Pope Francis Celebrates 1,500 Years of Worship of Saint Mary in the Portico
On 17 July, Pope Francis wrote a message for the anniversary of the 1,500 years of worship of the venerated image of Saint Mary in the Portico ( Romanae Portus Securitatis), the “protector of the Eternal City.”
The Pontiff addressed his words to Father Antonio Piccolo, Rector General of the Order of Clerics Regular of the Mother of God, a religious order founded by St. John Leonardi that has guarded this image since 1601.
The Holy Father took this opportunity to express his closeness to those participating “in this event so significant for the entire Church of Rome” around this Virgin, “a luminous beacon that has guided her children to a haven.”
In his message, released today by the Holy See Press Office, he stressed that the cult of this image “was born after a prodigious manifestation of the Mother of God on 17 July, 524 in the home of Saint Galla, a Roman patrician, in the presence of Pope Saint John I.”
Since then, Pope Francis recalled, “the Portico where the noble Galla welcomed the poor and pilgrims, became a Marian sanctuary and a hospice of charity.”
He said that this event is “an invitation to care for and promote the value of welcoming the poor and the last, so that the places we inhabit and the churches themselves may be a portico open to the world, in which to offer comfort and relief to the many forms of poverty that characterize our lives.”
The Holy Father added that the Virgin “revealed herself at a tough time for the Church, extending her mantle over Pope John I, who suffered and died for peace without renouncing his faith, becoming a hostage to political plots and fratricidal wars.
Looking at current conflicts, the Pope asked: “How can we not understand the urgency of promoting peace, of praying for peace?”
“Invoke peace and be peacemakers first and foremost in your reconciled and reconciling communities,” he urged.
In this regard, he urged us to look to Mary “as a sign of consolation and sure hope, the maternal face of God and a dwelling place in which to take refuge; because she continually gives us her Son as the only source of harmony, hope of salvation, path to peace, absolute imperative of the human search.”
He also stressed that “the saintly pharmacist Giovanni Leonardi founded the Congregation of the Reformed Priests of Mary Most Holy, precisely to restore to the Church the apostolic lustre of its origins.”
For this reason, he pointed out that “this commitment to Mary, which lovingly accompanies the journey of the Congregation dedicated to Her, is renewed even today and calls all of you to an ever greater missionary zeal and to continuous progress in spiritual life.”
Finally, he encouraged “us to have at heart the integral formation of religious, on a path of progressive conformation to the Crucified One who rose again, the first fruits of redeemed humanity.”
“And, looking to Mary, disciple of Christ and Mother of the Church, may her apostolate be a channel of grace and an instrument for the joyful proclamation of the Gospel,” concluded Pope Francis.