HOW OUR LADY OF PEACE RESPONDED DURING WORLD WAR I

POPE BENEDICT XV INVOKED OUR LADY OF PEACE DURING WORLD WAR I AND SHE RESPONDED EIGHT DAYS LATER

In 1917 the First World War was raging, without showing any sure sign of concluding peacefully. By this time the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XV, who had been in the diplomatic service of the Vatican, had exhausted all of the natural means in his power to bring about peace, but to no avail. Realizing the limited power of even Papal diplomacy, the tired and frail Pope turned to Our Lady, through Whom all graces are dispensed. He urgently requested all Christians to beg the Virgin Mary to obtain peace in the world, and to solemnly entrust the task to Her alone.

The Pope wrote of his plea for peace in a letter dated May 5, 1917:

Our earnestly pleading voice, invoking the end of the vast conflict, the suicide of civilized Europe, was then and has remained ever since unheard. Indeed, it seemed that the dark tide of hatred grew higher and wider among the belligerent nations, and drew other countries into its frightful sweep, multiplying ruin and massacre. Nevertheless Our confidence was not lessened .... Since all graces which the Author of all good deigns to grant to the poor children of Adam, by a loving design of His Divine Providence are dispensed through the hands of the most holy Virgin, we wish that the petition of Her most afflicted children, more than ever in this terrible hour, may turn with lively confidence to the august Mother of God.

He wished the world to have recourse to the Heart of Jesus through the mediation of Mary, and he ordered that the invocation Queen of Peace, pray for us be permanently added to the Litany of Loreto. Then, confidently placing the peace of the world in Her hands, the Pope made another appeal:

To Mary, then, who is the Mother of Mercy and omnipotent by grace, let loving and devout appeal go up from every corner of the earth – from noble temples and tiniest chapels, from royal palaces and mansions of the rich as from the poorest hut – from blood-drenched plains and seas. Let it bear to Her the anguished cry of mothers and wives, the wailing of innocent little ones, the sighs of every generous heart: that Her most tender and benign solicitude may be moved and the peace we ask for be obtained for our agitated world.

The Blessed Mother responded quickly to this agonizing plea of the Pope and the Christian people. Only eight days later, at Fatima, Portugal, the Virgin Mary came in response to the cries raised to Her from a warring world. She came to demonstrate Her maternal care for us, and that, as Mediatrix of all Graces, She alone can show us the way to peace. In order to grant this favour, though, She requires our cooperation. She requires that each one of us obey Her requests for prayer and penance, and that the Pope and bishops obey Her request for the Consecration of Russia to her immaculate Heart.

The three little Seers, Lucia do Santos, Francisco Margo and Jacinta Marto

In July, 13, 1917, the three children of Fatima were granted a vision of Hell. They gazed in horror and fear; then they raised their eyes in desperate appeal to Our Lady, who looked down upon them with sober tenderness saying:

“You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them God wants to establish throughout the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”

“If people will do what I ask, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if they do not stop offending God, another and worse war will break out in the reign of Pius XII. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger, and persecution...

...To forestall this, I shall come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on First Saturdays.”

“If they heed my request, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, she shall spread her errors throughout the world promoting wars and persecutions of the Church: the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.”

“In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me; which will be converted, and some time of peace will be given to the world.”

In every one of the apparitions, Our Lady of Peace requested the recitation of the Holy Rosary. “Continue to say the rosary every day in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary to obtain peace for the world.”