparation’ in honor of Our Lady of Fatima. In 1947, the Rosary Crusade was underway and the people particularly prayed for the liberation of their land from Communist Soviet rule. The Bishop of Leira, Portugal, donated a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, for the Rosary Crusade. The statue had been crafted by the same artist who sculpted the original Statue of the Blessed Virgin.

Father Pavlicek preached for the conversion of sinners and heard countless confessions, he would stay for three days at a stretch in the confessional booth, ministering the Sacrament of Reconciliation and absolving people’s sins. In 1948 the priest conducted his famous crusading acts of reparation, in a Capuchin Church in Vienna. The crusading acts consisted of the celebration of Holy Mass, sermons, the blessing of the sick and infirm, confessions and the recitation of the Holy Rosary. One crusading act usually lasted for five days, for Father Pavlicek said that, ‘Peace’ was a gift from God and not from politicians and it must be sought assiduously with prayer, repentance and a sincere change of life. On the 13th of each month, processions with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima were conducted. On September 12, the Feast of the ‘Holy Name of Mary,’ he invited all Austrians in every town to conduct processions. This particular feast was selected for it was the feast day Pope Innocent XI had instituted in 1683, following the victory against the Ottoman Empire in Vienna. Austria’s Prime Minister, Leopold Figl, together with the ministers of his cabinet, joined Father Pavlicek and with candle and Rosaries in hand, they all recited the Holy Rosary. In 1953, Julius Raab, the successor of Leopold Figl, also joined Father Pavlicek in the processions.

The prayers to the Lord and the pledges of countless of Austrians, Germans and Swiss, who recited the Rosary to Our Lady of Fatima for the conversion of sinners, peace in the world and the freedom of Austria, kept storming heaven for six years. In London approximately two hundred and sixty meetings between the allies, attempting at forging a sustainable peace, took place. These meetings all resulted in failure. However, on March 24, 1955, the Soviets announced that their forces were to be removed from Austria and on May 15, the Allies signed a treaty for Austrian Independence. The last Communist soldier left Austria on October 26, 1955. On September 12, Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, thousands gathered at Vienna and marched with their Holy Rosaries thanking Our Lady of Fatima for her intercession. The Austrian Prime Minister, Julius Raab said: “Today, we, whose hearts are full of faith, cry out to Heaven in joyful prayer: We are free. O Mary, we thank thee!”(1) The Austrian Nation was victorious through the powerful intercession of Our Lady, and this country achieved what its neighbor could not. One year following the Austrian peaceful victory, Hungary attempted an armed uprising against Soviet domination. 2500 Hungarians perished in a blood bath, crushed by the Russian Communist forces. The German mystic, Therese Neuman, who was for ten years nourished solely on the Holy Eucharist, said that it was definitely the prayers of the Austrians and their determination at reciting the Holy Rosary, which earned their liberation. According to Therese Neuman, the liberation was an astonishing achievement for Austria. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ‘Rosary Crusading Acts of Reparation,’ which began with the efforts of Fr Pavlicek, before an audience of thirty thousand people, an Austrian Bishop declared: “Just as Austria was freed from the Communist yoke by the fervent recitation of the Rosary, it will be in like manner by the arm of the Rosary that the world will be freed from the present assaults of the devil and his associates.”(2)

Communism held sway on the Soviet States, China, Vietnam, Korea, Spain, Mexico and Cuba. As Our Lady had very well stated at Fatima in 1917, the Russian errors did propagate throughout the world. In the 1960s, Marxist ideologists were gaining ground in Brazil. Public policies and education were styled upon the atheistic, communist and humanistic thought. In 1964, with the intention of reproducing the Cuban Communist order Joao Goulart, the Brazilian President, attempted to bring a Communist government to power. Apart from the government officials backing his plan, his infiltrated agents in unions, universities, factories and schools, were ready set for a revolution. In 1965, Father Patrick Peyton, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, in the hope of emulating an Austrian-like victory, preached persistently for the accomplishment of a Rosary Crusade throughout Brazil. The Brazilian women were the first to respond to Father Patrick’s admonition; to turn to the Blessed Virgin with confidence in this hour of need for deliverance. Dona Amelia Basto coordinated a procession in Sao Paulo; an army of 600,000 women gathered to recite the Holy Rosary. In Belo Horizonte, 3,000 women gathered to disrupt the Cuban ambassador’s speech. As the women stormed in the conference hall, with Rosaries in hand and the ‘Ave Marias’ on their lips, they successfully interrupted Lionel Brizola’s speech craftily designed to entice and provoke the Brazilian people to revolt and support a Communist regime.

