The Holy Name of Mary

Celebrated on September 12 — the date the Polish king John III Sobieski lifted the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 calling on the name of Mary. The feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Innocent XI in thanksgiving and remains a day to ponder the gentleness and power of the name "Mary."

The devotion to the Holy Name of Mary reaches back to the twelfth century, when it spread through the Iberian Peninsula and the religious orders. The name itself, "Miriam" in Hebrew, has been interpreted by the Fathers to mean "Star of the Sea," "Bitter One," or "Beloved" — each reading illuminating a facet of the woman who bore it. Suppressed briefly in the 1969 calendar reform, the feast was restored in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.