Behold Thy MotherA Publication of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Ghost

Winter 2012 Volume 14 Issue 40

Veni Sancte Spiritus per Mariam!

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Morning Offering(In the spirit of Holy Slavery)

O Jesus, through the ImmaculateHeart of Mary, in reparation for mysins, I offer Thee all my prayers,works, joys and sufferings of thisday and of my entire life, for all theintentions of Thy Most SacredHeart, in union with the HolySacrifice of the Mass validly andlicitly offered this day throughoutthe world, the infinite graces andmerits thereof to be dispensed inaccord with Thy Divine Will for thesalvation of souls, the conversionof sinners, and the special intentionrecommended for this month:

Missionary Sisters of the Holy GhostP.O. Box 589 • Veradale, WA 99037

Behold Thy Mother is published three times a year. Subscription rates are$16.00 per year within the United States. Foreign rates, $22.00 per year.

Intentions for:January: Sancification of homeand family, truly Catholicmarriages.

February: The spread of the trueCatholic Faith through the spreadof devotion to Mary.

March: An increase in pious andholy religious vocations.

April: For all of the missionaryendeavors throughout the worldand unity among the members ofthe Church Militant.

La Conquistadorathe

Lovely Ladydressed in Blue

Lovely Lady dressed in blueTeach me how to pray!

God was just your little Boy,tell me what to say!

Did you lift Him up, sometimesGently, on your knee?

did you sing to Him, the wayMother does to me?

...Do you really think He caresIf I tell Him things--

Can He hear me if I speak low?Does He understand me now?

Tell me, for you know!

Lovely Lady dressed in blue,Teach me how to pray!

God was just your little boy,And, you know the way.

Dear Readers,It took 14 years and 40 issues before Our Lady introduced herself to us inthe sweetest little depiction that I have ever seen.

The Lady Conqueror, La Conquistadora, what an awesome, powerful title,which should inspire in us such great confidence when we pray to her.

Small in stature, yet mighty as a conqueror, La Conquistadora is a Madonnayou will fall in love with, for she represents to us everything we have everknown and loved about the Mother of God.

Why, you may ask, was it not widely known that this little replica of ourMother, was the first in our native land of the United States of America?Why? Well, I believe that she has saved herself for a time in our countrythat we would need Mary more than ever before.

2012 is a year that God is giving us the chance, as Catholics, to beginagain, and La Conquistadora, the “Lady Conqueror”, is just the strengthwe need to lean on, in our quest to bring this country back to God. Knownby three titles, this great lady will be the instrument needed for victoryover sin in America.

As the Lady of the Assumption, she will help us to think of our heavenlyhome and realize that the way we live on this earth, helps or hinders us ineternity. As the Immaculate Conception, she will crush the serpent’s headand help us to lead this nation to purity of heart, mind and body. As theLady of the Rosary, she will gain for us the graces we need, as a country,to turn our lives around and begin leading God-fearing, God-loving lives,free from every kind of sin. She will lead voters away from approvinglaws that cry out to heaven for vengeance, such as those of abortion andhomosexual marriages.

La Conquistadora will give you the strength and courage that you neverthought you had, to vote with a convicted conscience. She, along withprayerful, dedicated voters, will once again turn this great Nation, to“One Nation Under God”, in the true meaning of that phrase.

My prayers and the prayers of our Sisters are with you. We thank you foryour prayers and for your support. In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

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La Conquistadora

Queenofthe

Southwest

By Fray Angelico Chavez, O.F.M.

St. Anthony MessengerMay, 1948

Our Lady, known asLa Conquistadora,

“The Lady-Conqueror”,was brought to the New World

by Spanish Colonists. Suppose the Pilgrim Fa-thers had been Catholics andhad brought a statue of OurLady with them to enthronein the first church they built.Suppose that they had takenit out in procession as thePatroness of their Sodalityduring those cold monthswhen there was so muchsuffering from the weatherand from fear of Indianattacks, and that it had stoodon the main table of that firstThanksgiving Day in NewEngland. Then supposethat, some generations laterthe descendants of thosepeople had borne it in pro-cession during the Battle of

Bunker Hill, and again lateron when the Declaration ofIndependence was draftedand the Liberty Bell wasbeing rung. Suppose stillfurther that George Wash-ington had carried it acrossthe Delaware and hadreferred his victory atYorktown to Mary’s interces-sion. And generations later,imagine Abraham Lincolnproclaiming days of prayerfor her intercession duringthe most crucial period of theCivil War. That statue would be themost prized relic of ourNations’s birth and develop-ment for being so intimately