On March 13, 1964, President Goulart abolished Brazil’s Congress, amended the constitution and confiscated all industries and private enterprise. These political moves were in accordance with Karl Marx’s ‘Communist Manifesto.’ Invited to speak at the Soviet Supreme, Prestes boldly stated that: “…anyone who resisted communism in Brazil will have their heads cut off.”(3) On March 19, the Feast of Saint Joseph, a 1,000,000 strong protesting procession of women, armed with their Rosaries, marched through the streets of Sao Paulo, declared: “This immense and marvelous land which God has given us, is in extreme peril. We have allowed men with unlimited ambition, devoid of all Catholic Faith and scruples, to bring misery to our people, to destroy our economy, to perturb our social peace, to sow hatred and despair. They have infiltrated our nation, our administrations, our army, and even our Church, with servants of a totalitarianism which is foreign to us and which would destroy all that we hold dear…. Holy Mother of God, protect us from the fate that threatens us, and spare us the sufferings inflicted on the martyred women of Cuba, Poland, Hungary, and the other nations reduced to slavery.”(4) Luiz Carlos Prestes, the Leader of the Brazilian Communist Party and President Goulart, declared their victory. The Rosary Crusades raged on and were enjoined by hundreds and thousands of men and youth. Two hundred thousand men enrolled in the two thousand Marian congregations. The situation began to change immediately, Our Lady was responding to the prayers for intercession, President Goulart was loosing support from his own coalition of politicians and military leaders. On March 17, 1964, the ‘March of the Family for Freedom, with the help of God’ was organized. The Cardinal of Rio de Janeiro demanded the Catholic people to sincere repentance, receive the sacrament of Reconciliation and pray according to the spirit of Fatima. On March 31 of the same year, the communists were declared officially ‘defeated,’ and on March 26, to avoid a coup by the communists, the military moved against Goulart and democratic rule was restored. On April 2 the Brazilians flooded the streets in large populace numbers, thanking the Lord and Our Lady for the victory granted to their country over the Communist Red Dragon. The promoter of Marian confraternities of Brazil, Father Valerio Alberton, personally wished to pay homage and thanksgiving to Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. There he said: “We have overcome, thanks to Our Lady of the Rosary. It is the message of Fatima, lived in Brazil, which just saved us in time.”(5)

In the 1970s, the American Bishop Sheen preached that: “The trouble with the world today is that there are not enough rosaries being prayed!” A century earlier on September 21, 1885, the future Saint Pius X wrote: “My dear children… because in our time a deplorable intellectual pride which refuses all submission, corrupts hearts, and saps Catholic morality, holds sway, there is no surer means of securing the triumph of the Faith than meditation of the mysteries of the Rosary.”(6) His Holiness Pope Saint Pius X was undoubtedly right, the victories described are veritable proof to the saint’s words. On May 13, 1917, the first apparitions at Fatima coincided with the consecration of the future Pope Pius XII, as Bishop. Once elected to the Chair of Peter, he twice attempted at consecrating Russia and the Russian people to the Immaculate Heart, on October 1942 and July 1952. On September 15, 1959, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, Khrushchev visited the United States. On September 29 and October 12, 1960, (Our Lady of the Pillar) the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, visited the New York head quarters of the United Nations. During the General Assembly, to state clearly his ideological point and hammering Soviet intentions to the world, Mr Khrushchev publicly took off one of his shoes and slammed it upon his podium, similarly, as a judge would use his hammer in court. His exhibitionism was in support to the adamant beliefs in atheism, the non-existence of the Christian God and the pledge of subjugating the United States and Europe, and the rest of the world, to Communist ideals. He interrupted the speeches held by British, Filipino and American representatives, stating that: “We will bury you!”(7) The Cold War was at its height.

