The terms of peace at the conclusion of World War II went badly for Austria. That unfortunate nation had been annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, and in 1945 it went from the frying pan into the fire, coming under joint occupation by the Allies. The country – including even its capital, Vienna – was divided into four zones. The largest and most resource-rich portion, almost the entire eastern half of the country, fell under the control of Communist Russia. The other three zones went to the United States, Great Britain, and France.
The Soviet terror was not so extreme in occupied Austria as it was in the Eastern Bloc countries, but it was nevertheless brutal, taking the form of a bottom-upward frenzy of abuse, plundering, and financial siphoning of the population by their hate-filled soldier overlords. Though acting against orders, these Soviet tormentors filled the ranks in such overwhelming proportions that their commanders were powerless to restrain them. The already war-ravaged and bankrupt Austrians suffered tremendously, and they knew the noose could only tighten with time under a Communist regime.
Father Pavlicek Shows the Way
What could be done? What hope did a mere 7 million Austrians have against nearly 200 million Soviets? Father Petrus Pavlicek knew that peace was a gift of God, and that Our Lady of Fatima could deliver it through Her highly favored devotion, the Holy Rosary. The Christians, he remembered, had been badly outnumbered by the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto, but they prevailed by means of Our Lady’s Rosary.
With this thought constantly in mind throughout a seven-year campaign, this extraordinarily zealous priest single-handedly roused Soviet-occupied Austria to apply itself to Our Lady of the Rosary for deliverance. Interestingly, his fervor was fueled and driven by the momentum of having rebounded from a misspent youth – a wonder of grace. A biographer writes:
“He was born in Innsbruck, Austria in 1902. As a young boy, he felt called to the religious life, but grew indifferent in his teenage years and left the Church when he was 19. After his compulsory military service, he studied in the Academy of Fine Arts and then lived as a vagabond artist in Paris and London. In 1932, he was married in a civil ceremony, but the marriage lasted only three months.
“The hand of Divine Providence is always surprising. In 1935 he was struck with a life-threatening illness that led to his deep conversion. Once he recovered, he again felt the childhood call to become a priest; but now, after such an unfaithful life, he felt unworthy. So he visited Therese Neumann, already a famous Catholic mystic at the time, and she confirmed his decision. He was accepted into the Franciscans at Prague, where he was ordained a priest in 1941.”
In spite of being under Holy Orders as a Capuchin friar, Father Pavlicek was drafted into the German army on May 13, 1942. On the following October 7 (another Marian Feast day), he was assigned to the Western Front, and on August 15(!), 1944, he was captured by the Americans.
It was during this time as a prisoner of war that he first learned about Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima. Being released at last on July 16(!!), 1945, he immediately made a pilgrimage to Austria’s major shrine of Our Lady in Mariazell. Having reached the basilica, he fervently venerated Our Lady before Her miraculous wooden image housed there, pouring out his thanks to Her and begging Her for Her continued protection and direction. He also begged Her particularly to deliver Austria from Communist occupation. Father Pavlicek distinctly heard Her reply in a clear voice: “Do as I say, and there will be peace.”
Thereupon, Father Pavlicek began preaching peace on Our Lady’s terms. “Peace is a gift of God, not the work of politicians,” he declared. It was to be had by storming Heaven with our Rosaries, just as soldiers storm a fort, with a fiery determination and confidence.
Austrian Catholics were timid at first to follow Father Pavlicek’s lead for fear of persecution, but time served to prove him right. Austrian politicians’ attempts to dislodge their Soviet masters amounted to nothing more than conducting fruitless peace conferences. Between 1947 and 1955, there were more than 260 such gatherings having no other effect than to prompt the Communists to tighten their hold on the nation, especially as the Cold War intensified.
Monthly Rosary Processions
Meanwhile, Father Pavlicek had taken to the streets. Beginning in 1948, on the 13th of each month, he went from one village, town, or city to another, urging his countrymen to make public demonstrations of their faith through prayer in the streets – with Marian processions and praying the Rosary for hours on end. He called it the Crusade of Reparation of the Holy Rosary. Its object: liberation from Soviet tyranny, the conversion of sinners, and peace throughout the world. In its means and end, it was the program of Our Lady of Fatima.
More and more of the faithful were emboldened to participate in the Crusade’s monthly rallies and processions. Soon thousands had joined, with numbers continuing to grow every month. By 1955, more than half a million of Austria’s seven million citizens – roughly 10% of the nation’s population – had pledged to pray the Rosary daily for the Crusade’s three-fold intentions.
It is noteworthy that the most important prelate in Austria, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna, was not in favor of this ‘Rosary Crusade.’ Despite the requests of Fr. Pavlicek, the Cardinal refused to participate in the processions honoring Our Lady of Fatima. It appears his attitude reflects the skepticism with which many modern Church prelates have viewed the Message of Fatima.