connected with every impor-tant phase and crisis of ourhistory. The people wouldfeel drawn to it by the verythought that their grandpar-ents and great-grandparents,all the way back to 1620, hadseen and handled and hon-ored this very same portraitof Our Lord’s Mother.People from all over thecountry would go to view itin its shrine at Concord orLexington or in a specialLady Chapel built for it inBoston’s Cathedral or St.Patrick’s in New York. TheCatholic papers wouldalways be referring to it, andall kinds of “shots” of thebeloved image would appearfrom time to time in theillustrated Catholic maga-zines. There is such a statue in theAmerican Southwest. It didnot come with any settlers ofthe Atlantic seaboard, ofcourse, but with the earlierSpanish colonists of NewMexico. It may be seen in thenorth Lady Chapel of theCathedral in Santa Fe, alovely little image, aboutthirty inches tall, veryqueenly in her real-gold dressand her mantle of old bluebrocade. So precious is shein her historical and religious

background of more thanthree centuries, that onecannot for long refer to thecharming figure as “it.”Every year, on the Feast ofCorpus Christi, Vespers aresung in her honor and thenshe is carried in a mile-longprocession from the Cathe-dral to a chapel outside oftown. There an early morn-ing Mass is sung every dayfor a whole week, at whichthe faithful attend in largethrongs. On the followingSunday Vespers are chantedat the chapel, and again sheis borne back in procession toher ancient place at the

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Cathedral. Her name is “OurLady of the Rosary,” but forthree hundred years thefaithful have also called herfamiliarly “La Conquistadora,”which means “The Lady-Conqueror.” Some translatethis long word as “Our Ladyof Victory,” but this is notcorrect, for Our Lady ofVictory is a distinct title anddevotion of Our Lady withhead quarters and a shrine inParis, France, while repro-ductions of that statue are tobe found all over the world. But there is only one LaConquistadora, and she gotthis name from early Catholicsettlers of the Southwestbecause she had come with

La Conquistadora, being borne in procession.

the first “conquistadors” orconquerors of the land longbefore the Pilgrims landed inNew England. The first Spanish colonyarrived in New Mexico in theyear 1600. The Spanishfamilies formed the littletown of San Gabriel on apretty spot where the head-waters of the Rio Grande andthe Chama River meet, whilethe Franciscan missionariesspread out among the IndianPueblos, from the neighbor-ing ones of San Juan, SantaClara, and San Ildefonso, toothers hundreds of milesaway. Those were naturallyhard times, far more severethan the English Pilgrims

ever experienced when theylanded at Plymouth manyyears later. By 1610 theSpanish Governor hadfounded the Villa or RoyalTown of Santa Fe (the HolyFaith) as the permanentCapital of “the Kingdom ofthe New Mexico,” as thecolony was called for centu-ries. Santa Fe stood on aplateau seven thousand feetabove sea-level, some thirtymiles south of San Gabriel,overlooking the vast expansesof mountains and plains anddeserts, and more centrallylocated than the first settle-

ment. Unlike San Gabriel, itwas also situated well awayfrom any Indian village. Thesnow-capped range directlybehind the new City of theHoly Faith came to be knownas the Sierra de la Sangre deCristo -- “The Mountains ofthe Blood of Christ.” In this first and oldestCapital in the United Stateswas founded perhaps thefirst and oldest Parish in thecountry, not merely a chapelor a “Mission” as in earlier orlater Spanish settlements, buta real canonical parish, toserve the inhabitants of the

Sierra de la Sangre de Cristo“The Mountains of the Blood of Christ”

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Apache chiefsvisited

“The Lady Conqueror”,and inquired

about the truthsof our Holy Faith.

Capital. The title of it wasOur Lady of the Assumption.The original church was notan imposing one, beingmeant to be just a temporarystructure until the royalgovernment buildings andthe homes were completed.In the eyes of the Franciscansthe work of the IndianMissions was of first impor-tance, so that in manyIndian Pueblos really impos-ing Mission churches werebeing built, some of whichhave survived to this day asobjects of wonder to thosewho behold them. It wasnot until 1626 that the firstpermanent parish churchwas begun in Santa Fe,facing the large two-blockPlaza from the east and with

the beautiful mountains for abackdrop. In front of iteverything took place, frommilitary parades and market-ing with Indian tribes, toreligious processions andpopular fiestas. The man responsible forthis building was FatherAlonso de Benavides, thenew Custos or head of theFranciscans, who had arrivedin December 1625. He wasone of those men who thinkbig and like to do things big,as we say, and was alsoinclined to exaggerate inwriting reports. The largenew parish church of SantaFe was one of the many greatthings that he did accomplishduring his brief three yearterm. With rare foresight healso worked for the establish-ment of a bishopric in SantaFe for the better progress ofthe great Mission programwhich was soon after ham-pered by meddlesome andimpious Governors. In this,however, he failed. He alsohad the happy foresight, alittle thing then, but impor-tant to us now, to bring abeautiful little statue of OurLady of the Assumption for herparish church in the Capital.She was carved out of wood,coated with a thin layer of

