The Victoria of Chocim and the Rosary
During the decisive naval battle of the united Christian fleets against the Muslim Armada at Lepanto in 1571, the Pope ordered a great rosary procession in Rome to celebrate the victory. The image of Our Lady of the Snow was carried in it. The victory of the Holy League was attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. To commemorate this, Pius V declared October 7th to be the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and the image of Our Lady of the Snow was given the title “Salus Populi Romani – Salvation of the Roman People”. This picture has since become one of the most venerated images of Mary in Europe. The triumph of Christians over Islam in the 16th century is linked to a similar event in the history of Poland – the Battle of Chocim (1621),
The ancient icon of the Virgin Mary of the Snow in Rome
The history of this ancient icon is linked to the construction of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. On the night of August 3, 352, the Virgin Mary appeared to Pope Liberius and the patrician John in a dream and ordered the building of the temple in a place where they would find fresh snow. The next morning one of the slopes was covered with snow. At the request of Our Lady, a church was built there and a portrait of the Snow Queen, who is also known today as the goddess of victory or the goddess of the rosary, was placed in it.
After the Battle of Lepanto, the image’s fame grew even more. It was soon copied in many Roman studios. One of the copies was placed in the Church of the Dominican Fathers in Cracow. It was brought from Rome by Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski around 1588. Legend has it that it is the same painting that St. Stanislaus Kostka prayed in front of in the Roman Jesuit college. In Poland, the cult around the painting developed very quickly. In 1600, when the plague struck Kraków, the bishop of the time ordered a procession with the painting through the streets of the city. The plague has stopped. In 1601 the painting was officially called the “Rosary” and given to the Rosary Brotherhood. In the same year the second procession with the painting took place: It was also the first rosary procession. From then on, the processions took place every year, even in times of national need.
When a 400,000 strong Turkish army under Osman II crossed the borders of Poland in 1621, Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz set up camp with 60,000 men at Chocim on the Dniester on September 2nd. The first battle with the Turkish army brought the Poles victory, but the unexpected death (on September 24, 1621) of the beloved commander of the Polish army – the now elderly Hetman Chodkiewicz – weakened the strength of the knights so much that defeat was inevitable seemed. In the meantime, for reasons unknown, the Turks postponed the decisive battle until they themselves made a peace proposal. In addition, the peace negotiations ended with the signing of a treaty favorable to Poland. Historians see the reason for this development in the events in Krakow at the time. When he learned of the hetman’s death, Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski ordered a solemn procession in Krakow, during which the image of the Madonna of the Rosary from the Dominican Church was carried through the streets of the city. Crowds of people followed with rosaries in their hands. All the houses were deserted because everyone rushed to pray with God for victory over the unbelievers.
The revelations of the Virgin Mary to Primate Wawrzyniec Gembicki and Stanislaw Lubomirski (in a dream) became widely known, and their coincidence with the events in Chocim was taken as evidence that the prayers had been answered. Belief in the miraculous intervention of the Mother of God in Chocim was reinforced by a circulating story about a prophetic vision of Father Mikołaj Oborski in the monastery of the Jesuit Fathers in Kalisz. While he was praying in front of the Holy of Holies on October 10, 1621, he suddenly saw the Polish trenches near Chocim and twice as many Turkish troops, and above them, on the clouds in a shining chariot, the Blessed Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus and St. Stanislaus Kostka, who knelt in front of her and pointed to the Polish camp with a pleading gesture. Jesus held out his hands to the kneeling man as if to lift him up. When the news of the final repulsion of the Turkish army spread, it was linked to Oborski’s dream. Every year on the day of Chocim’s triumph, to commemorate the victory, a rosary procession passed through the streets of Krakow.
The veneration of the Virgin Mary of the Rosary from the Church of the Dominican Fathers in Krakow is still very much alive today, but has a more private and hidden character. There is always prayer in front of the miraculous image, and a funeral mass is celebrated every day for the souls of the deceased members of the Rosary Brotherhood. The rosary procession still takes place, but no longer through the streets of the city, but inside the church to its five chapels.
Source: Niedziela.pl