Happy Birthday, Little Mary

     In the United States, the Virgin Mary is honored under hundreds of titles and in various stages of her life as the Blessed Mother of Our Lord. Paintings and statues of her in this role abound. Other than when she is pictured with Saint Ann, however, we rarely see her depicted as a child.

     In Mexico, devotion to Mary as a child thrives, especially through the work of the Missionaries of the Nativity of Mary, a missionary congregation of priests established in her honor. The cult of the Immaculate Child Mary began with a little-known apparition in Mexico City in 1840.

     On the feast of the Three Kings in that year, a Conceptionist sister, Sister Magdalena, was praying in front of a nativity scene and adoring the child Jesus when she began to wonder why Mary was not also honored with songs and devotions to celebrate her childhood. At that moment, she saw a beautiful little girl, dressed like a queen, who appeared to be reclining and floating through the air. The vision seemed to say, "I will grant many graces to those who honor me in my infancy."

     Overwhelmed, Sister Magdalena wanted to begin this devotion as the vision had requested, and to have an image of the apparition made. Immediately she reported what had happened to the abbess, who received the news apathetically and said that if it were from God, He would insist.

     Sister Magdalena began to pray fervently for God's Will. One day, while cleaning the sacristy, she found the head of an angel which at one time had broken off a monstrance. Joyfully she carried it to the Abbess and asked permission to use it to make an image of the child Mary. Permission was granted, and Sister Magdalena took the head to a sculptor. When she explained about the vision, he did a beautiful job at a small cost. He made the image as natural as a small girl, and with great joy Sister Magdalena began to spread the devotion. The cult extended rapidly and graces and extraordinary favors began to happen.

     Just as with any of the major devotions of the Church, opposition tested the validity of the cult of the Immaculate Niña (Little Girl.) In this case, ecclesiastical authorities prohibited the devotion. A pious woman who knew of the devotion took the case to Rome to petition the Holy Father. Pope Gregory XVI not only approved the devotion, but also enriched it with indulgences. Later several Bishops gave it their approval. Through the medium of this first image, the Immaculate Little Mary worked many miracles. She restored the sight of a blind child, and converted many sinners.

     In 1859, on the death of Sister Magdalena, she charged another of the sisters, Sister Guadalupe of St. Sylvester, with the care of the statue and the continuance of the devotion. Although this sister had every intent of carrying out Sister Magdalena's deathbed wish, due to various circumstances there was a period of nearly twenty years when the devotion was all but forgotten.

     In order for the people to more easily be reminded of the devotion, Sister Guadalupe had another, smaller statue made that could be carried out to the people. When the sculptor delivered it, however, Sister Guadalupe didn't think it was pretty enough, so she put it away in her closet and forgot it.

     In 1879, a pious nineteen year old girl named Rosario Arrevillaga was introduced to the sisters. This was in the days of the Laws of the Reform in Mexico, and the sisters had been turned out of their convents and were living in various houses in small groups. For safety reasons, only those well known and trusted were invited to worship services.

     From the moment Rosario encountered the Immaculate Little Mary, she adored her, and the sisters saw her devotion growing stronger daily. At last, Sister Guadalupe remembered the little statue in the closet and on the Feast of the Holy Rosary, gave it to Rosario as a present.

     From that moment, Rosario was filled with a divinely inspired love for the Virgin and she began to walk a veritable road of Calvary in order to make the devotion known and loved. A mystic, Rosario was only a poor, middle class girl. She spread the cult, raised a beautiful temple in the Virgin Child's honor, and founded a congregation of sisters and a refuge for children - orphans and the most unhappy and discriminated against. Her childlike faith and simplicity, and her devotion to the rosary, carried her through many trials. Many of her comments about the eventual spread of the cult turned out to be prophetic.

     Rosario first made an oratory in her own home where the devotion began to be celebrated. Frightened of the gigantic task she felt God was calling her to complete, she nonetheless began to built a church as a temple for the image. The church was completed and dedicated in 1903. It was later confiscated by the government during the Mexican Revolution.

     In 1901, in cooperation with a diocesan priest from Spain, Federico Salvador y Ramon, Rosario began a religious order of nuns dedicated to the little queen and founded for the education and moral formation of children. Today the Slaves of the Immaculate Child continue their work in Mexico City and environs and have adopted the motto of St. de Montfort: "To Jesus through Mary." Their goal is to establish through Maria Niña the reign of Jesus Christ in the world. Rosario herself eventually joined the order, taking the name of Mother Rosario. After her death, Maria del Carmen Muriel, in religious known as Madre Almita, took over the direction of the work in Mexico.

     The death of Father Salvador in 1931 ended, for a time, the plan to form a community of men. Although he had written a constitution for a men’s branch, he did not live to see it. In June of 1930, a young Spanish priest, Father Vicente Echarri, was ordained in Pamplona after being cured of tuberculosis which had threatened to stop his ordination. In payment of a vow to Mary, he went to Mexico as a missionary and while working in Tlalpan, he accepted the direction and formation of the young men so devoted to the Little Queen. He formed a small seminary in Tlalpan.

     Through a series of fortunate circumstances and the kindness of Bishop Emeterio Valverde Tellez, a group of major seminarians were allowed to study at the diocesan seminary of Leon. The first priests of the order were ordained at the Cathedral of Leon in 1949. 

     The Missionaries of the Nativity of Mary is a congregation that is missionary, Marian, religious, and clerical. Their charisma is "the perfect imitation of Mary" and their surrender to her love as her slaves; their distinctive characteristic in the Church is their obedience. Today, the order numbers two bishops among its ranks, and works throughout Mexico and in Puerto Rico. Through the work of these dedicated priests, the Immaculate Little Mary is becoming even better known. •