FULL TEXT: Bp. Schneider’s treatise of Mary ‘Destroyer of Heresies’
Bishop Schneider has kindly allowed Per Mariam to publish the full section on Mary Destroyer of Heresies, which is contained in his newly published book.
(PerMariam) — As part of his recently published book Flee from Heresy, Bishop Athanasius Schneider presents an account and defense of the devotion to Mary as the “Destroyer of Heresies,” presenting it as key for modern times.
Published by Sophia Press July 16, Flee from Heresy is the latest text by Astana’s Bishop Athanasius Schneider. (Available here from the publishers). The text contains a thorough treatise of numerous heresies which have afflicted and threatened the Catholic Church and Her members throughout the centuries, right up to the present day.
“It is my hope that, by clearly addressing past and present errors, Catholics will be better able to combat them in their own spheres of influence, embracing the changeless truths of divine revelation and leading others to the same,” writes Bp. Schneider in his preface.
The book has received widespread initial coverage from a number of outlets: Dr. Maike Hickson on LifeSiteNews, Kennedy Hall on Tradition and Sanity, and Timothy Flanders from One Peter Five.
However, mindful of Per Mariam’s particular focus of promoting devotion to Mary, Per Mariam wishes to draw attention to Part IV of the book – namely, the section given to outlining the devotion to Mary as Destroyer of Heresies.
Drawing from the Church’s mystic, great theologian saints and holy popes, Bp. Schneider presents the devotion to Mary under this title as direct answer to many of the crises of modernity: “Therefore, in these our dark times of doctrinal confusion, with its deceitful flashes of relativism, naturalism, and anthropocentrism often masked in terms of ‘dialogue’ or ‘pastoral accompaniment,’ let us often invoke our Lady with confidence and filial love.”
By kind permission of Bp. Schneider, and the publishers at Sophia Press, the full text of Part IV of Flee from Heresy is presented below, in order to further promulgate Marian devotion. The book in its entirety can be purchased here from the publishers.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Destroyer of Heresies
“Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for thou alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world. Thou believed the word of the Archangel Gabriel. A virgin still, thou brought forth the God-man; thou bore a Child, O Virgin, and remained a Virgin still. Mother of God, intercede for us.” Holy Mother Church has prayed these words for more than a millennium in the Roman Rite, in the Divine Office and Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[1]
The battle of the Blessed Virgin Mary against Satan (the one chiefly responsible for spreading errors and heresies in the world) is already indicated by God’s words after the sinful Fall of Adam and Eve: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head while you will strike at his heel” (Gen 3:15). In his Marian Encyclical Redemptoris Mater, Pope John Paul II taught that Mary is collocated in the very center of the battle of Christ against Satan: “Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, is placed at the very center of that enmity, that struggle which accompanies the history of humanity on earth and the history of salvation itself. In this history Mary remains a sign of sure hope.”
Why has the Blessed Virgin Mary “destroyed all heresies,” when we continue to see errors throughout the world? Because she was the first to hold explicit faith in the historical incarnation of the Son of God, the essential grounding of the Christian faith; for, the one who believes in the true divinity of Christ will accept all that Christ teaches, and order his life accordingly. As the first to fully embrace this living faith in the Incarnation of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary is herself a perpetual vessel and testament of that Faith on earth—a Faith which will never perish, but will endure until the Last Judgement. Through the faith and fidelity of Mary, the true Faith was established on earth, and she who was first to believe is therefore most powerful to destroy all unbelief and heresy.
