The miracle of the Rosary in Brazil

Millions of women marched in the streets, reciting the Rosary

by Gilberte Côté-Mercier

In 1964, miraculous events took place in Brazil, which can be set as an example to the entire world. The Red Revolution was stopped two days before the Communists had planned to take over the country. It is the women of Brazil who put a stop to the Marxist revolution, with the help of the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven, Our Lady of the Rosary, She who, through a decree of God, as it is written in the Book of Genesis (3:15), must crush the head of Satan, the liar and assassin.

It is Our Lady of Fatima who saved Brazil, during the Holy Week of 1964, because the Catholics of Brazil lived the Message of Fatima, and because, following the pilgrim statue of the Virgin Mary, the women of Brazil marched in the streets by the millions while reciting the Rosary and singing hymns.

In that year, Brazilian President Joao Goulart attempted to organize the selling-out of his country to Communism, following the Cuban model. He had succeeded in infiltrating key governmental posts as well as the schools and universities in most of the country. But for almost all the preceding year, Fr. Patrick Peyton, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, had preached a Rosary crusade, crisscrossing the country in order to convince the faithful to turn to Our Lady. In the moment of danger, the people remembered.

In 1964, Brazil had a population of 77 million people, three times the population of Canada at that time. That year, Readers Digest Magazine published an article entitled, "The Country that Saved Itself ". One reads:

"When the Federation of workers of Latin America — a Communist organization — announced that a huge meeting was to take place in Belo Horizonte, with two organizers from Russia as main speakers, the leaders of the Women's League for Democracy sent this brief message:'When the airplane carrying these two people arrives, there will hundreds of women lying on the landing runway. You have been warned.'This threat was enough. The airplane did not land in Belo Horizonte, and continued up to Brazilia.

"In February, 1964, the same women organized a demonstration which was similarly successful. A congress on land reform was to be held in the city of Belo Horizonte, with Lionel Brizola, the Cuban and Communist ambassador, as main speaker. When Brizola arrived in the hall of the congress, he found it packed full, so full that he could not succeed in making himself heard, his voice being covered by the clanking of the Rosary beads of 3,000 women praying for the deliverance of their nation. On leaving, Brizola found the streets equally full, as far as the eye could see, with women praying. He departed the city with one of the most incendiary speeches of his career still in his pocket, undelivered."

On March 13, 1964, the Communist leaders had brought to Rio de Janeiro 100,000 workers, by bus and train, at the expense of the State — over $400,000 at that time — to hear Goulart and Brizola decreed the amendment of the Constitution, the abolition of Congress, and the confiscation of industries and farms.

It was the 13th day of the month, the day chosen by the Virgin of Fatima in Her Apparitions in Portugal in 1917. Since this year, the 13th day of each month is honoured by the devotees of Our Lady of Fatima.

So March 13, 1964, was the day chosen by President Goulart to officially announce the beginning of the Communist dictatorship in Brazil. However, March 13, 1964, was also the day chosen by the Virgin Mary to show Her miraculous power of intercession in favour of Her friends of the Rosary.

When the women of Brazil heard on television the terrifying news launched by the demons of Communism, they left their homes and went out on the streets, by the millions, in every city, reciting the Rosary, carrying anti-Communist banners, and distributing tons of leaflets, with the help of their children.

On Thursday, March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, head of the Holy Family, the "March of the Family with God toward freedom" took place in downtown Sao Paulo (see picture above), with one million women marching solemnly through the streets, praying the Rosary and singing religious hymns for three hours. It was three days before Palm Sunday.

Holy Week

In the following days, during the Holy Week, similar "Marches of the Family with God toward freedom" took place in almost every city of Brazil, mobilizing millions of women. Like Christ in Jerusalem, the women of Brazil were triumphally marching on the streets of their cities on Palm Sunday, March 22, shouting: "Hosannah to the Son of David! "

Here is the text of the leaflet distributed by the women and their children throughout Brazil:

"This immense and marvelous land which God has given us, is in extreme peril. We have allowed men with unlimited ambition, devoid of all Christian faith and scruples, to bring misery to our people, to destroy our economy, to perturb our social peace, to sow hatred and despair. They have infiltrated our nation, our administrations, our army, and even our Church, with servants of a totalitarianism which is foreign to us and which would destroy all that we hold dear...

"Holy Mother of God, protect us from the fate that threatens us, and spare us the sufferings inflicted on the martyred women of Cuba, Poland, Hungary, and the other nations reduced to slavery! "

New grandiose "Rosary marches" were organized in all the country in which men, women and young people participated, while Luiz Carlos Prestes, head of the Brazilian Communist party, crowed, "We've already seized the power. We just need to take over the Government." As for President Goulart, he publicly blamed the Catholics for opposing his reforms, and made the mistake of publicly making fun of their devotion to the Rosary, saying that it was an ineffective weapon to solve Brazil's problems.

However, since March 13, the day Goulart had publicly announced the end of the Constitution, General Castelo Branco had written a secret manifesto of reprobation, which said, among other things: "When a president proposes to chase the Congress out and tear down the Constitution, it is not only the right of the army, but also its duty, to intervene to uphold the law."

Through rightist businessmen, this manifesto was clandestinely handed over to high officers of the army who could be trusted. Then, 1,500 officers of the navy made a call to all the citizens of the nation, saying that the time had come for Brazil to defend itself. The army, the navy, the press were joining the women who prayed, in a colossal counter-revolution.