plaster over which thickgold-leaf was laid; this brightgold surface was thenpainted over to give a gold-blue red brocade effect on hertunic and mantle, while theface and hands were done innatural colors. Not only were the Span-iards delighted with her, butthe Indians as well. Evenwild Apache chiefs whocame from the far easternprairies to barter with theSpanish, stopped in thechurch to admire her andinquired about the truths ofour Holy Faith. The Span-iards in Santa Fe itself, andthose who were scattered inhaciendas, had formed aConfraternity or Sodality ofOur Lady before or after thestatue arrived, without doubtthe first Blessed Virgin MarySodality in this country.Things indeed looked rosy forall concerned and especiallyfor the conversion of all theIndians in the vast surround-ing territory. But evil influ-ences were already at workto bring ruin and sorrow.Some of the Governors inthose times were fiendishlyimpious men, fortune-seekerswho finding themselves faraway from higher authority,looked on themselves as little

gods. One of them in 1626,went so far as to hang a manon trumped-up charges ofsedition simply because itirked him to see the goodman so active in the affairs ofthe Church and the Sodality.Father Benavides himselfwrote of a Governor whosent some rival Indians tomurder those Apache chief-tains who had shown somuch interest in the Faith onbeholding the statue of theAssumption. Matters went from bad to

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worse with each year. But allthe while the common peopleclung to their Faith and theirdevotion to Our Lady in spiteof so many hindrances andscandals. The King’s court inSpain and even the Viceroy’sin Mexico City, were too faraway to learn about theabuses in time and correctthem; many a time that a badGovernor was being tried forhis evil deeds, his successor inSanta Fe was already doingthe same thing or worse.There were also years offamine and of invasions byfierce Apaches and Navajoson both Pueblo Indians andSpanish folk. During these

years a change took placewith regard to the devotionto Our Lady among thechildren of those pioneers,not a lessening of their devo-tion, but a curious transfor-mation in the names andtitles that they used. Thesecond generation of Span-iards now called the Santa Feparish “Our Lady of theConception” instead of “OurLady of the Assumption”.Already around 1656-59, theSodality was referred to asthat of “Our Lady of theRosary”. And by 1684, someof these people who were stillliving, as well as their chil-dren and grandchildren,

were calling their Sodalityand beloved statue “OurLady of the Rosary, LaConquistadora”. It wasduring this period, between1620 and 1680, that a bigchange also took place in theimage itself. In order to haveher dressed with real clothesto represent “Our Lady ofthe Rosary,” someone cut offthe shoulders and gougedout the chest down to thewaist, and then put thecarved hands on moveablearms, jointed at the elbowsand shoulders like those of apuppet. Then dresses andmantles of precious materials

were put on her, as also alittle Infant Jesus on her leftarm, a Rosary on her righthand, and a gilt-silver crownon her head! It was the styleto dress statues this way inthose days, and she really didlook beautiful dressed torepresent Our Lady of theRosary. But without thedress and mantle she surelypresented a sad spectacle ascompared with her originalcarved glory. The year 1680 was a heart-breaking one for theFranciscan Fathers and thecolonists. The troublesbrewed up by evil men for

Invasion by Apache and Navajo Indians

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Governor andCaptain-General

Don Diego de Vargas

He carried a battle-flag with a picture of

Our Lady on it.

The Governorreferred to

La Conquistadoraas “the Queen and

Patroness of theKingdom and of its

Villa of theHoly Faith”.

eighty years finally brokeinto flames, like an explosivefire that burns a house to theground before the inmatescan do anything to stop it.The Pueblo Indians hadmanaged to unite at last inan effort to exterminate theSpaniards. On August 10,they killed twenty-oneFranciscans in various Mis-sions and several unpro-tected Spanish families attheir ranches. They laidsiege to Santa Fe for severaldays, finally crowding thedefenders into the largecourtyard of the governmenthouses; they burnt and toredown the parish churchwhich Father Benavides hadbuilt. After many days ofsuffering and continuousskirmishing, the Spaniardsmanaged to break throughthe lines, the ranks of soldiersfighting as they went, pro-tecting their women andchildren in their midst. Aftera long and arduous journeyof more than three hundredmiles southward the refugeesreached the district of el Pasodel Norte, across the RioGrande from the present cityof El Paso, Texas. There theyjoined other refugees fromthe ranches south of Santa Fewho had escaped the fury of

the Indians. However, inspite of all their hardshipsthe people of Santa Fe didnot abandon their Lady-Conqueror. With their oldpeople and their wounded,with their women and theirchildren, they also had savedtheir Patroness and broughther along. The exiles spentthirteen full years of hungerand discouragement, ofhaving to fight other wildtribes down there, but all thewhile they kept up theirSodality and devotion oftheir Lady of the Rosary,their Conquistadora who hadcome to New Mexico in thedays of their conquerorgrandparents. Some of theSodality’s records haverecently been discovered,and these tell us how annualdues were paid, except inextra hard years, by all andsundry, the high-born aswell as the humble, even theMission friars themselves.Individuals donated newdresses and mantles ofprecious cloth, like Orientalsilks and gold lame, whileMasses were said twice aweek for both the living andthe deceased members. At last, in 1693, the NewMexicans returned to thesevere but enchanting land

where their forefathers haddied and were buried. Theirleader was a great soldierand a real Catholic gentle-man, the Governor andCaptain-General Don Diegode Vargas. He had peace-fully recieved the submissionof the Pueblo Indians the yearbefore under the patronage ofOur Lady whose picture hecarried on the battle-flag.Now he returned trium-phantly with the families ofcolonists and all their house-hold goods, their livestockand their farming imple-ments. And among those

who returned, naturally,was La Conquistadora, whomthe Governor referred to as“the Queen and Patroness ofthe Kingdom and of its Villaof the Holy Faith.” Writingto the Viceroy, he vowedmore than once that the firstthing he intended to do wasto rebuild her church andpersonally place on a newthrone “Our Lady of theConquest, who is the onethat was rescued from thefury of the savages.” All was well when thecolumns of soldiers andsettlers and lumbering ox-