For this reason, Pope Pius X (+1914) spoke about Our Lady as the noblest foundation of the house of our faith:
To Mary it was said: “Blessed is she who has believed, because the things promised Her by the Lord shall be accomplished” (Lk 1:45). The promise was that she would conceive and bring forth the Son of God... Therefore, since the Son of God made Man is the “author and finisher of faith” (Heb 12:2), we must recognize His most holy Mother as the partaker and, as it were, the custodian, of the divine mysteries. We must acknowledge that, after Christ, she is the noblest foundation on which is built the house of faith for all ages. {Encyclical Ad Diem Illum (February 2, 1904)}
The same Pope continues to explain the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin as the most powerful bulwark against modern unbelief, and further illuminates the title of Mary as Destroyer of all Heresies:
What truly is the point of departure of the enemies of religion for the sowing of the great and serious errors by which the faith of so many is shaken? They begin by denying that man has fallen by sin and been cast down from his former position. Hence, they regard as mere fables original sin and the evils that were its consequence. Humanity vitiated in its source vitiated in its turn the whole race of man; and thus was evil introduced amongst men and the necessity for a Redeemer involved. All this rejected, it is easy to understand that no place is left for Christ, for the Church, for grace, or for anything that is above and beyond nature; in one word the whole edifice of faith is shaken from top to bottom. But let people believe and confess that the Virgin Mary has been from the first moment of her conception preserved from all stain; and it is straight- way necessary that they should admit both original sin and the rehabilitation of the human race by Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the Church, and the law of suffering. By virtue of this, Rationalism and Materialism is torn up by the roots and destroyed, and there remains to Christian wisdom the glory of having to guard and protect the truth. It is moreover a vice common to the enemies of the faith of our time especially that they repudiate and proclaim the necessity of repudiating all respect and obedience for the authority of the Church, and even of any human power, in the idea that it will thus be more easy to make an end of faith. Here we have the origin of Anarchism, than which nothing is more pernicious and pestilent to the order of things, whether natural or supernatural. Now this plague, which is equally fatal to society at large and to Christianity, finds its ruin in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception—by the obligation which it imposes of recognizing in the Church a power before which not only the will must bow, but the intelligence must subject itself. It is from this sort of subjection of the reason that Christian people sing thus the praise of the Mother of God: “Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the stain of original sin is not in thee” (Mass of the Immaculate Conception).
And thus, once again is justified what the Church attributes to this august Virgin: that she has exterminated all heresies in the world. {Ad Diem Illum, 22}
In the year 1602, after Saint Francis de Sales (+1622) successfully crushed Protestantism in the region of Chablais after long and hard work and preaching, he wrote on the arch of the choir of the church in Thonon, the principal town of that region, the words: Gaude Maria virgo, cunctas haereses sola interemisti in universo mundo (Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for thou alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world). Thus did this Saint and Doctor of the Church confess, in a solemn way, the Blessed Virgin Mary as the guardian of the fundaments of the whole Christian life, of the true Faith. Saint Louis Grignion de Monfort (+1716) says, in his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin:
Mary has authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven. As a reward for her great humility, God gave her the power and the mission of assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels who fell away through pride. Such is the will of almighty God who exalts the humble, that the powers of heaven, earth, and hell, willingly or unwillingly, must obey the commands of the humble Virgin Mary. For God has made her queen of heaven and earth, leader of his armies, keeper of his treasures, dispenser of his graces, worker of his wonders, restorer of the human race, mediatrix on behalf of men, destroyer of his enemies, and faithful associate in his great works and triumphs.... Satan fears her not only more than all Angels and men, but in some sense more than God Himself.... because Satan, being proud, suffers infinitely more from being beaten and punished by a little and humble handmaid of God, and her humility humbles him more than the Divine power. {28, 52}
The Venerable Mother Maria of Agreda (+1665), who lived in Spain in the seventeenth century, recorded several profound insights into the faith of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its connection to our own faith. A number of passages from her renowned work The Mystical City of God are worth careful consideration:
In few words the holy Elizabeth described the greatness of the faith of most holy Mary, when, as reported to us by the evangelist Luke, She exclaimed: “Blessed art thou for having believed, because the words and promises of the Lord shall be fulfilled in Thee” (Luke 1, 45). . . .
The faith of the most holy Mary was an image of the whole creation and an open prodigy of the divine power, for in Her the virtue of faith existed in the highest and the most perfect degree possible; in a certain manner and to a great extent, it made up for the want of faith in men. The Most High has given this excellent virtue to mortals so that, in spite of the carnal and mortal nature, they might have the knowledge of the Divinity and of his mysteries and admirable works: a knowledge so certain and infallibly secure, that it is like seeing Him face to face, and like the vision of the blessed angels in heaven. The same object and the same truth, which they see openly, we perceive obscured under the veil of faith.
One glance at the world will make us understand, how many nations, reigns and provinces, since the beginning of the world, have lost their claims to this great blessing of the faith, so little understood by the thank- less mortals: how many have unhappily flung it aside, after the Lord had conferred it on them in his generous mercy, and how many of the faithful, having without their merit received the gift of faith, neglect and despise it, letting it lie idle and unproductive for the last end to which it is to direct and guide them. It was befitting therefore, that the divine equity should have some recompense for such lamentable loss, and that such an incomparable benefit should find an adequate and proportionate return, as far as is possible from creatures; it was befitting that there should be found at least one Creature, in whom the virtue of faith should come to its fullest perfection, as an example and rule for the rest.
