The Virgin and the Dragon

According to the Apocalypse of Saint John, the great battle between the armies of Satan and those of the Immaculata and Her angels took place first in Heaven: “A great portent appeared in heaven: a Woman! She is clothed with the sun, with the moon under Her feet, and on Her head a crown of twelve stars; She is with child and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.”(Ap 12:1-2)

This “portent” follows the appearance of the Ark of the Covenant(Ap 11:19), which was its figure. Saint John’s vision in the sky above Patmos “reveals” to us, in the sense of the Greek verb apokaluptein, that the Ark of the Covenant was the figure of this “Woman.”

On the day of the Annunciation, the words of the angel Gabriel had already hinted to Mary that Her womb was the first “tent” where “the Word dwelt among us and where we have beheld His glory”(Jn 1:14).

However, when Heaven opens before Saint John’s eyes, it is not Christ Who appears to him, but His Mother, the Queen of Mercy. She intervenes at the moment when “an earthquake” announces God’s judgement.

The messianic birth described here is therefore not that of Jesus in Bethlehem, but that of Easter morning, and the pains of childbirth are those of Calvary, announced by Jesus before entering into His Passion: “When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come.”(Jn 16:21)

The first pains are those of the compassion of Her Immaculate Heart pierced by a sword at the foot of the Cross, according to Simeon’s prophecy: “A sword will pierce through Your own soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”(Lk 2:35)

At the moment when Jesus suffers to acquire a humanity sanctified by His Precious Blood, She gives birth to a whole people in the person of John: “Woman, behold Your son!”(Jn 19:26), according to the prophecy of Isaiah: “Whoever heard of such a thing, whoever saw anything like this? Can a country be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? For Sion, scarcely in labour, has brought forth her children!”(Is 66:8) Mary personifies Sion.

Thus, Mary is not only the Mother of Jesus. She is the Bride of this new Adam, Father of all men whom He saves on the Cross by shedding His Precious Blood to engender them to grace. She Herself is the Mediatrix of this grace, since it is She Who gives Life to this “male Child”(Ap 12:5), Christ in His Mystical Body.

The same Holy Spirit is in Her and in Him to exercise with Him an indivisible function of fatherhood-motherhood in order to enlighten and save Their children.

Thus, this grandiose vision of John the Apostle is since time immemorial one of the scriptural foundations of the Church’s faith in Mary as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all graces. That is to say, She is not only the “first to be redeemed,” the “prototype, model and exemplar of what God wants to accomplish in every person who is redeemed,” in a “clearly receptive position” towards the Redeemer, as Cardinal Fernandez claims in the note Mater Populi fidelis. This passage of the Apocalypse shows Her actively cooperating in the Redemption, certainly in a subordinate role, but inseparable from Her Son, God Our Lord, in redeeming humanity. This is precisely what Saint Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort declared: “What I say in an absolute way about Jesus Christ I say in a relative way about the Blessed Virgin. Since Jesus Christ chose Her as the indissoluble companion of His life, His death, His glory, His power in Heaven and on the earth, He gave Her through grace, relatively to His majesty, all the same rights and privileges that He possesses by nature.” As Pius XII wrote in his dogmatic bull Munificentissimus Deus, infallibly defining the dogma of the Assumption: “The august Mother of God, mysteriously united with Jesus Christ from all eternity by one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in Her conception, a Virgin perfectly intact in Her divine motherhood, generously associated with the divine Redeemer, Who won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, (Mary) finally obtained [...] to be transported in body and soul into the supreme glory of Heaven where, as Queen, She would shine at the right hand of Her Son, the immortal King of the ages.”

She is therefore both in Heaven and on earth when Saint John sees Her glorious and suffering. Like Jesus Himself, She is “present in all the tabernacles of the world” at the same time as in Heaven. Thus, both of Them take part in the battle that is being waged on earth, described in the following verses.

“And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red Dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.”(Ap 12:3)

This is the tempting Serpent of Genesis, bearing the emblems of power befitting his rank as prince of the demons.

“His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.”(Ap 12:4)

This is an allusion to the fall of the evil angels who were led by Satan, at the origins. And a warning: they are at work “on earth”!

THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT.

The doctrinal note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith against Mary Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix, which was approved by Pope Leo XIV, shows that the battle is now being waged within the very hierarchy of the Church and that this battle has suddenly become offensive, frontal, and impregnable on earth. We are engaged without cover in this war, the last one, in hand-to-hand combat against Satan himself, who has a hard time concealing himself behind this ‘doctrinal note’. Such a text can only come from him.

As a correspondent wrote to us on our return from our pilgrimage to Lourdes and Garaison: “To learn on our return that the Pope affirms that Mary is not Co-Redemptrix is a crushing blow, it is an attack by the Devil who is not happy that we have made so many sacrifices!”

