Mary, Mother of Divine Providence
By Roberto de Mattei | 20 November 2024
The Congregation of the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul, known as the Barnabites, celebrates on the third Saturday of November the feast of Our Lady of Divine Providence, for whom it reserves special veneration. After the death of this order’s founder, St Anthony Mary Zaccaria (1502–1539), devotion to Divine Providence was expressed through reverence for an image entitled Mater Divinae Providentiae, painted by Scipione Pulzone da Gaeta around 1580, displayed in every Barnabite house and chapel. In 1744, Benedict XIV approved a Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Providence, venerated in Rome at the church of San Carlo called “ai Catinari”, to be celebrated on the Saturday before the third Sunday of November. On 5 August 1896, Fr Benedetto Nisser, superior general of the Barnabites, established that every cleric regular should have a copy of this painting in his residence.
In Milan, a copy of this image is venerated at the church of Sant’Alessandro, whose first stone was laid in 1602 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo. The Borromeo family was always linked to the Barnabite Fathers. It is no coincidence that the Roman church of San Carlo ai Catinari, completed in 1620, was dedicated to St Charles Borromeo, benefactor of the Barnabite order.
Devotion to Our Lady of Divine Providence also characterises two great Italian saints of the modern era, St Luigi Guanella (1842–1915) and St Luigi Orione (1882–1940).
In the bulletin La Divina Provvidenza of November 1895, a short article by Fr Guanella appeared, with the title “Our Lady of Divine Providence”. In it Our Lady is described under this title, given to the image that Fr Guanella venerated in Rome at the church of San Carlo ai Catinari. He wrote:
“Our Lady of Divine Providence gathers her divine Son wrapped in a copious mantle, presses him lovingly to her heart and looks at him with two eyes admirable for the divine joy that floods them, almost as if to say: I embrace divine Providence, that divine Providence which makes use of me, a humble handmaid, to provide food and assistance to this heavenly Infant who is divine Providence incarnate. The Blessed Virgin of Divine Providence is our most dear Mother, who enjoys being called by this title so as to be more prompt in helping us. What a consolation in the midst of life’s troubles to have someone to turn to, and to turn to the great Virgin of divine Providence. In the various works of the Little House, our common Mother Mary Most Holy is venerated under this title of Mother of divine Providence.”
In 1912, Fr Guanella took part in the International Marian Congress held in Trier, and gave an enthusiastic address to the Italian delegation on this Marian title, proclaiming that all his work was owing to the protection of God and of the Blessed Virgin.
When he speaks of Divine Providence, Fr Guanella is usually referring to Jesus Christ, Divine Providence incarnate, whereas Mary is the Mother of Divine Providence, incarnate in her womb. St Luigi Orione also welcomed and developed the devotion to Our Lady of Divine Providence, under the title of Mater Dei. Referring to the title, Our Lady of Divine Providence, he said, “Just as the Augustinians have ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel’ … and the Franciscans, who were the defenders of the Immaculate, have ‘the Immaculate’, Our Lady of Divine Providence is the Mater Dei, the all-powerful by grace.”
For Fr Orione, as for Fr Guanella, the title of Our Lady, Mother of Divine Providence is based on two objects or truths of our faith: in divine Providence, which is the benevolent and paternal omnipotence of God, and in the maternity of Our Lady, Mother of God, who in becoming incarnate entrusts Himself to her as a child in need of everything, of affection, care, training and instruction.
Characteristic of the two saints is also a personal and lived faith in Divine Providence: “In the works of Providence,” Fr Guanella says, “we must trust as if God did everything and we nothing, and at the same time toil as if everything depended on us and nothing on God.”
The ejaculatory prayer “Most Holy Providence of God, do thou provide for us”, sums up this theology of history.
In the Orione Congregation, the feast of the Mother of Divine Providence is set on 20 November, because, on that very day in 1954, the definitive pontifical approval of the congregation and its constitution took place, while 12 November is the date of the celebration of the solemnity of the Mother of Divine Providence in all the houses of the Work of St Luigi Guanella.
For Fr Orione, the theology of Divine Providence has its highest expression in the anticipation of an era of triumph for the Church, prophesied by many saints but announced by Our Lady herself in Fatima in 1917. St Luigi Orione announces it with these prophetic-sounding words:
“The future belongs to Christ! The barque of this poor world is taking on water from all sides: without You it is going to the bottom; come, O Lord, come! Rise again in all hearts, in all families: on all the shores of the earth, O Christ Jesus, arise and arise! Hear the anguished cry of the throngs that yearn for You: see the peoples that come to You, O Lord. To You they belong; they are your conquest, O Jesus, my God and my Love! Stretch out, O Church of the living God, your great arms, and envelop the people in your saving light. O truly Catholic Church, Holy Mother Church of Rome, the only true Church of Christ, born not to divide but to unify in Christ and to give peace to men! A thousand times I bless you and a thousand times I love you! Drink my love and my life, O Mother of my Faith and of my soul!”
Divine Providence is the hand of God that guides the weaving of the mysterious fabric of history. Devotion to Divine Providence is an extraordinary remedy not only for the hardships of our lives, but also for the dramatic crisis of our time.