It was during these days, previous to the Cuban crises, that the Polish Pope John Paul II authorized the Bishop in Leira, Fatima to invite the Bishops of the world, to pray the Holy Rosary at Fatima. On the same day, which Khrushchev chose to slam his shoe at the United Nations General Assembly, coincidentally the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Pillar, on October 12, 1960, the Catholic Bishops met at Fatima and prayed for Russia’s conversion and denouncement of communism. On October 24, 1960, the Nedelin catastrophe occurred, the Russian top-secret research facility of the R-16 intercontinental ballistic long-range missiles, blew-up. One hundred and twenty Communist military and scientific experts died in the accident. This was a severe set back for Soviet Russia, however, the R-16 was fully developed by the time of the Cuban Crises, albeit in short supply. On August 5, 1962, Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, the Soviet-Union detonated a 40-megaton nuclear bomb. On the Feast dedicated to the Purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, October 16, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crises occurred. The crises lead the world on the verge of a third conflagration, which was everted on October 22, when the Russians removed their nuclear arsenal from Cuba. This turn of events occurred on the Russian Orthodox Feast of Our Lady of Kazan. On August 5, 1963, Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, the USA and the USSR signed a treaty banning nuclear tests. On October 15, 1964, Brezhnev replaced Nikita Khrushchev and on September 11, 1971, Khrushchev died. His death occurred on the eve of the Feast dedicated to the Holy Name of Mary, September 12.

On May 13, 1982, for the 65^th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, Pope John Paul II traveled to Fatima. He consecrated the world to the Blessed Virgin Mary, however, Sr. Lucia reiterated that this consecration was not accepted. On the solemnity reserved for the Annunciation by Saint Gabriel, on March 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II: “…united with all the pastors of the Church in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college,” consecrated: “…the whole world, especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you (Our Lady) have particular love and solicitude,”(8) “…the consecration was fulfilled!”(9) said Sr. Lucia to the papal nuncio to Portugal. On March 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II invited the whole world to pray the Holy Rosary; His Holiness initiated a Rosary Crusade. On May 13, 1984, while large crowds in Fatima prayed the Holy Rosary for world peace and the conversion of Russia, another explosion took place at the Soviets’ Severomorsk Naval Base, destroying much of a missile depot and maintenance workshops, killing 200 scientists and skilled technicians belonging to the Soviets’ Northern Fleet. Certain estimates place the degree of destruction to 80% of Russian missiles, but this figure is not verifiable. This was the worst ‘peace time’ disaster for Communist USSR since the Second World War. Adding to the disasters, were the deaths of high-ranking communist officials. The Soviet Defense Minister, who abruptly died in December 1984, was devising secret invasion plans for Western Europe. Marshal Ustinov, the Minister of Defense died on December 20, 1984, he was succeeded by Sergei Leonidovich Sokolov, who was ‘relieved of his duties,’ in 1987. The Head of State, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, died on November 10, 1982, while the General Secretary of the Communist Republic, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, died on February 13, 1984, on the morrow of the Russian Feast dedicated to Our Lady of Iveron. One year after the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on March 10, 1985, Soviet Chairman President Konstantin Chernenko, died and Mikhial Gorbachev became the new President on March 11, 1985, just in time for the Feast of the Annunciation of March 15. In truth others died who belonged to the military machine, such as; Kiselyov, Pelshe, Rashidov and Suslov, while due to a process of reshuffling, many communist leaders retired or ‘were relieved of their duties’ such as; Kunayev, Sokolov and Aliyev. This reshuffling and change of government kept occurring for many more years. The explosions were confirmed as real accidents and not sabotage (such as the trans-Siberian gas pipeline ‘accident’ of June 1982, which prevented a cash strapped USSR from selling gas to Europe). President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met several times to reach agreements on non-nuclear proliferation and other issues. They met on October 11-12, 1986, Feasts of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Our Lady of the Pillar, in Iceland and on December 8, 1987, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in the USA. In 1988, they met once again on December 6-8.