Only the Devil could produce such a text. It is a fulfilment of the warning given by Venerable Sister Lucy to Father Fuentes●:

“The Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world but She made me understand this for three reasons:

“The first reason is because She told me that the Devil is engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. A decisive battle is a final battle in which we will know which side victory is on, which side defeat. So, from now on we are either for God or for the Devil. There can be no middle ground.

“The second reason is because She told both my cousins and myself that God was giving the world two last remedies: the Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Since these are the last two remedies, it means that there will be no others.

“The third reason is because, in the plans of Divine Providence, when God is about to chastise the world, He always first exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He saw that the world paid no attention whatsoever, then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with a certain apprehension the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. For if we scorn and reject this ultimate means we will no longer obtain forgiveness from Heaven because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Spirit. This sin consists of openly rejecting, with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers.”●

To reject the salvation offered to us by an immemorial tradition of recourse to the universal and necessary Mediation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is truly the “sin against the Holy Spirit,” since the infinite love that circulates unceasingly among the Three Divine Persons, flowing from the Father to the Son, and from Their common principle to the Holy Spirit, finds its ‘reservoir’ in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of every one of us, forever! In this Heart, so tenderly offered to our yearning, we have access through fraternal charity to the divine Life and we return to the Source of grace and glory “in the bosom of the Father, in the unique filial Wisdom and spiritual Love.”

The Blessed Virgin is the Daughter of God the Father, the Mother-Spouse of God the Son, and the Dove of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

“THEY DID NOT WANT TO HEED MY REQUEST!”

Sister Lucy continued: “Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit His most Holy Mother to be offended and despised.” In Pontevedra, Our Lord Himself had shown her how sensitive He is to offences against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

“The Child Jesus said to me ‘Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, without anyone making an act of reparation to remove them.’

“Then the Most Blessed Virgin said to me: ‘Behold, My daughter, My Heart surrounded by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and their ingratitude.’ ”

Never would Venerable Sister Lucy have been able to imagine the extent of the ingratitude that the Holy See reveals when it denies to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the ‘preeminent role’ in our redemption, a role that is one with Her Son’s.

This apparition in Pontevedra took place exactly one hundred years ago: December 10, 1925 – December 10, 2025. This anniversary reminds us of another tragic warning from Our Lord to His confidante:

“Make it known to My ministers that since they are following the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My request, they will follow him into misfortune.”

On June 17, 1689, the Sacred Heart revealed to Saint Margaret Mary the requests and promises that He was addressing to Louis XIV, who paid no heed to them. As a result, on June 17, 1789, the ‘third estate’ proclaimed itself the ‘national assembly,’ claiming popular sovereignty against the absolute sovereignty of the divine right. This was the founding event of the Revolution. Thus, Heaven had exercised patience and mercy towards men for a century before executing the great chastisement for their refusal.

In this perspective, given the violent opposition of our hierarchy to God’s will to establish devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the world, more than ever, we must expect the worst for the Papacy, for the Church and for our nations. The divine promise, however, remains: “It will never be too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary. Like the King of France they [the Popes] will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread its errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer.”

"FOR HER, WE ARE READY FOR ALL!"

In 1937, Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, who was facing strong opposition within his order against his devotion to the Immaculata, announced that ‘a bloody trial’ would be necessary for Her triumph to finally come about. His hope in this triumph was so invincible that he foretold that “a statue of the Immaculata would be set up in the very centre of Moscow.”

In 1938, he prophetically announced the Second World War to his brothers of Niepokalanow: “My little children, a ruthless battle is going to take place. I do not know exactly what it will be, but here in Poland we must expect the worst. War is much nearer than we imagine, and if it breaks out, it will mean the dispersion of our community. You must be prepared for a period worse than the present.”

He added, however: “It will certainly be permitted by the Immaculata for our own good. We must not be saddened at this, but must firmly adhere to the will of the Immaculata. We find ourselves in such a position that no one can harm us; for Her, we are ready to do anything, even to give our lives, if that is what they want; it will be a free ticket for Heaven!”

During his first deportation to the Amtitz camp with his brothers, he said to them: “We do not know what will become of us. Let us try to be ready for all that the Immaculata wants from us. Let us give ourselves completely to Her, that She may ever guide us according to Her will.”

Finally, during his second captivity in Pawiak Prison, before being sent to Auschwitz, he wrote to his brothers for the last time on May 12, 1941: “Let us promise to allow ourselves to be guided in the most perfect manner, as She wants and wherever She wants to lead us, so that in the holy fulfilment of our duties, we may, in order to please Her, save all souls.”

Yes, O Immaculate Conception, dispose of us as You wish, so that what Your Knight said of You may finally be fulfilled:

“Then heresies and schisms will be extinguished, and hardened sinners, thanks to the Immaculata, will return to God, to His Heart full of love, and all pagans will have themselves baptised. Thus will be fulfilled what Blessed Catherine Labouré● – to whom the Immaculata revealed the Miraculous Medal – had foreseen: that is to say: the Immaculata will become ‘the Queen of the whole world’ and ‘of each individual in particular.’ ”

Brother Bruno of Jesus-Mary