“From the Archives” — Refuge in Mary During 19th-Century Turmoil

In this month of May – Mary’s month – we can reflect on our long parish history of devotion to Our Blessed Mother Mary, namesake of our parish. A good example can be found in the latter half of the 19th century, which was a tumultuous time for the Catholic Church, especially in Europe. American

Catholics also felt the impact of modernism, secularism, the relation between modern science and religion, European wars and insurrections, and the struggle to unify Italy as a secular state with the accompanying loss of the extensive Papal States in 1870. Anti-Catholic sentiment grew in this country, too, with some opponents of the Church warning that the pope would try to regain his secular power by moving to the United States! The reigns of Pope Pius IX (1846 1878) and Leo XIII (1878-1903) spanned this difficult time. The popes, as well as the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, frequently exhorted the faithful to pray and look to Mary for solace.

Activities at Saint Mary, including special Masses, devotions, lectures and sermons reflected this call. Marian devotions became especially popular here during the reign of Leo XIII, who wrote 13 encyclicals on Mary. Known as the “Rosary Pope,” he famously said: “The rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of prayer.”

The children at Saint Mary School prayed the rosary daily in the church. During this time, there also were several Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin Mary: The Young Men’s Sodality, founded in 1888 under the auspices of Father O’Kane; the Men’s Sodality, apparently separate from the young men’s group; the Ladies’ Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, composed of white parishioners; the Colored Ladies’ Sodality of the Blessed Virgin; and the Sodality of the Children of Mary, which met on Sunday afternoons. Parishioners increasingly turned to Mary for help in times of turmoil. We still do.

—Kitty Guy, Parish Historian