All this was found in the great faith of the most holy Mary and on account of Her and for Her alone, if there had been no other creature in the world, it would have been most proper, that God should contrive and create the excellent virtue of faith; for according to our way of understanding, Mary by Herself was a sufficient pledge to the divine Providence, that He would find a proper return on the part of man, and that the object of this faith would not be frustrated by the want of correspondence among mortals. The faith of this sovereign Queen was to make recompense for their default and She was to copy the divine prototype of this virtue in its highest perfection. All the other faithful can measure and gauge themselves by the faith of this Mistress; for they will be more or less faithful, the more or less they approach the perfection of her incomparable faith. Therefore She was set as Teacher and example of all the believing, including the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs and all that have believed or will believe in the Christian doctrines to the end of the world.
... Our supereminent Lady, Mary, possesses much greater rights and titles to be called the Mother of faith and of all the faithful. In her hand is hoisted the standard and ensign of faith for all the believers in the law of grace. First indeed, according to the order of time, was the Patriarch [Abraham]; and consequently he was ordained to be the father and head of the Hebrew people: great was his belief in the promises concerning Christ our Lord and in the works of the Most High. Nevertheless, incomparably more admirable was the faith of Mary in all these regards and She excels him in dignity. Greater difficulty and incongruity was there that a virgin should Conceive and bring forth, than that an aged and sterile woman should bear fruit; and the patriarch Abraham was not so certain of the sacrifice of Isaac, as Mary was of the inevitable sacrifice of her most holy Son. She is the One, who perfectly believed and hoped in all the mysteries, and She shows to the whole Church, how it must believe in the Most High and in the works of his Redemption. Having thus understood the faith of Mary our Queen, we must admit Her to be the Mother of the faithful and the prototype of the Catholic faith and of holy hope. . . .
The inestimable treasure of the virtue of divine faith is hidden to those mortals who have only carnal and earthly eyes; for they do not know how to appreciate and esteem a gift and blessing of such incomparable value. Consider ... what the world was without faith and what it would be today if . . . [the] Lord would not preserve faith. How many men whom the world has celebrated as great, powerful, and wise have precipitated themselves, on account of the want of light of faith, from the darkness of their unbelief into most abominable sins, and thence into the eternal darkness of hell!... And they are followed by the bad Christians, who having received the grace and blessing of faith, live as if they had it not in their hearts. {Book 2, chap. 6}
Venerable Mary of Agreda thus reminds us to be most grateful for the “precious jewel” of faith which the Lord has given, and to strive continually to exercise this virtue which brings the soul ever closer to heaven, the ultimate object of all our desires. She continues:
Faith teaches the sure way of eternal salvation, faith is the light that shines in the darkness of this mortal life and pilgrimage; it leads men securely to the possession of the fatherland to which they are wayfaring, if they do not allow it to die out by infidelity and sinful- ness. Faith enlivens the other virtues and serves as a nourishment of the just man and a support in his labors. Faith confounds and fills with fear the infidels and the lax Christians in their negligence; for it convinces them in this world of their sin and threatens punishment in the life to come. Faith is powerful to do all things, for nothing is impossible to the believer; faith makes all things attainable and possible. Faith illumines and ennobles the understanding of man, since it directs him in the darkness of his natural ignorance, not to stray from the way, and it elevates him above himself so that he sees and understands with infallible certainty what is far above his powers and assures him of it no less than if he saw it clearly before him. He is thus freed from the gross and vile narrow-mindedness of those who will believe only what they can experience by their own limited natural powers, not considering that the soul, as long as it lives in the prison of this corruptible body, is very much circumscribed and limited in its sphere of action by the knowledge drawn from the coarse activity of the senses. [Let us] appreciate, therefore ... this priceless treasure of the Catholic faith given ... by God, watch over it and practice it in great esteem and reverence.
