Catholics know that the name of Mary, of the Virgin Mary, has supernatural power.
They have verified it by messages that have been given to visionaries since ancient times and by the reactions of demons in exorcisms.
This is not magic, but has its rational explanation.
Here we will talk about how the name of Mary was given to the Blessed Virgin, what things are accomplished by invoking the name of Mary, what promises Jesus has given to those who say it with trust and devotion, and how the invocation of Her name protects and defends us in the fight against the evil one.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich says that when the Virgin Mary was born, when she was eight days old, she was given the name Mary.
And following the rites of the time, they anointed her five senses and placed a scroll with her name on her chest.
Let us remember that for the Jews the name given to people describes their personality and character.
But his name was not an earthly idea.
St. Alphonsus Liguori says that Mary's name was not an earthly idea, but a provision from heaven.
This is attested by St. Jerome, St. Epiphanius, St. Anthony and others.
In this way the three divine persons gave her that name, which is superior to any other outside the name of her Son.
Our Lady said to St. Bridget,
"My name is Mary, as the Gospel says.
When the angels hear this name, they rejoice and give thanks to God for the very great grace He worked in me and with me, because they see the humanity of My Son glorified."
And He further said to her,
"The souls in purgatory rejoice in a special way, as when a sick man who is in bed hears encouraging words from others and this pleases his heart making him feel content."
That is why the Church decreed a feast to celebrate the Sweet Name of Mary.
The celebration of the Sweet Name of Mary on September 12, 4 days after celebrating her birth on September 8, is due to Pope Innocent XI, who declared the feast to perpetuate the victory that the Austrians and Poles, led by John Sobieski, won against the Turkish Muslims in 1683, in Vienna.
When the Muslim army advanced against Vienna, the Pope ordered that the rosary be recited in all religious houses and churches in Rome.
Catholics throughout Europe offered the same prayers.
Special devotions to Our Lady Help of Christians were practiced in the Capuchin church in Vienna.
And a hanging image became the symbol of Christian victory over the Turks.
Finally the victory over the Muslims came on September 12, hence the date of the feast of the Sweet Name of Mary.
The Polish King John Sobieski prepared for the battle against the Muslims by receiving Holy Communion and devoutly hearing Holy Mass, as did the entire Polish army
Then the brave cavalrymen, with their plumes of feathers, were launched by Sobieski himself in a full-speed charge into the center of the Ottoman line.
And to the cry of Jesus, Mary, help us, they went charge after charge.
It was the largest cavalry charge in history: 20,000 Polish, German and Austrian horsemen.
Pope Innocent XI attributed the merit and glory of that journey to the favor and help of Mary.
That is why he wanted to dedicate that luminous day of September to the feast of her Most Holy Name.
And it is tradition that the Christian honors the sweet name of Mary by eating croissants at dinner, a crescent-shaped bread, to symbolize the defeat of the Muslims.
Meaning that they eat a worshipper of the crescent, that is to say a Muslim.
And another custom is to sit the image of the baby Virgin on the lap of her mother St. Anne in the manger dedicated to Mary for her birth.
This devotion comes from heaven.
St. Bridget heard that Jesus Christ promised His Blessed Mother that He would grant three special graces to those who would invoke that sacred name with confidence:
First, that He would grant them perfect contrition for their sins.
Second, that their sins will be atoned for.
And third, that He would give them the strength to attain perfection, and ultimately, the glory of paradise.
And also Our Lady told St. Bridget how His name acts, He explained to her,
"On hearing My name, the good angels immediately approach the souls of the just, to whom they have been given as guardians, and rejoice in their progress."
And he spoke to him also about the importance of his name in the fight against the demons.
He said to him,
"The demons are all frightened and fear my name.
At the sound of Mary's name, they immediately release the prey they have in their clutches."
But he warned that they are always on the prowl, saying that they come back again quick as an arrow when there has been no amendment of life of the person who invoked the name of Mary.
In other words, the devil stays away from the person unless he sinned mortally again.
But he sentenced,
"No one is so cooled in the love of God that the demon is not kept away from him if he invokes my name, and if he intends to return no more to his bad habits."
That is why exorcists know that one of the main functions that the sweet name of Mary has is in the combat with demons.
The name of Mary is what terrifies the devil the most.
Because he knows that the Immaculate is going to triumph. And that causes him tremendous anguish.
In the first prophecy that appears in the Bible, Genesis 3:15, God tells him that she and her descendants will crush the head of the serpent, which is the devil.
Specifically, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; she shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise her heel."
Mary's humility was so radical that it crushes Satan's "proud head" and is therefore the surest defense against him and his attacks.
The devil knows that this is so, so his strategy is to steal as many souls as possible from her.
He does everything possible so that people do not pray the rosary, do not make altars, do not put flowers to his images.
She wants her children to forget her.
That is why Thomas a Kempis affirms that the demons fear the Queen of Heaven to such an extent that just by hearing Her great name pronounced, they flee from the person who says it, as if it were the burning fire.
And therefore during the Rite of Exorcism, the priest will pray to expel the demon from the possessed person saying:
"The glorious Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, commands you; she who by her humility and from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception crushed your proud head."
And exorcists have written down the things said to her by demons during exorcisms, forced to speak and tell the truth in the name of Jesus.
They acknowledge,
"She snatches more souls from us than all the angels and all the saints put together."
And they compare Mary to a formidable army.
The famous exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth confirmed this reality in his dialogues with the devil, when the devil told him:
"I am more afraid when you say the name of Our Lady, because I feel more humiliated to be beaten by a simple creature, than by Him", referring to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
And they seek to stop her but admitted to Amorth that they do not succeed in doing so, and explain the reason,
"because she is more powerful than us, evil has no power over her".
And a demon explained to him other reasons for their anger telling him,
"She angers me because she is the humblest of all creatures and because I am the proudest.
Because she is the purest of all creatures, and I am not.
Because, of all creatures, she is the most obedient to God, and I am a rebel!"
And according to the Italian exorcist Father Sante Babolin, while insistently invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary in an exorcism, the devil answered him:
"I can't stand Esa (Mary) anymore and I can't stand you anymore either."
And he discovered that the devil's strongest reactions during exorcism occur when reference is made to his apparitions.
Therefore, Babolin frequently invokes the Virgin Mary under her titles of Lourdes, Fatima or Guadalupe in exorcisms.