By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
Miraculous Images of Our Lady by Joan Carroll Cruz (TAN Books, 488 pages, Kindle and paperback).
Miraculous Images of Our Lady examines one hundred famous portraits or statues of our Lady, which can be found in countries ranging from Argentina to the United States. The author restricts herself to the following categories when choosing particular images — that they must have had a miraculous origin, such as the Tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, or be composed of an unusual substance, or have bled or wept, or changed location, or have a reputation for miraculous favors.
Although some of the images chosen are exquisitely beautiful, some are quite commonplace in appearance, such as the original painting associated with the shrine at Pompeii in Italy. And it is Italy, with its rich Catholic history, which provides the largest number of entries in the book, followed by Mexico, then France, and then Belgium.
The first recorded apparition of our Lady, though, reportedly took place in Spain, and while she was still alive, when the Apostle St. James was preaching at Zaragoza. She was accompanied by the Child Jesus and angels, who were carrying a pillar crowned with a small wooden statue of herself. She encouraged St. James in his work, and asked for the building of a church there to enclose the pillar of jasper. This apparition at Zaragoza is commemorated by the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pilar.
St. James did indeed become the apostle of Spain. He is buried at Santiago de Compostela in the far northwest of the country, and this shrine became one of the most celebrated in Europe in the medieval period.
The first entry in the book deals with Our Lady of Lujan in Argentina, which, according to the author is perhaps the most famous and historic in all of South America. It dates from the year 1630 when a Portuguese settler living in Sumampa, situated about 600 miles to the northwest of the capital, wrote to a friend in Brazil asking for a statue of our Lady.
In the event, he was sent two statues, one a Madonna and Child and the other of the Immaculate Conception. They were sent across country from Buenos Aires in a wagon, which stopped overnight at an isolated ranch.
The next day, however, the wagon could not be moved until the figure of our Lady as the Immaculate Conception was removed. The other statue continued on its journey to Sumampa, and is still venerated there today as Our Lady of Consolation.
The remaining statue of the Immaculate Conception, however, which is made of baked clay and is just under two feet high, was enshrined at the ranch for the next forty years. In 1670, however, a local lady, Dona Ano de Mattos, obtained permission to move it to her own ranch about 15 miles away, on the other side of the Lujan River; but the next morning it was discovered that the statue had mysteriously returned to its original home.
The same thing happened a second time, but because of the danger of attacks from hostile bands, it was decided, after consultation with the local bishop and governor, to permanently move the statue, and a church to house it was built in 1685. The city of Lujan, which is about 45 miles west of Buenos Aires, grew up around it, and many miracles have been recorded there over the centuries.
It is interesting to note that the shrine was visited by Fr. Giovanni Mastai, who later became Pius IX, the Pope who dogmatically defined the Immaculate Conception. In 1886, Pope Leo XIII blessed a special crown for the statue, and a basilica was consecrated in 1910 so as to accommodate the great crowds of pilgrims who visit Lujan.
One of the most ancient images dealt with the book is that of Salus Populi Romani (“Salvation of the Roman People”), which is the name given to the painting found in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. According to tradition this image was brought back to Rome from Palestine by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, and was placed in the basilica by Pope Liberius (352-366). It is a picture of the Madonna and Child in the Greek style, and it was painted on a thick cedar slab measuring about 3 feet by 5 feet.
During the time of St. Gregory the Great (590-604), a great plague was ravaging Rome, and so the Pontiff carried the Image in solemn procession to Hadrian’s Mausoleum, where he saw a vision of an angel, believed to be St. Michael, sheathing his sword as a sign that the plague would be ended.
As late as 1837, the image was likewise carried in procession by Pope Gregory XVI at the time of a cholera epidemic, and there are other historical instances of similar divine assistance and miraculous favors.
A Tribute To Andrew Jackson
The final entry in the book is for the United States, and this concerns the devotion of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, whose miraculous statue is found in the Ursuline convent in New Orleans. The name came from the way the Ursuline superior, Mother St. Michael, was able to come to Louisiana, from France, despite obstacles, when she prayed to our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
She and her fellow religious arrived in New Orleans in 1810, and installed a statue of the Blessed Virgin they had brought with them in the convent chapel; and so devotion to Our Lady of Prompt Succor began to grow locally around this statue.
In 1812, a great fire threatened the neighborhood where the convent was and Mother St. Michael placed the statue on a windowsill facing the conflagration. She prayed aloud in the name of Our Lady of Prompt Succor for deliverance: Immediately the wind changed direction, and the fire died down.
Two years after that, in 1814, Gen. Andrew Jackson, later the seventh U.S. president, fought against British forces at the Battle of New Orleans. The British strategy was to conquer the central part of North America by capturing Louisiana, and the odds were very much in their favor as they could field a well-trained force of 30,000 men against only 6,000 men hastily assembled by Jackson.
The night before the great battle many of the local womenfolk assembled before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the convent chapel, and prayed fervently the whole night through that their city would be saved. At dawn the sound of cannon fire could be heard, and later, during Holy Mass, a courier arrived with the news that the enemy had been defeated.
The British suffered enormous casualties, and were forced to withdraw, and the result was that Gen. Jackson, who saw what had happened as evidence of a divine intervention, went with his staff to the convent to thank the Ursulines and to express his appreciation to Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
Miraculous Images of Our Lady has numerous black and white, and some color, images which greatly enhance it, and the narratives given above are just a small sample from the many interesting and well-written accounts of the origins of, and devotional practices associated with, some of the most famous miraculous images of our Lady.
For anyone interested in the history of Marian devotion, or in devotion to our Lady generally, this book will make for inspiring and edifying reading.
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