Mary, Help of Christians

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Image of grace Mariahilf by Lucas Cranach the Elder Ä., Around 1520, St. Jakob Cathedral in Innsbruck

Under the invocation of Mary Help of Christians ( Latin Sancta Maria, auxilium christianorum ) is in the Roman Catholic Church , the Mother of God venerated.

History of the adoration of Maria Hilf

As a battle cry , the "Maria Hilf!" Appeared during the crusades in the time of St. Louis IX. Prud'homme (King of France 1226–1270) when it was next to the older Deus vult ! (Latin, French Dieu le veut! ‚“ God wants it ”) of Pope Urban II ( Clermont 1095 and First Crusade ) and the Adjuva Deus! ("God help!") Occurs. Philip II (King of Spain 1556–1598) saw Maria as Generalissima in the Latin American colonial wars , and in the Turkish wars of the same epoch Pope Pius V (Pope 1566–1572) called her “victor against the Turks” and added the invocation in 1571, after the victory over the Turks at Lepanto , entered the Lauretanian litany . In the Middle Ages, the imperial - Habsburg army moved under a German double-headed eagle and the Burgundy cross , and since Ferdinand II (Emperor 1619–1637) the image of the Madonna was also used as a standard .

The Lauretanian litany probably induced Lucas Cranach the Elder to create the miraculous image of Mariahilf at the beginning of the 16th century . It was originally painted for the Saxon court. In 1611 Archduke Leopold V came to the court of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden and chose the picture as a souvenir. Since 1650 it has been the miraculous image of the parish church of St. Jakob in Innsbruck ( Innsbruck Cathedral ) on the high altar. It is especially venerated in Passau , Vienna , Innsbruck , Bozen and Benediktbeuern .

The veneration of the Mother of God as Auxilium Christianorum then took an enormous upswing with the victory in the siege of Vienna by the Ottomans (2nd Turkish siege, Battle of Kahlenberg ) on September 12, 1683, the feast of the Name of Mary . The Catholic part of the Christian army under Jan III. Sobieski (King of the Poles 1674–1696) was under the sign of the Protective Madonna,

A special feature of the veneration of Mary by the Austrian imperial family is the Mariahilfer Church , built by Emperor and Prince Paul Esterházy in 1687 as a thank you, which gave the Mariahilf Vienna district (6th district) its name based on the Marian attribute. The numerous founded Mariahilf brotherhoods (e.g. in Passau, Munich, Würzburg) soon contributed to the spread of the worship of Mariahilf . On November 7th, 1638, Elector Maximilian I had the Marian Column erected in Munich in gratitude for sparing Munich from the Swedish troops , after it was declared Patrona Bavariae in 1615 .

1814 led Pope Pius VII. For the 24 May the feast of Mary Help of Christians a gratitude for liberation from Napoleonic imprisonment. It is also called protective jacket tight. A similar feast of the Orthodox churches is in the Julian calendar on October 1st, there it is called the Protection of the Virgin Mary , Church Slavic Покровъ Pokrowa , Greek Σκέπη Sképi .

Patronage

In 1850 the Congregation of the Brothers of Mercy by Maria Hilf was established . After St. Don Bosco had added the attribute “Maria Helferin” to the name of the Order of the Salesians , he had the Maria-Hilf-Basilica built in Turin in 1863 under this patronage. The main altar painting there became the model for numerous statues of the Virgin Mary. Don Bosco also founded the female branch of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians, who are better known in German-speaking countries as the Don Bosco Sisters . The Association of Mary the Helper is a worldwide Catholic organization.

The state of Bavaria and the 6th district of Vienna were given the patronage of the Mother of God to help Christians . Subordinate to the municipality of Mariahilf, there is also Mariahilfer Straße -. Numerous churches and monasteries are also consecrated to Mary under this title, see:

In Shanghai there is the Marian shrine of the Sheshan Basilica on Mount Sheshan .

For further renaming see:

The name is also common as "Maria-Hilf-Apotheke".

Iconography and representation in art

First Devotion Images Help of Christians developed in the 14th century, in mysticism of the late Gothic period , and at first resembles the Byzantine Glykophilousa that Madonna, who hugs her child. In addition, Mary is represented as the help of Christians in particular as the Madonna in protective cloak.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Field shouting . In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 6 . Altenburg 1858, p. 170 ( zeno.org ).
  2. ↑ Hans Peter Hauschild: Love your enemies! In: Lettre . Journal for international culture and politics. March 2003 ( abstract [accessed October 19, 2009]).
  3. ↑ Walter Dürig: The Lauretanic Litanei. Sankt Ottilien 1990, pp. 60f.
  4. ^ Alfred Mell: The flags of the Austrian soldiers through the ages . Bergland, Vienna 1962, p. 29 . Quoted from Peter Diem: Red-White-Red through the centuries. The true story of the Austrian colors. Accessed on May 15, 2008 (also pdf ).
  5. ↑ a b Martina Stifter: The Mariahilf picture . Looked closely. In: Tauern window . 2004, p. 96–99 ( root.riskommunal.info [PDF; accessed on October 19, 2009] About the Cranach image of grace in St. Jakob in Innsbruck, and its influence on images in Prettau , Tyrol).
  6. ↑ Catholic parish of St. Georg in Ellingen (ed.): Mariahilf crypt chapel . The religious and cultural-historical classification of the Mariahilfkapelle ( st-georg-ellingen.de [accessed on October 19, 2009] without the year).