The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-10-16
THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

By the will of the Supreme Pontiff Piux X the
month of October is, in especial manner, time
OF devotion to the Mother of God And why Octo-
berl Because it is the time when the leaves fall and
die, reminding us that we too, must pass away. The
pray for us sinners, and at the hour of death
is an appeal to the Blessed Virgin to intercede for
us with her Divine Son, especially when we are in
our agony and can no longer help ourselves It is
cry for help in that hour of our utter heplessness
and the falling leaves remind us to redouble orr
prayers to the Virgin-Mother of Our Lord.
But there is another motive for appealing for
devotion to the Mother of God during the month
OF October. In 1911, in the pontificate of Plus V
the Turks threatened the conquest of Europe. The
ascendancy of the Ottoman empire was already So
cured i'll the Mediterranean sea- Hungary and
Greece had fallen and the Turks we're laundering at
the gates of the Austrian capital On the morning
of Oct. Z, 1871 the combined fleets of Spain. Ven
ice, Genoa and Malta, under the command of John
OF Austria, were maneuvering for position in sea
battle with the whole maritime force of the Turks
1t the Turks won this battle, Europe was doomed
That morning Plus " the Supreme Pontiff of all
Christendom, placed the Christian fleet under the
protection of the Blessed Virgin and in solemn pro-
cession through the streets of Rome invoked her aid
on behalf of Christian Europe. The engagement
took place at Lepanto, near Corinth, Greece. and
resulted in the destruction of the Ottoman fleet.
This battle completely checked the advance of the
Turks; their land forces were defeated their armv
rolled back from Austrian territory. and Eurone
avenged The Pontiff after this victory or
dered that IN the Lltany of the Blessed Virgin for
all time, the invocation, "Help of Christians
should be pronounced Pope Gregory XIII. 1872.
to commemorate the great victory the conversion Of
the Albigenees and the introduction of the Rosary
by st. Dominicl in this month of October. 1871 in
troduced the office and the mass of the Most HOLY
Rosary and appointed the first Sunday in October
as the day for the celebration of the feast.
We are reading Leckys "History of Rational.
ism in Europe" and we lay down the fascna+;n,
book to copy for our readers what this non-Ca+hoc
historian says on the effect of the Devotion r. tho
Blessed Virgin during the ages of Faith y Mr.
Lecky writes:
The world is governed by its ideals and soldo,,,
or never has there been one which has exoro;sod
more profound, and, on the whole moro so1,,tor,,
influence than the medieval devotion 70 +ha
blessed virgin. For the first time woman was ele
waited to her rightfu position and the sanctitv Of
weakness was recognized as well as the sanct;t of
sorrow.
mo longer the slave or the toy of man, no long
r associated only with ideas of degradation and
casualty woman rose in the person of the Viro;n
Mother into new sphere, and became the obioct
# reverential homage of which antiouitv had 80
The moral charm and beauty of female excel
ence was, for the first time felt A o-
haracter was called into being, new kind of adj
llratlon was fostered Into harsh and ignorant
nd benighted age, this ideal type of Virgin
lother infused conception of gentleness and of