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carts reached Santa Fe. OnDecember 16, the Governorand the friars took formalpossession in the great Plazawith the ceremonial raising ofa large cross while the Litanyof Our Lady and the Te Deumwere chanted. Then theSpaniards encamped outsidethe city walls because theGovernor had given theTanos Indians a few days togather their belongings andmove back to their Pueblos.Suddenly the weather grewbitter cold and flurries ofsnow started to descend fromthe mountains. Seeing this,the Indians barricaded them-selves inside the walls andtaunted the Spaniards toleave immediately or else dieof cold and starvation. Thenit was that the Governorordered his soldiers to attack.The battle lasted for a wholeday, the Spaniards having tofight other Indians who hadarrived and attacked themfrom the rear. At dawn thenext day, the troops suc-ceeded in scaling the wallsand soon the battle flag withOur Lady on it was plantedon the highest building; thisflag had been all through thefight with the soldiers, whiletheir women and children incivilian camp a good distance

away had prayed meanwhileto their beloved Lady of theRosary who had beenbrought as the Governorhimself wrote, “enclosed in awagon.” The Spaniards had somuch to do after this victory,and were hampered by otherrebellions and by Apacheinvasions, that the parishchurch of Santa Fe was notrebuilt until twenty-twoyears later. This time it wasdedicated in honor of St.Francis of Assisi. But therecords show that the RosarySodality countinued asvigorous as ever. The largenorth chapel of the newchurch of St. Francis wasbuilt by the Sodality and wasknown there after as the“Chapel of Our Lady of theRosary, La Conquistadora.”Good Governor de Vargashad died in 1704 during anApache campaign, and so hedid not have the pleasure ofplacing the image on hernew throne. Then something mysterioustook place between the years1726 and 1770. The Sodalitynot only died away, but itwas completely forgotten bythe latter year. Only thestatue remained in its chapelattached to the parish

church, and the people stillvenerated her under thesame long title. But nowthey thought that she wascalled “the Lady-Conqueror”becasue she had helpedGovernor de Vargas re-conquer Santa Fe in 1693! Infact, they believed that hewas the one who firstbrought the statue to NewMexico! That’s what hap-pens when things are notwritten down, or whenrecords are lost. We know ofthis state of affairs fromdocuments relating to thisyear of 1770, when condi-tions had become almostintolerable for the people; notonly were times bad forfarmers and stock-raisersbecause of drought, but theApaches, Comanches, andNavajos had become so boldas to raid the settlementsyear after year, and oftenseveral times in one year. Nore-inforcements were beingsent by the Spanish Govern-ment which had its owntroubles at home. So thepious people turned to God.In that year they solemnlychose their Conquistadora asPatroness of the Kingdom,founded a Sodality, underher name and patronage,and inaugurated a yearly

feast. They really believedthey were doing somethingaltogether new when in factthese very things had beenstarted by their forefathersmore than a century and ahalf before, and they hadlasted almost that long! Sadto say, it was at this periodthat someone mercilesslyhacked her head so that shemight wear a wig of humanhair. We can realize, then, howold this statue and thepeople’s devotion were evenat this late period, if weconsider that it was six yearsbefore the Declaration ofIndependence and the found-ing of the California Missionsby Father Junipero Serra. By the end of that centurythe Blessed Mother’s devoteeshad decided to build a specialchapel of Our Lady of theRosary on the spot where thecivilian camp had beenduring the battle of Santa Fe,thinking that de Vargas hadvowed to build a chapel therewhen he really meant torebuild the parish churchwhere Our lady had beenenthroned since 1626. Fa-ther Francisco de Hozio, theFranciscan chaplain of themilitary garrison in Santa Fe,got the permission from the

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Bishop of Durango in 1806,and the chapel, now calledthe Rosario, was finished thefollowing year. At this time,or shortly before, began thedouble procession andnovena of Masses at theRosario chapel which havebeen observed every summerto this day. When the famedArchbishop Lamy built hisbeautiful stone Cathedralaround the old adobe parishchurch, he left the 1714Conquistadora Chapel stand-ing, and some years later itwas connected with the newCathedral to form its northchapel. So now Our Lady ofthe Rosary has two chapels -the ancient one connected

with the Cathedral, and her“summer country-house” onthe outskirts of town whichshe visits every year. The second Sodality, theone of 1770, died awayaround 1846 when theUnited States took over thisterritory, but the devotion ofthe people continued asstrong as it had been for twohundred years. The beautifulsummer processions werenever interrupted; althoughthey are relatively modernwhen compared with thecoming of the statue to NewMexico and the founding ofthe original Sodality, still,when compared with otherAmerican institutions, they

