Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

"The Gate of Dawn: the Mother of Mercy on the wall"

Vilnius (Lithuania) (1620-1630)

In Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, the Gate of Dawn is preserved, the only one that survives from the walls that defended the city, built between 1503 and 1522. On an upper floor of that gate a chapel was built where the icon of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, known as Mother of Mercy, is venerated, facing the city.

The icon, painted on an oak panel probably in Vilnius between 1620 and 1630, was adorned by the Carmelites with a halo and silver vestments. During the wars with Russia in the mid-17th century, public veneration intensified, and the faithful attributed to the Virgin the protection of the city from fires and enemies.

The first recorded miracle, from 1671, tells of a two-year-old boy who fell from a second-story window onto the stone pavement and was seriously injured. His parents prayed to Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, and the next day the boy was healed. It is documented in that book with oaths, although the Church speaks of "graces" rather than scientific proof.

It is important to distinguish between historical accounts and tradition. It is a historical fact that in 1655 the city burned for days and the painting remained unharmed; the miraculous interpretation comes from the faithful. The tradition from the Great Northern War (1702) recounts that a Swedish soldier fired at the icon and that the heavy iron gates fell on four soldiers: the hole in the Virgin's sleeve is shown to pilgrims today and is well-attested, but the story of the four soldiers is pious tradition, lacking independent military documentation. Clement XIV granted indulgences in 1773, and in 1927 the icon was crowned with papal crowns as Our Lady of Mercy.