The outstanding saint and martyr of the twentieth century, St. Maximilian Kolbe (+1941), first conceived of the idea of founding his worldwide Marian apostolate the Militia Immaculatae (“Militia of the Immaculata”) in the context of an outrageous public demonstration against the Faith in 1917:
Freemasons in Rome began to demonstrate openly and belligerently against the Church. They placed the black standard of the “Giordano Bruno” under the window of the Vatican. On this standard the archangel St. Michael was depicted lying under the feet of the triumphant Lucifer. At the same time, countless pamphlets were distributed to the people in which the Holy Father was attacked shamefully. Right then I conceived the idea of organizing an active society to counteract Freemasonry and other slaves of Lucifer.[2]
St. Maximilian Kolbe would further describe these Masonic demonstrations in the 1939 issue of his magazine, Miles Immaculatae:
Enraged hands dared to write such slogans as, “Satan will rule on Vatican Hill, and the Pope will serve as his lackey,” and other such insults. Now these unreasoning acts of hatred toward the Church of Christ and his temporal Vicar were not the inept rantings of a few individual psychopaths, but the manner, way and plan of action deduced from the Masonic rule: Destroy all teaching about God, especially the Catholic teaching. . . .
In their plan they use many and various kinds of societies, which under their leadership promote neglect of Divine things and the breakdown of morality. This is because the Freemasons follow this principle above all: “Catholicism can be overcome not by logical arguments but by corrupted morals.” And so, they overwhelm the souls of men with the kind of literature and arts that will most easily destroy a sense of chaste morals, and foster sordid lifestyles in all phases of human life. . . .
To bring help to so many unhappy persons, to stabilize innocent hearts so that all can more easily go to the Immaculate Virgin through whom so many graces come down to us, the Militia Immaculatae was established in Rome in 1917.[3]
If St. Maximilian Kolbe were a priest on earth today, one can only imagine what he would think of the graphic immorality now produced or promoted by media outlets everywhere — whether in news or entertainment, through radio, television, personal technologies, and more—and to what extent Freemasonry continues to be re- sponsible for the same. Even so, we are confident that the humble and immaculate Virgin Mary will always crush the proud head of Satan (see Gen 3:15), and that she will surely crush the great heresy of all times, which is the heresy of the Anti-Christ.
Heresy of the Anti-Christ
“Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father, and the Son” (1 Jn 2:22). The greatest enemy of the Christian faith is not an army with material weapons, but an army of those who are equipped with ink and pen in order to undermine and pervert the virginal purity of the Catholic faith.
In his The Ballad of the White Horse (a great poetic meditation on the English King Alfred the Great’s defeat of the heathen King of Denmark in 878), the celebrated Catholic author G.K. Chesterton (+1936) puts the following words in the mouth of King Alfred, relating a vision after his victory over the pagan army:
. . .Though they scatter now and go, In some far century, sad and slow,
I have a vision, and I know
The heathen shall return.They shall not come with warships, They shall not waste with brands, But books be all their eating,
And ink be on their hands....
Not with the humour of hunters
Or savage skill in war,
But ordering all things with dead words, . . . What though they come with scroll and pen, And grave as a shaven clerk,
By this sign you shall know them,
That they ruin and make dark; . . .
By God and man dishonoured,
By death and life made vain,
Know ye the old barbarian,
The barbarian come again.
We certainly witness this return to heathenism in our time, in the explosion of gender ideology in all its forms—from feminism to “LGBTQ+” movements, transgenderism, and legal recognition of all manner of so-called “unions” as on a par with true marriage. The common threads connecting these phenomena are the spirit of Anti-Christ — denial of the Son of God come in the flesh — and an accompanying spirit of Anti-Mary—the rejection of our own human nature, and refusal to submit to the Incarnate Son of God in that same nature. Contrary to the Blessed Virgin’s Magnificat (see Lk 1:46–55) proclaiming the greatness of God realized in her own body and soul, the spirit of Anti-Mary tends to a kind of atheistic androgyny: scorning the divine gift of human embodiment, viewing God’s design of the naturally-complementary sexes as merely dispensable social constructs, and using the human body itself as a dispensable external apparatus, to be manipulated at will.
This tendency is further evident in calls for the sacramental ordination of women in the Catholic Church. Despite the ontological impossibility of such an ordination, all advocacy for it not only signifies a rejection of the divine constitution of holy orders, but also of femininity itself, exemplified above all in Our Lady. For, despite being most worthy for such a service, there is no record of the Blessed Virgin Mary ever performing any liturgical function in the primitive Church. As recalled by St. Epiphanius:
If it were ordained by God that women should offer sacrifice or have any canonical function in the Church, Mary herself, if anyone, should have functioned as a priest in the New Testament.... But it was not God’s pleasure [that she be a priest]. She was not even entrusted with the administration of baptism — for Christ could have been baptized by her rather than by John. {Panarion, bk. 3, Anacephalaeosis VII, sect 79, no. 3.”