Conquistadora Chapel built in 1714

are quite old. They will be acentury and a half old. La Conquistadora is not aVirgin of miracles andprophecies as in manyfamous shrines throughoutthe world. She is the tradi-tional symbol of a trueCatholic people’s undyingdevotion to the Mother ofGod in her Assumption andImmaculate Conception asthe Queen of Heaven andtheir own Queen, the LadyConqueror who not onlycame with their conqueror-fore-bears and upheld theirspirits through wars andpestilence and famine, butalso long before that con-quered our chief Enemy by

crushing his head with herheel through the Passion andDeath of her Son on theCross. Appropriately, themountains towering behindher throne are the mountainsof the Blood of Christ.

La Conquistadorapatroness

ofThe first and oldest canonical parish inthe United States.

alsoThe first

Blessed Virgin Mary Sodality in this country.

The mountains that tower behind the chapel, arecalled the Mountains of the Blood of Christ.

“Sangre de Cristo Mountains”

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La ConquistadoraAmerica’s

Oldest Madonna

Excerpts taken from:The Autobiography

of an Ancient Statue

by Fray Angelico Chavez

Did you ever wonder what itwould be like to sit at OurLady’s feet and gaze up intoher eyes and listen to her softvoice? Have you ever won-dered what she would say?Well, sit back and enjoy thiswonderful story as it is told byFray Angelico Chavez, as ifOur Lady is telling you itherself. I am a small wooden statueof the Blessed Virgin Mary,dressed in real clothes of silkand gold braid like a SpanishQueen of old, and I havebeen in this country for morethan three hundred andtwenty-five years. Everysingle year of that long span,I have been taken out in

procession, and not a day haspassed without someonebreathing a tender prayer tothe Mother of God in mypresence. This not onlymakes me the oldest repre-sentation of Mary in thisnation, but also one whichhas continually received dailyhomage as an unworthyproxy of heaven’s Queen.Since the day I came, I havenever been consigned to anattic or a storeroom; I havealways been in the midst ofmy people, in their joys aswell as in their sorrows -- yes,even in battle. My name for centuries hasbeen “La Conquistadora.”This is because I came to the

Southwest with the Spanishpioneers who called them-selves conquistadors. Suchan endearing term cannot beput into English withoutlosing their color and flavor.“The Lady Conqueror,” forexample, is quite literal, butmuch too cold. The mostcorrect rendering is “OurLady of the Conquest,” but,while it carries all the color ofSpanish arms, it does notconvey the warmth of Span-ish hearts. So you might aswell call me, as you wouldspell it, “La Con-kees-tah-do-rah.” Nor do I mind being com-pared with actresses, for, likeone, I have played the part ofMary in different gloriousroles. In the begining I was“Our Lady of the Assump-tion,” then for a short time“The Immaculate Concep-tion,” and finally “Our Ladyof the Rosary.” In these titlesI was regarded by my peopleas Queen of New Mexico andof Santa Fe, but all the while,as with a beloved actress, Ihave been popluarly knownas La Conquistadora. As I said at the start, I havebeen in this country for morethan three centuries and aquarter, but I am much older.Exactly how old, only the

Lord and I know, and a lady,even a wooden one, will nottell her exact age. All I cansay is that long, long ago,there was a big willow tree ina far away land. On themeadow all around itbloomed flowers of everycolor and shade, and thewillow wept because it wasalways green, while themeadow wore dresses ofevery hue as the seasonsvaried. Then one day a mancame and chopped the tree tothe ground. Both the boleand the branches were to becut into smaller parts, andthese split into smaller pieces,and all would be burned toashes in somebody’s hearth.This was the end, the willowknew, and it was just as well,for this was the usual fate oftrees. Every bit of the willowwent into the fire when thepieces had dried out, allexecpt one. And this wasbecause another man pickedup a small section of trunkand took it home, to his littleshop filled with chisels andmallets and unfinishedstatues. From the moment hesaw it, the wood carver likedthis piece of wood for beingso light and firm, as well asflawless and easy to carve.

