Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The Rosary that fled with the Christians of Iraq

Nineveh Plain (Iraq) (2014)

It should be said precisely: no una única advocación universalmente reconocida como «Nuestra Señora de Irak», del modo en que hablamos de Lourdes o Fátima. Lo que sí hay, y muy hondo, es una fortísima devoción mariana entre los cristianos de tradición caldea y de las demás Iglesias orientales del país. María es para ellos Madre y refugio, invocada con muchos títulos en la liturgia, los himnos y la piedad popular de Bagdad, Mosul, Qaraqosh, Ankawa y Erbil.

This devotion became especially visible in times of trial. During the wars of the 20th century and, above all, in 2014, with the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, Chaldean bishops, priests, and laity publicly turned to the Virgin Mary: processions with Marian images, consecrations to ask for her protection, and Rosaries prayed in shelters. Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako and the Assembly of the Chaldean Bishops repeatedly spoke of Mary's protection over the Christian peoples of the Nineveh Plain and over the displaced people seeking refuge in Kurdistan. All of this is documented in the international Catholic press.

It's important to distinguish. The mass displacement of Christians in 2014, the Marian vigil for peace, the community Rosaries in churches, houses and refugee camps, and the subsequent reconstruction of temples dedicated to the Virgin with ceremonies of reconsecration are documented. The interpretation of many faithful - that the survival of their families or the return to their peoples was a special protection of the Virgin - is a witness of contemporary, beautiful and sincere faith, but no consta which has been the subject of a formal canonical process of miracle recognition.

Among Chaldeans, Syriac Catholics, and Armenian Catholics, the Latin-inspired Rosary has spread rapidly in recent decades. In the midst of persecution, it became a prayer of resistance and consolation: the simple prayer of those who, having lost everything, did not want to lose their Mother.