However, Leopold Figl, the Federal Chancellor of Austria (1945-1953), enthusiastically supported Fr. Pavlicek’s efforts. When he heard Cardinal Innitzer had declined the invitation to participate in a public procession, he told Fr. Pavlicek: “Even if just the two of us are present, I will go. My county demands it.” With candle and Rosary, Chancellor Figl attended every procession he could; and he was accompanied by the members of his cabinet. In 1953, Julius Raab was elected to succeed Figl in this office and Raab likewise continued to represent the Catholic Austrian state by participating in public processions. (Note: Leopold Figl currently is honored as a “Servant of God” and his cause for beatification was initiated by the Diocese of Sankt Pölten in 2020.)
The public participation became so significant that under increased pressure, Cardinal Innitzer eventually agreed to join the processions. Fr. Pavlicek then organized his most impressive marches. Hundreds of thousands of Catholics prayed the Rosary, sang hymns, and walked in candlelit files down Vienna’s most famous boulevard: the Ringstraße. (This street marks the perimeter of the ancient city center, encircling the palaces of the Catholic Habsburg monarchy, St. Stephen’s Cathedral Basilica, great museums, national state buildings and beautiful monuments, all of which celebrate Austria’s glorious heritage.)
Leading the grand procession was a statue of Our Lady of Fatima crafted by Jose Thedim, the same sculptor who fashioned the original Pilgrim Virgin Statue on display at the Shrine in Fatima. Fr. Pavlicek lacked the funds to procure a statue, and his impoverished Capuchin superiors were unable to provide monetary assistance. So Our Lady provided. His Excellency, José Alves Correia da Silva, Bishop of Leiria (and Fatima), donated a magnificent statue in support of Fr. Pavlicek’s Rosary Crusade. Behind Our Lady’s statue marched Cardinal Innitzer and the Prime Minister, followed by clergy, religious, statesmen, and a vast throng of Catholic faithful. It would be hard to conceive of a more public statement from the Austrian people in support of the Message of Fatima. (This image evokes the procession of Catholics marching up a steep hill toward a large cross made of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree, as seen in the Vision of the Third Secret.)
Liberation!
Then to the world’s great surprise, Austria was delivered from its plight in an unheard-of manner. On March 24, 1955, the Soviets summoned Austria’s Prime Minister, Julius Raab, to Moscow. Before his departure, he begged Father Pavlicek, “Please pray, and ask your people to pray harder than ever.” And in Moscow he was told that Russia would soon withdraw its troops, leaving Austria once more a self-governing nation.
The entire West was stunned, almost to disbelief. The British and Americans suspected a trap, the chief British diplomat reporting to London, “To be honest, the deal is far too good to be true.” Nevertheless, a peace conference was held in Vienna, beginning on May 1 – the month of Mary! – and the final agreement was reached by May 13(!), the anniversary of Our Lady’s first apparition at Fatima. Two days later, on May 15, 1955, the Austrian State Treaty was duly signed at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna; it came into force on July 27th. On the 25th of October, the month of the Holy Rosary, the last of the Soviet troops were evacuated.
In Vienna, a huge and grateful crowd gathered to give public thanks to Our Lady for delivering them from Communist enslavement. They marched in procession, carrying candles and rosaries and a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. From the balcony of the capital building, Prime Minister Raab addressed this prayer of thanksgiving to their heavenly deliverer Who had conquered where all human powers had failed: “Today, we, whose hearts are full of faith, cry out to Heaven in joyful prayer: We are free, O Mary, we thank Thee!”
Fr. Pavlicek wrote, in a letter published in the October 13, 1955 issue of Voz da Fatima, that the full credit for Austria’s liberation was due to none other than Our Lady of Fatima and the many thousands of Her devotees who had devoted themselves to praying Her Rosary:
“Is it not wonderful how Our Dear Lady has helped Austria to regain freedom? It was so obviously in connection with the appearances of Our Lady in Fatima. On the 13th of May all the papers of Austria carried the news that Soviet Russia had agreed to the independence of Austria and on Sunday, the 15th, the agreement was signed in Vienna…. It was really a wonderful reward of Our Lady to the Catholic people of Vienna, who faithfully for seven years came to Her daily and prayed from three till eight o’clock in the evening, one Rosary after the other.”
In Retrospect, a Lesson for All
Every year now on September 12th, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, thousands of Austrians continue to assemble in Vienna to thank Our Lady for breaking Communism’s diabolically cruel grip on their country. (The people of Austria were saved centuries before by Our Lady’s intercession from an Ottoman Siege on September 12, 1683, and Pope Innocent XI therefore established this feast day.)
What Hungary had failed to accomplish through a terribly costly revolution in that same decade of the Cold War, and what Czechoslovakia could not bring about in the following decade by a strategy of “liberalizing” its own socialistic government, Our Lady did, to all appearances, effortlessly for Austria when its faithful besought Her through Her Holy Rosary.
For further reading:
“The Soviet Occupation of Austria” – The National WWII Museum of New Orleans; https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/soviet-occupation-of-austria
Dr. Michael Scherschligt – “Petrus Pavlicek and the Rosary Crusade”, Holy Family School of Faith; https://schooloffaith.com/rosary-archive/petrus-pavlicek-and-the-rosary-crusade