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Then one day I was nolonger a short willow load,but a beautiful womanstanding on a gracefulpedistal. Beneath my feetwas a cloud from whichpeered the chubby faces ofthree happy cherubs. My long gown showedonly at the hem in front andfor a short space above myleft foot, and at the narrowsleeves of my entire right armand up to the elbow of myleft arm. The rest was cov-ered by an Oriental scarfwrapped across my breast,and by a large gracefullyfolded mantle that droppedlightly from my head downto my feet. One edge of thelarge veil fell over my left earonto my left shoulder and

From thewillow, he

carvedOur Lady.

breasts, and was caught infolds under my bent forearm.The other edge fell behindmy right ear to cover myentire back, and then wasbrought over my right thighand slightly bent knee to betucked with the other foldededge beneath my left arm. All the garments were firstcovered with velvet-smoothplaster, which was paintedcrimson and then coveredwith gold leaf. On thisgolden surface were tracedtiny scrolled and ribbeddesigns, arabesques, in redorange, and blue. It was aunique dress, not the classicgown and mantle usuallyseen on pictures and statuesof the Virgin, but rather thecostume of Moorish prin-

cesses who once brightenedthe halls and courts of theAlhambra -- truly, the dressalso of a Lady of Palestine. My two slender hands wereheld folded before my breast.My light brown tressesshowed slightly above myclear brow and again, re-vealed themselves at the sidesof my neck underneath theears. With my head raised alittle, faintly smiling, I gazedheavenward in expectation.On seeing me complete forthe first time, the goodsculptor’s wife recognizedme right away and ex-claimed: “How beautiful!How precious! It is theAssumption of holy Maryinto heaven!” If ever you should come toSanta Fe, you will find me inmy same old Conquistadorschapel in the Cathedral of St.Francis of Assisi. It is not asumptuous shrine, but thevenerable adobe walls andthe curved round ceiling arenapped with soft rich memo-ries. The dust beneath theflooring is all that remains ofmany, who centuries ago,paid me living tribute and indeath keep me faithfulcompany. From the livingyou will find tokens ofhumble remembrance, like a

“How beautiful! How precious!

It is the Assumption of holy Mary into heaven!”

burning candle or a bunch ofhome-grown flowers, thequiet presence of an agedwoman or a young manpraying. If there are bou-quets of more costly bloomsabout, you can be sure thatsome happy bride left me theflowers from her weddingthat morning. You will now find medressed in the attire of anancient Spanish Queen, as inthe days of Ana Robledo andDiego de Vargas, thoughwhat the color of my mantlemay be at the moment Icannot say, for I have sev-eral. The favorite one is of a

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pale blue brocade, madefrom what was left of a two-hundred-year-old cope, andthe dress that best goes withit is one of white and silverfigured silk embroideredwith minute roses, andbordered with a brilliant goldbraid that never tarnishes,though centuries old; thisdress once belonged to animage of the Virgin in Guate-mala. Or I may be wearing areddish mantle of Chinesefigured silk edged withbright silver lace; this is oneof my old mantles thatsurvived: it was done overagain and strengthened witha new sturdy lining. Mynewest and costliest dressand mantle are of cloth-of-gold brocade, with goldencords and tassels on the backand a family crest embroi-

dered in front; they weremade for me last year in theGerman city of Speyer. Also changeable withoutnotice are the Sevillian lacemantilla that covers my hairand is held in place by acrown, and the earringsshowing beneath it amongmy dark locks. Or I mighthave my little Infant Jesus onmy left arm, which is fastenedto my mantle, or both myhands might be empty savefor a rosary of gold coloredbeads. My imperial crown is ofstamped brass, but hand-some, with imitation stones.This is for everyday wear. Aprecious one of filigree is nowbeing made for me. My expression, you willnote, is somewhat sad. Al-most all Spanish Madonnas

are sad. But my wistful lookis also the result of so muchdamage and poor repairdown the centuries. Severalyears ago a fine symaptheticartist of Santa Fe was askedto restore my features, but hemerely repaired the partsthat were crumbling andrepainted my face exactly asit appeared at the time; forhe rightly felt that I oughtnot to look according to hisown fancy, but as the yearsand my people had broughtme to look. And I myselfmight as well reflect in myexpression the many sorrowsthat my people have bravelyundergone these many longcenturies, and also appear asthough I am always thinkingof my loving knights andcourtiers who are no more. But at the same time Imanage to keep the trium-phant air of that Ladyconcieved without sin beingborne aloft into eternal glory.Neither age nor mishandlinghave erased the dignity andpoise that belong to aConquistadora, a Lady whohas conquered. Beneath my feet may alsobe seen a small gold-paintedpedestal, which replaces theone sawn off and lost longago. Though it is covered

with antique rococo moldingto go with my ancient selfand the style of my garments,it is really a modern work ofprecision underneath; it is aneight-sided block of whitepine that was cut and fittedtogether, and purposely, inthe humming shops of theatomic city of Los Alamos,not long after the first bombswent off at Alamogordo,then at Hiroshima andNagasaki. For, as I myselfam, allegorically speaking, aprayer to her who crushedthe infernal serpent’s head,so this pedestal under my feetrepresents a continual prayerthat Mary may hold van-quished underfoot, whateverthere may be of evil in atomicpower. Every year, on a late Sun-day afternoon in June, as myprocession winds slowlydown the narrow streets ofSanta Fe to my chapel atRosario, I can make out theatomic city against the bluemountain flank, a thin whiteblur that turns into a neck-lace of lights as darknessfalls. And the soft Spanishsyllables of the Ave Maria goup to heaven pleading in ahaunting old Spanishmelody: “SantaMaria...ruega por nosotros

