Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary – September 12th

 

 

The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, John Sobieski, king of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV in Constantinople. After Sobieski entrusted himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he and his soldiers thoroughly defeated the Muslims. In 1683, Pope Innocent XI extended this feast to the entire Church and inscribed the feast of the Holy Name of Mary in the Roman Rite calendar, set for the Sunday after September 8 (Nativity of Mary), in remembrance of the liberation of Vienna by the Polish Army under John Sobieski on September 12, 1683.

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