November 8
Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy
On November 8, 1620, Catholic and Protestant armies fought for control
of Bohemia at White Mountain, near Prague. The Catholic chaplain, Spanish
Carmelite Domingo Ruzola, carried with him a small painting of the Virgin
and shepherds adoring the newborn Jesus, which he had rescued from a
church in Strakonice, further south, where iconoclasts had cut out the
eyes of everyone in the picture except the baby's. Catholics attributed
their victory at the Battle of White Mountain to the intercession of St. Mary, afterwards rededicating the Carmelite church of St. Paul in Rome to
St. Mary of Victory and installing the painting known as Santa Maria di
Strakonice above its main altar. The original painting burned in the fire
of 1833 and was replaced by a copy. The church is now more famous for Bernini's sculpture of St. Teresa in ecstasy, installed in 1652.
It celebrates its patronal feast of Santa Maria della Vittoria on the second
Sunday in November.
Sources:
 | "STORIA DELLA CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA DELLA VITTORIA," Teresiania Karmel in Österreich, www.karmel.at/prag-jesu/italiano/ita/historit.htm (history and photo) |
| Štěpán Vácha, "Santa Maria della Vittoria a Roma e a Praga. Nuove riflessioni sulla sacra immagine e sul suo culto," 2014, Bollettino dell’Istituto Storico Ceco di Roma 9 |
Also celebrated this date:
| Nossa Senhora do Amparo, Valença, Bahia, Brazil (Our Lady of Refuge). Town's patronal festa, procession. |
| Virgen de los Treinta y Tres, Florida, Uruguay (Virgin of the Thirty-Three). Patron of Uruguay. Mass and eight-mile procession. |