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pecadores...” Borne high on the slendershoulders of white-veiledgirls, I see in my bearers, andin the thousands of personsforming my entourage, thesame people who took me outyear after year these threecenturies and a quarter. Liketheir forefathers, they bearuninterrupted witness to myglory, and I bear witness totheir ancestry. And now,besides them, there are otherpeople here, new faces thatincrease with every year.They are those who reveredthe Mother of God in otherplaces, and whose forebearsrendered her homage in otherlands. Having come to live inthis my land and love it astheir home, they also love itsQueen. They, too, are mine

and dear to me. For this reason, and be-cause my old kingdom is asister state of all the otherUnited States of NorthAmerica, whose faithfulCatholic subjects long agoplaced themselves under themantle of Mary Immaculate,I would love to visit theirgreat skyscraping citiessomeday, and go into theirprecious churches, from thecoast of the Atlantic all theway across this vast conti-nent to the pacific shore.Now that men can traveloverland in as many days asit look oxcarts months, nowthat they can outfly the eagleand even the eagles ownscream, this wishful dreamcould well come true.

“I would love to visit their greatskyscraping cities someday, and go intotheir precious churches, from the coastof the Atlantic all the way across thisvast continent to the pacific shore.”

La ConquistadoraKnown by Three Titles, Beloved to All Catholics,

Our Lady of the Assumption, Our Lady of the Conception, and Our Lady of the Rosary

The Assumption

wasproclaimed

a Dogma

onAugust 15, 1950

byPope Pius XII

Pope Piux IXproclaimedthe Dogma

of the ImmaculateConception

on December 8,

1854

Our Lady gave the Rosary

toSt. Dominic

in 1214, and

proclaimed herself“The Lady of the Rosary”

at Fatima in 1917

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The Lady Conquerorfirst

foretoldin

Sacred Scripture

La Conquistadora,a devotion

needed for our times.

Taken from: Sacred Scripture and True Devotion to Mary

“I will put enmities betweenthee and the woman, and thyseed and her seed: she shallcrush thy head, and thou shaltlie in wait for her heel.” Yes, “The LadyConqueror” was spoken offor the first time in thegarden, when Adam andEve had succumbed to thesnares of the devil. Mary is our life, oursweetness, and our hopeespecially in our hour oftemptation. If called upon,she will help us conquer sinand temptation. If we areher faithful child, she willever be there ready to

support us with all the graceswe need, for God grants Hisgraces through herImmaculate Heart. Sometimes sin overpowersus, but, as foretold in SacredScripture, she is waiting tocrush the serpent that istempting us, if we but callupon her in that hour. As St. Louis de Montforttells us in his great work,True Devotion to Mary, “It isprincipally of these last and cruelpersecutions of the devil, whichshall go on increasing daily till thereign of Antichrist, that we oughtto understand that first andcelebrated prediction and curse of

God pronounced in the terrestrialparadise against the serpent. It isto our purpose to explain this herefor the glory of the most holyVirgin, for the salvation of herchildren and for the confusion ofthe devil: “I will put enmitiesbetween thee and the woman andthy seed and her seed: she shallcrush thy head, and thou shalt liein wait for her heel.”: (Gen. 3:15) God has never made and formedbut one enmity; but it is anirreconcilable one, which shallendure and grow even to the end.It is between Mary, His worthyMother, and the devil -- betweenthe children and the servants ofthe Blessed Virgin, and thechildren and tools of Lucifer. Themost terrible of all the enemieswhich God has set up against thedevil is His holy Mother Mary. Hehas inspired her, even since thedays of the earthly paradise --though she existed then only inHis idea -- with so much hatredagainst that cursed enemy of God,with so much ingenuity inunveiling the malice of thatancient serpent, with so muchpower to conquer, to overthrowand to crush that proud, impiousrebel, that he fears her not onlymore than all the angels and men,but in a sense more than GodHimself. Not that the anger, thehatred and the power of God arenot infinitely greater than those ofthe Blessed Virgin, for theperfections of Mary are limited;but first, because Satan, beingproud, suffers infinitely more from

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being beaten and punished by alittle and humble handmaid ofGod, and her humility humbleshim more than the divine power;and secondly, because God hasgiven Mary such great poweragainst the devils that -- as theyhave often been obliged to confess,in spite of themselves, by themouths of the possessed -- theyfear one of her sighs for a soulmore than the prayers of all thesaints, and one of her threatsagainst them more than all othertorments. ...God has not only set anenmity, but enmities, not simplybetween Mary and the devil, butbetween the race of the holyVirgin and the race of the devil;that is to say, God has setenmities, antipathies and secrethatreds between the true childrenand servants of Mary and thechildren and slaves of the devil.They have no love for each other.They have no sympathy for eachother. The children of Belial, theslaves of Satan, the friends of theworld (for it is the same thing)have always up to this timepersecuted those who belong toour Blessed Lady, and will in thefuture persecute them more thanever; just as Cain, of old,persecuted his brother Abel, andEsau his brother Jacob, who arefigures of the reprobate and thepredestinate. But the humbleMary will always have the victoryover that proud spirit, and sogreat a victory that she will go sofar as to crush his head, where his

