Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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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.