Our Lady avoided all this, simply by acknowledging God’s wise and provident designs in both nature and grace. Every minister of the sacraments in the Church represents Christ, signifying degrees of His service, priesthood, and headship, and their various services are therefore performed by ordained men — or, in their absence, by their deputies: male readers and altar servers. For this reason, the Church even forbids artistic works that could give the impression of Our Lady being a priest. {See Acta Apostolicae Sedis 8, yr. 1916, p. 146} Indeed, “Marian participation” in the liturgy — one of intense charity and interior union with Christ — is the most active and fruitful liturgical participation possible for the common priesthood, and especially of women.
Refuge and Strength in Mary
According to St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, Our Lady needs new apostles in order to prepare, with Her, the triumph and final victory of Jesus. These apostolic souls should be instructed by Mary and totally consecrated to her service, entirely dedicated in her hands to the mission of snatching souls from the darkness of errors, and from danger of the final perdition — as we witness in our days a growing immensity of evil, which the powers of darkness seem to have installed in all corners of the world.
In St. Louis Grignion de Monfort’s preaching of the Gospel and spiritual teachings, it may seem scandalous or harsh to read his language insisting on Marian slavery, with the notion of be- longing entirely to the Virgin Mother of God. Yet, we are living in a world of slavery: the slavery of money, of power, of lust, of the passions, of the fashions, of public opinion, of narcotics, television, internet, pornography, and more. The results are before our eyes: despair, frustration, neurosis, violence, degradation — the very “wages of sin,” according to the words of Saint Paul (cf. Rom 6:23).
The original temptation, “You shall be as God” (Gn 3:5), now drives men to all kinds of slavery under the pretext of freedom. The cry: “It’s forbidden to forbid!” has opened the door to unspeakable violence and depravations, both of soul and body. By contrast, the chains which bind one to Mary as her servant and slave are really wings, according to St. Louis Grignion de Monfort. Just as Jesus came to us through Mary, so let us go back to Him along the same wonderful way that He came to us—this is the opening invitation and summary of St. Louis Grignion de Monfort’s entire spiritual program of “Total Consecration,” a sacred Code of Catholic spirituality for the end-times, capable of forming apostles, saints, and combatants for the last battles which the Apocalypse indicates.
Pope Leo XIII further emphasizes the prayer of the holy Rosary and the veneration of the powerful Queen of the Holy Rosary as the surest means of help and protection in times of spiritual danger, increased by the spreading of heresies:
It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary, and to seek for peace in Her maternal goodness; showing that the Catholic Church has always, and with justice, put all her hope and trust in the Mother of God. And truly the Immaculate Virgin, chosen to be the Mother of God and thereby associated with Him in the work of man’s salvation, has a favor and power with Her Son greater than any human or angelic creature has ever obtained, or ever can gain. And, as it is Her greatest pleasure to grant Her help and comfort to those who seek Her, it cannot be doubted that She would deign, and even be anxious, to receive the aspirations of the universal Church. This devotion, so great and so confident, to the august Queen of Heaven, has never shone forth with such brilliancy as when the militant Church of God has seemed to be endangered by the violence of heresy spread abroad, or by an intolerable moral corruption, or by the attacks of powerful enemies. Ancient and modern history, and the more sacred annals of the Church, bear witness to public and private supplications addressed to the Mother of God, to the help She has granted in return, and to the peace and tranquillity which She had obtained from God. Hence Her illustrious titles of helper, consoler, mighty in war, victorious, and peace-giver. And amongst these is specially to be commemorated that familiar title derived from the Rosary by which the signal benefits She has gained for the whole of Christendom have been solemnly perpetuated. {Encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio, September 1, 1883}
Saint Pius X similarly encourages Catholics to take refuge to Our Lady in times of persecution of the Catholic faith:
We earnestly desire that everyone in the world who is called a Christian will draw near to this love of the Virgin during this time when we honor the Mother of God in a more solemn manner. The persecution of Christ and the most holy religion He founded is now raging bitterly and fiercely. At this present time, therefore, there is a serious danger that many will be deceived by the increasing number of errors and ultimately abandon the Faith. “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). More than that, let us all humbly beg God through the intercession of the Mother of God that those who have fallen from the path of truth may repent. . . .