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pride dwells. She will alwaysdiscover the malice of the serpent.She will always lay bare hisinfernal plots and dissipate hisdiabolical councils, and even tothe end of time will guard herfaithful servants from his cruelclaw. But the power of Mary over allthe devils will especially shineforth in the latter times, whenSatan will lay his snares againsther heel: that is to say, herhumble slaves and her poorchildren, whom she will raise upto make war against him. Theyshall be little and poor in theworld’s esteem, and abased

La Conquistadora“The woman shall conquer.”One day through her Rosary

and Scapular, the world will be saved!

before all like the heel, troddenunderfoot and persecuted as theheel is by the other members of thebody. But in return for this theyshall be rich in the grace of God,which Mary shall distribute tothem abundantly. They shall begreat and exalted before God insanctity, superior to all othercreatures by their lively zeal, andso well sustained with God’sassistance that, with the humilityof their heel, in union with Mary,they shall crush the head of thedevil and cause Jesus Christ totriumph.” Yes, we need LaConquistadora, the “LadyConqueror”, today, more thanever before. Just like thoseearly conquistadors, we mustfight side by side with OurLady, for the truths of ourHoly Catholic Faith. We mustfight fearlessly, even beingready to shed our blood, asthe early Fransicans did inSanta Fe, and the earlyChristian martyrs did in somany parts of the world. Under the banner of ourMother, La Conquistadora, let usfear nothing. Remember whatshe said at Guadalupe to JuanDiego, “Am I not here who amyour Mother? Is there anythingelse you need?” Under herbanner, let us follow hercommand from La Salette,“Fight, my children of light...”and fear nothing, for yourMother will conquer all.

Let us draw near to America’s oldest Madonnabrought by Fray Alonso Benavides to the Royal

Villa of Santa Fe in 1624, and found in thismagnificent Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi.

Let us beg her, during this election year, to showerblessings upon our country, dedicated to her

Immaculate Conception.

Let us implore her to help each and every Americanto conquer sin, and bring our

beloved country back to the Christian principles, on which she was founded over 200 years ago.

May La Conquistadora, the Lady Conqueror, guideeach one of us back to the Heart of her beloved Son.

America’s Oldest Madonna

LaConquistadora

His Excellency,the

Most ReverendBishop Daniel L. Dolan

A SpecialThank you!

We could not closethis issue without avery special thankyou to the personthat introduced us tosuch a wonderfulMadonna, LaConquistadora. How greatful wehave been to come toknow a source ofevery single Mariandevotion wrapped inone “little Lady”, yetsuch a “conqueror!” La Conquistadorarepresents to us theDogma of the Im-maculate Conception,the Dogma of theAssumption, theLady of the Rosary,

and her mighty Queenship, as she holds the scepter in herhands. She is a reminder to us of the power of the Scapular,as it hangs so gracefully, along with the Rosary, in front ofher. Finally we see depicted the crecent moon, a powerfulreminder of all she stands for, the conqueror over sin and thedevil. Thank you, Bishop Daniel Dolan for leading us to such apowerful devotion, most necessary in our times, especially forour beloved homeland, the United States of Amercia. As LaConquistadora is America’s oldest Madonna, let us pray forour country, during this election year, that this “Lady Con-queror” will conquer the hearts of men and women and leadthem to vote with their conscience, the voice of God!

Please pray for therepose of the soul of

Mary Theresa Fournier,mother of our

Mother Foundress,Reverend Mother Marie

de Montfort, CMSS,who passed away

August 7, 2011.

Nothing happens in life, “just by chance”. Divine Provi-dence lovingly unfolds the details of each and everythingthat takes place in our life, moment by moment, day by day.We just need the courage to accept things as they take place,with loving patience and resignation to the Will of God. Inthis light, we look at the timing of the death of Mary TheresaFournier, on August 7. Mary was a very staunch defender ofthe Roman Catholic Faith, a leader, not just in her home Stateof Michigan, but throughout the Nation, in spreading Catho-lic truths, unalterted, without compromise. The Church washer life, so it was no small thing that she died on the feast ofSt. Cajetan, also a staunch defender and lover of the CatholicChurch and Her rites and cermonies, as well as the first tointroduce Forty Hours Adorations of the Blessed Sacrament.It is no small matter that this is our first issue since her death,as she had her children pray, in their daily Rosary, for ayoung seminarian, Daniel L. Dolan, that he would become agood and holy priest. Yes, that is right, the same BishopDaniel L. Dolan that introduced us to this wonderful littleLady, La Conquistadora. Coincidence? No! Divine Provi-dence, for La Conquistadora is in the hands of the Franciscansof Santa Fe, and Mary was a Third Order final professedFranciscan, who loved Our Lady so much, that one could say,after the Church, “Mary was her life”! Mary was able todefend the Mystical Body of Christ, for she had a burninglove for what we have come to know in this issue as, “TheLady Conqueror”, La Conquistadora!

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