On May 12, 1988, the eve of the apparitions at Fatima, many were praying the Holy Rosary at Fatima and throughout the world, yet another explosion blew up a communist Russian factory that produced the rocket engine for the long-range SS-24 missiles, which can each carry ten nuclear war heads. On August 29, 1989, Sr. Lucia re-affirmed that the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart: “…had been accomplished” and that “God will keep His word.”(10) The fall of the Berlin Wall occurred on November 9, 1989, in November and December 1989, there occurred the peaceful revolutions in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. On the Feast Day of the ‘Purification of Mary,’ February 2, 1945, the Island of Malta was chosen for the ‘Malta Conference,’ where previous to the Yalta meeting with Joseph Stalin, US President Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill met. On December 2-3, 1989, Feasts of ‘Our Lady of Liesse’ and ‘Our Lady, cause of Our Joy,’ US President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, met within weeks of the fall of the Berlin Wall, to discuss the rapid changes in Europe. The Summit of 1989, off the coast of Malta in a Soviet ship named the Maxim Gorky and the USS Belknap, signaled a reversal at many of the decisions and plans taken at the Yalta Conference in 1945. President Bush supported Gorbachev’s ‘Perestroika.’ The summit followed a series of arms-reduction treaties between the two superpowers, including Salt II in 1979 and the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty in 1987. Presidents Bush and Gorbachev went on to sign a treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe in November 1990, establishing parity between East and West, and the first of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (Start) in December 1991. On March 15, 1990, ‘Perestroika’ or ‘Restructuring’ was announced, Russian troops were pulled out from Afghanistan, the Soviet bloc governments were allowed to choose their own governments, Russian troops were also withdrawn from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Estonia, ‘Glasnost,’ the freedom of the press was introduced. Two days following the Russian Feast dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan (July 8), on July 10, 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia. He suppressed the ‘Communist coup of eight’ of August 19-21, 1991, where Gorbachev was held hostage. On the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on August 21, 1991, the coup leaders were arrested and Boris Yeltsin officially ended the Communist Soviet Party by suspending all party structures and seizing the party papers.

Finally, the much awaited confirmation, the Immaculate Heart of Mary indeed triumphed over the Soviet Communist machine and on the Feast Day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, August 22, 1991, the Russian people woke up in a Russia, which had no official Communist Party. The Russian Communist Party survived for 74 years in power; Christianity has survived for 2000 years. The guy who enjoyed slamming his shoe on the podium, at the United Nations International Assembly meetings in the 1960s, who affirmed his absolute belief in the atheistic principles of the USSR and the rejection and disbelief in the Christian God, was together with his Communist Party, vanquished by the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a victory which took place just thirty years following Nikita Khrushchev’s international public exhibitionism.

On October 13, 1991, Holy Mass from Fatima was shown live on Russian TV. In 1990 Eastern and Western Germany were unified and on Christmas Day 1991, the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics took place. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1991, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus formed the Commonwealth of Independent States. On Christmas Day, Gorbachev resigned and on January 1, the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, the USSR was formally dissolved. President Boris Yeltsin would go on to defeat other small battles such as the October 2-4, 1993, parliament uprising. The Feast of Our lady of the Rosary of October 7, 1993, was celebrated throughout the world.

The former President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, died on April 23, 2007, on the Feast Day of Saint George the ancient Roman Military Martyr. President Boris Yeltsin truly helped Russia overcome its ‘Red Dragon of Communism’ and suppressed the coup organized by the last Communist officials. The famous pictures taken on August 19, 1991, of Mr Yeltsin standing on a Russian tank and urging mass demonstrations, are forever immortalized in people’s minds not only in Russia but all over the world. Nevertheless, it is up to the Russian people to decide whether the comparison of President Boris Yeltsin with Saint George is indeed fitting.

On May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin made this clear point: “Pray the Rosary everyday in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war… If my wishes are fulfilled, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be annihilated.”(11) The solemnity of Fatima commemorated on May 13, is also reserved for the Feast of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament and the morrow of the non-universal solemnities such as Our Lady of the Abandonment and Our Lady of Grace, May 12. To summarize the meaning of these events, it can be safely concluded that the Holy Rosary is primarily the prayer of choice for bringing peace in the world. Politicians need not waste time pledging the elusive and ever promised ‘peace and security.’ Just as the Austrian Prime Ministers Julius Raab and his successor Leopold Figl have done, if contemprory politicians have at heart the well being of their people, let the leaders of age old Christian countries be they Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox, take in hand those beautiful Rosary Beads, humble themselves with such a simple, albeit, profound prayer and gaze upon a miraculous Image of Our beloved Mother, with confidence.