The Church will always be attacked, “for there must be factions, so that those who are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor 11:19). The Virgin, however, will always assist us in even the most difficult trials; She will always continue the battle She has been waging ever since Her conception. Thus, every day we can say: “Today the head of the ancient serpent was crushed by Her” (Antiphon of the Office of the Immaculate Conception). {Ad Diem Illum, February 2, 1904.}
In the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council maintained that the Church, “imitating the Mother of her Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, keeps with virginal purity the entire faith.” {64} Saint Augustine similarly spoke of the Church as a “chaste virgin whom the Apostle speaks of as espoused to Christ (cf. 2 Cor 11:2),” exhorting all Christians in turn:
Do, in the inner chambers of your soul, what you view with amazement in the flesh of Mary. He who believes in his heart unto justice conceives Christ; he who with his mouth makes profession of the right faith unto salvation brings forth Christ. Thus, in your souls, let fertility abound and virginity be preserved. {Sermon 191.}
The most dangerous corruption which Satan spreads is a corruption of the mind: the corruption of the virginal purity of Catholic doctrine. The battle between Mary and Satan, between the Church and Satan will last until the end of the time, but Satan will never conquer the purity of the faith of Mary and the integrity of the doctrine of the Church; because there will always remain souls of simplicity and purity, maintaining the invincible sensus fidelium (“sense of the faithful”) inside the Church. A true child and a true servant of Mary will always keep intact and pure the holy Catholic faith, recognizing that sins against the purity of the Catholic faith signify a slandering of the virginal purity of the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. Furthermore, the virtuous purity of faith is deeply linked with the virtue of chastity. Sins against the purity of faith—e.g., sins of heresy — spoil the soul and cause it to lose that virginal purity of the mind, of the intellect, which often result in (or arise from) a loss of the chaste purity of the body.
Nevertheless, we have reason for hope and confidence. During all the troubles through which the Church has passed in her history, the Blessed Virgin Mary has shown herself the powerful mother of Christians, at the same time instilling fear in all the enemies of the Catholic Faith.
Pope Pius XI affirmed:
Anyone who studies with diligence the records of the Catholic Church will easily recognize that the true patron- age of the Virgin Mother of God is linked with all the annals of the Christian name. When, in fact, errors every- where diffused were bent upon rending the seamless robe of the Church and upon throwing the Catholic world into confusion, our fathers turned with confident soul to her “alone who destroys all heresies in the world” (Roman Breviary), and the victory won through her brought the return of tranquility. ...
As in the times of the Crusades, in all Europe there was raised one voice of the people, one supplication; so today, in all the world, the cities, and even the smallest villages, united with courage and strength, with filial and constant insistence, the people seek to obtain from the great Mother of God the defeat of the enemies of Christian and human civilization, to the end that true peace may shine again over tired and erring men. If, then, all will do this with due disposition, with great faith and with fervent piety, it is right to hope that as in the past, so in our day, the Blessed Virgin will obtain from her divine Son that the waves of the present tempests be calmed and that a brilliant victory crown this rivalry of Christians in prayer. {Encyclical Ingravescentibus Malis (September 29, 1937), 2, 20–21.}
Therefore, in these our dark times of doctrinal confusion, with its deceitful flashes of relativism, naturalism, and anthropocentrism often masked in terms of “dialogue” or “pastoral accompaniment,” let us often invoke our Lady with confidence and filial love: Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for thou alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world. Mother of God, pray for us!
Maria Virgo, cunctas hæreses sola interemisti. Quæ Gabrielis Archangeli dictis credidisti. Dum Virgo Deum et hominem genuisti: et post partum Virgo inviolata permansisti. Dei Ge- netrix, intercede pro nobis.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for alone thou hast put an end to all heresies. Thou that didst believe the words of the archangel Gabriel. Still a virgin, thou didst bring forth God and man: and after childbirth thou didst re- main an inviolate virgin. Mother of God, intercede for us. {Tract, Common Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary.}
[1] Tract after Septuagesima, from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[2] How the Militia of the Immaculata Began,” Immaculata (Jan–Feb, 1999), 16: first published in the November 1935 issue of the Mugenzai no Seibo no Kishi, the Japanese edition of the Immaculata magazine, commemorating the eighteenth anniversary of the Militia Immaculata.
[3] Originally published in Miles Immaculatae (July–Sep, 1939), No. 3 (7), 66–72, trans. Fr. Bernard M. Geiger, OFM Conv. in the unpublished work, The MI in the Words of Its Founder, Vol. I: Selections from the Writings of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe on the Militia Immaculatae, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the General Topic of How One Lives the Life of an MI (Conventual Franciscan Friars of Marytown, Libertyville, Il), 8–9.