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HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, established as a feast by Pope Pius VII in 1814, in gratitude for his safe return to Rome after five years of captivity in Savona. Though not in the universal calendar, it is the patronal feast of Australia. The original invocation "Auxilium Christianorum" was inserted in the Litany of Our Lady by Pope St. Pius V in thanksgiving for the Christian victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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