Our Patroness' Feast Day is September 24th. We celebrated 141 years as a Parish this past September, 2022.
Feast Fun Fact! Did you know that Canon law #1218 says that each Catholic Church is to have its own title? This title may be of the Blessed Trinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ’s, the Holy Spirit, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a name of one of the angels or that of a Saint? What do you know about the title ‘Our Lady of Mercy’?
As the Mother of Jesus, our Merciful Redeemer, Our Lady is rightly named Mother of Mercy. The origin of this title dates back to the Middle Ages and the foundation of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy after Mary appeared to St. Peter Nolasco, his confessor St. Raymund of Penafort and King James I of Aragon and Catalonia in 1218. Mary requested them to establish a religious order entrusted with the responsibility of rescuing Christians who were being held captive by the Moorish armies who invaded the Iberian Peninsula. St. Peter Nolasco created a plan to redeem these people. He and his companions dedicated their lives and possessions to gathering alms to free or ransom them from their captors.
The Feast of Our Lady of Ransom was instituted and observed on September 24, first in the order, then everywhere in Spain and France. It was extended to the entire Church by Pope Innocent XII. Today Mary is honored under the title of “Our Lady of Mercy” throughout the world by countless parishes, schools and hospitals who embrace her as their Patroness.
FEAST FUN FACT… As a Church, we show our love for Mary as we honor her with feasts, memorials and solemnities throughout the liturgical year. We know Mary by many names besides Our Lady of Mercy. We call her Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea, Immaculate Mary and other names. Catholics in other countries also have special names and days to honor Mary as Mother, Protector and Evangelizer. What do you know about the following Mary observances: Our Lady of La Vang (Vietnam), Our Lady of Africa, Our Lady of Manaoag (Philippines), or Our Lady Mother of Divine Providence (Puerto Rico)?
FEAST FUN FACTS …A brief look at how Mary is celebrated in Vietnam and Africa.
OUR LADY OF LA VANG … Fearing the spread of Catholicism, the Emperor in Vietnam restricted the practice of Catholicism in the country in 1798. Soon thereafter, Catholic persecution ensued. Many people sought refuge in the rain forest of La Vang resulting in illness. While hiding in the jungle, the community gathered every night at the foot of a tree to pray the rosary. One night, an apparition surprised them. In the branches of the tree a lady appeared, wearing the traditional Vietnamese dress and holding a child in her arms, with two angels beside her. The people present interpreted the vision as the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. They said that Our Lady promised to watch over them as a mother would and told them to boil leaves from the trees for medicine to cure their illness. Legend states that the term "La Vang" was a derivative of the Vietnamese word meaning "crying out." In 1802 the Christians returned to their villages, passing on the story of the apparition in La Vang and its message. As the story of the apparitions spread, many came to pray at this site and to offer incense and a chapel was built. From 1830-1885 another wave of persecutions decimated the Christian population, during the height of which the chapel in honor of Our Lady of La Vang was destroyed. In 1886, construction of a new chapel began. Following its completion, Bishop Gaspar consecrated the chapel in honor of Our Lady of Help of Christians in 1901. The church of La Vang was named a national shrine in 1959 and a Basilica in 1961. The Vietnamese people continue to honor Mary as they pray for peace and healing.
OUR LADY OF AFRICA …In Africa, Mary is looked upon as an evangelizer, a refuge, a protector, but most of all, as a mother. The Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, built in 1872, stands on a cliff overlooking the bay of Algiers. At the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, Catholics and Muslims alike pray before the bronze statue of Our Lady of Africa. Behind the altar at the Basilica is the prayer, “Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and the Muslims.” The features on the images of our Lady of Africa are as varied as the people of the continent. The church custodians say many Muslim visitors ask about Mary, the Bible, and why the four Gospels. They spend time looking at decorations, the Stations of the Cross, and frescoes of the life of Saint Augustine who is Christianity's first and most famous Algerian. Below the frescoes runs a phrase from St. Augustine in Arabic, French and Cabila: “Brotherly love comes from God and is God.”
FEAST FUN FACTS…When you hear the word “icon” do you think of a symbol on your computer screen that we click on to open up a program or file? What do you know about Religious icons? The word “icon” means image and the story of icons in the Christian Church is a story of learning to gaze into the mystery of God. Our Catholic tradition has encouraged artists to use their gifts to praise God yet icons are not vehicles of an artist’s personal expression. Rather, icons are unique forms of sacred art that conveys a symbolic presentation of the holy person that is depicted. When an iconographer creates an icon, it is called icon “writing” rather than “painting.” Did you know that the specific icon of Our Lady in our church is a version of the “Mother of God Umilyenie,” a Russian word translating into English as mercy, compassion, tenderness or loving kindness? It was “written” by the hand of Marek Czarnecki in 1996. He did not set out to become an icon writer, the son of Polish immigrants and a graduate of New York’s prestigious school of Visual Arts. He was working in Manhattan when his father had “volunteered” his son to write an icon of the patron of Poland – Our Lady of Czestochowa or the Black Madonna in the year 1991. He said, “I don’t want this to sound presumptuous, but I think the Holy Spirit working through my pastor and father brought me to this work.” Czarnecki ditched Manhattan and returned to Bristol, CT. Many consider him the premier iconographer in the United States.