Mary’s name celebration in the sign of responsibility for creation

Vienna, August 28, 2024 (KAP) This year, the traditional celebration of the name of Mary is all about prayer for peace and a careful approach to creation. The great celebration of faith on September 14 and 15 in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral (3 p.m. each day) will be led by the Bishop of St. Pölten, Alois Schwarz (Saturday) and the Archbishop of Salzburg, Franz Lackner (Sunday). The celebration is organized by the prayer community “Rosenkranz-Sühnekreuzzug” (RSK). Archbishop Lackner is the patron of the RSK together with Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and Bishop Schwarz is responsible for the Environment and Sustainability Department in the Austrian Bishops’ Conference.

The anniversary of “800 years of the Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi” is the reason for this year’s motto of the celebration: “Praise be to you, my Lord! God’s traces in creation”. Prof. Father Johannes-Baptist Freyer will contribute an impulse on both days. He taught as a professor of the history of theology and Franciscan theology at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. From 2005 to 2011 he was rector of this university. Today he is a speaker on Franciscan fundamental questions at the Franciscan mission headquarters in Bonn. Before joining the order, he worked in a bank.

The traditional procession with the Fatima statue will take place on both days as a procession in the cathedral. The services will be musically arranged by “Ars Musica” and the choir of St. Augustin under the direction of Thomas Dolezal. This year, the 200th birthday of Anton Bruckner will be commemorated in particular. The celebration of the Name of Mary can also be celebrated online via the YouTube channel of the Archdiocese of Vienna (www.youtube.com/erzdiözese-vienna).

Also present is the new spiritual assistant of the RSK, Father Elias van Haaren. The Franciscan will soon succeed Father Benno Mikocki, who died in 2023. Van Haaren, who was born in Germany in 1976, has been a member of the RSK since 1996. In 1996/97 he completed his postulancy in Bardel/Germany and Telfs/Tyrol. In 1997/98 he completed his novitiate in Reutte/Tyrol. From 1998 to 2005 he studied theology in Salzburg. In 2005 he was ordained a deacon in Graz by the then Auxiliary Bishop of Graz, Franz Lackner. In 2006 he was ordained a priest in Klagenfurt by Bishop Alois Schwarz. Since 2011 van Haaren has been the General Commissioner of the Holy Land of the Franciscans in Vienna.

Praying for freedom and peace

The RSK was founded in 1947 under the impression of the Second World War. In 2022, the 75th anniversary was celebrated as a major anniversary year. The Viennese Marian Name Day celebration originally emerged as a thanksgiving ceremony for the liberation of the Austrian capital from the Turkish threat and has evolved over the past 70 years into a prayer for peace that is celebrated annually. The procession in particular has historical references: When the united Christian armies formed up against the second Turkish siege of Vienna, the Madonna of the Protective Cloak was carried in front.

The procession also commemorates the large supplication processions along the Vienna Ring, which the RSK organized and called for prayers for the freedom of the country occupied after the war. From 1958, the Vienna Stadthalle was the venue for the thousands of participants, and finally from 2011, St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Since its founding, around 2.3 million believers from 132 countries have joined the prayer community; today it has around 300,000 worshipers. The RSK’s most important communication tool is the magazine “Praying People of God”.

The Feast of the Naming of the Virgin Mary was established by Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689) in honor of the holy name of the mother of Jesus. Pope Pius X then moved it to the “victory day” of the Battle of Vienna’s Kahlenberg during the Turkish siege of 1683, September 12th. When the feast was removed from the Catholic calendar because it was celebrated twice with the Feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8th, it was retained in Austria because of its historical roots. (Info: www.rsk-ma.at)