On March 23, Cardinal Camera of Rio de Janeiro, in a message broadcasted all over the nation, warned the population about the imminent danger of Communist take-over.

Three days later, on March 26, Holy Thursday, sections of the military marched against Goulart. Seized documents showed that the Communists had planned to take over the country by force exactly two days later, on March 28. The counter-revolution had preceded the revolution by only 48 hours! The Communist revolution had been stopped, without any blood being shed.

A resurrection

The governors of the states and army generals sided with the counter-revolution, one after the other. Even members of the Congress left President Goulart who fled the country, followed by Brizola and the Communist leaders of the unions.

On Wednesday afternoon, April 1, three days after Easter Sunday, the counter-revolutionaries had won the victory. They celebrated on radio the failure of the Communists. One could see on the windows of the homes of Rio sheets and towels that saluted the victory, and the streets of Brazil were filled with happy people who were dancing in a joyful atmosphere.

It was a true resurrection.

On April 2, the entire population of Rio and the surrounding cities took to the streets for a gigantic prayer march which ended in a grand finale of thanksgiving to Our Lord and Our Lady. Some people wanted to convince the women of Rio to cancel this march, under the pretext that it had become useless after the victory, but the women of Rio rushed to their phones to keep the planned march, which became a triumph.

The counter-revolution in Brazil was a miracle. The miracle of a war won without blood being shed, the miracle of a population that itself organizes resistance, with little means, without the help of the Financiers or other nations. Even the U.S.A. did not help in this counter-revolution. It was the miracle of businessmen and professionals who worked for the common good, the miracle of the authorities, governors, generals, members of Congress, who are willing to sacrifice prestige and wealth to save their country.

Who did the miracle in Brazil? The women, with their Rosaries. So who did the miracle? Our Lady of Fatima who, in 1917, had promised to save the world from Communist tyranny if Catholics prayed the Rosary and made penance.

In July, Fr. Valerio Alberton, a Jesuit and Promoter of the Marian confraternities of Brazil, traveled to Fatima to thank the Most Holy Virgin for the liberation of his country. Please ponder all the phrases he said. They apply to our Western nations today (published in the October, 1964 issue of Voz de Fatima):

"We have overcome, thanks to Our Lady of the Rosary. It is the message of Fatima, lived in Brazil, which just saved us in time from the hydra of Moscow... The situation in my country was very serious. Every aspect of human activity was undermined. The key positions were in the hands of notorious Communists, those in favor of Communism. The unions were mostly controlled by them.

"Continual strikes, many of which were of an openly political nature, provoked disturbances everywhere. The universities themselves were affected. I noticed myself the seriousness of the situation when I travelled from November 1963 to March 1964 to all the capital cities of Brazil, where I was in contact with the university milieux. In the middle of March, I finished my travels with this conclusion: it is a fact that the Church has lost the universities.

"The penetration in the Catholic faculties was very profound. Even in our colleges there were Communist cell groups. Catholic associations were not spared. It was really scary. Discouragement was beginning to take over minds. Many found the problem unsolvable. There remained only one hope: devotion to the Blessed Virgin."

Every week, the Cardinal Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, through the voice of the pastor of a local radio station, put Catholics on their guard, and asked them to pray and make penance, according to the spirit of the Message of Fatima, so that God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, may have mercy on us.

"And these repeated calls were echoed in the hearts of the Brazilian Catholics, because the Message of Fatima had deeply penetrated their souls. The Message of Fatima has been welcomed with enthusiasm in Brazil; the whole nation has been impregnated with it. The visit of the pilgrim statue of the Virgin of Fatima in Brazil, for 18 months, in 1952 and 1953, constitutes one of the most extraordinary religious events of its history of over 500 years.

"These were 18 months of intense religious and Marian fervour. All the religious and civil authorities, all classes of society were present to pay homage to Our Lady... And this devotion to the Virgin Mary, especially the Rosary, was revived last year and this year by the moving campaign of Father Patrick Payton.

"Faced with this perilous situation, Catholic associations had put all their efforts in the service of the Blessed Virgin. Two hundred thousand men and lads, enrolled in the 2,000 Marian congregations, had formed a true pacifying army in the struggle for freedom.

"Can a country that let itself be shaken to its core by the Virgin Mary fall under the control of godless people? Never! The repeated calls to prayer and penance, according to the spirit of Fatima, revived faith, a faith that moves mountains, and the impossible happened: the miracle of a great war won without bloodshed. The counter-revolutionary high command anticipated at least three months of heavy fighting. Then a force, humanly speaking inexplicable, caused, as if by enchantment, the entire military operation, which had been diabolically and patiently erected over the course of several years, to collapse like a house of cards.

"The evidence of a signal grace at work was so strong that all were convinced that the unfolding of events did not have a human explanation. The civil and military leaders of the counter-revolution were almost unanimous in attributing this victory to a special grace of the Most Blessed Virgin. Several declared that the Rosary had been the decisive weapon, like for example Branco, Brazil's present president. The Rosary being recited everywhere, especially in the Marches of the Family with God toward freedom. All the Bishops of Brazil, in their common statement of June 3, confirm this expressly."

It's our turn!

The practical conclusion to be drawn from this true story is obvious: let us pray the Rosary daily, individually, in our families, and in public. Let us organize Rosary marches in the streets of our cities to stop the dictatorship of Communism and High Finance, and then our civil authorities will have the courage to stand up against the financial powers, and defend the common good of the citizens! The recitation of the Rosary saved Brazil. It will save us too!

Gilberte Côté-Mercier