“I give my blessing to you and to all your members.”
Pope Paul Vl

June 18, 1970

Dear Reader of SOUL,

Do you recall the almost insulting reminder we made this past year for the Christmas cards?

Normally, we send cards once a year… and if there is no return we just ignore it. We do what we can with what we receive.

But this year there was a special reason to be urgent… and unfortunately we were not at liberty to tell you what it was. It was, and had to be, a secret. So we presumed to use the “Secret” envelope for this letter.

Even as I write this, the news has not been announced. We are awaiting the announcement momentarily from Rome where the Icon of Kazan, LIBERATOR AND PROTECTRESS OF RUSSIA, has been taken by private messenger.

For us it was a daring, difficult decision. We have only the readers of SOUL to help us… and unfortunately this comes down to a very, very small percentage who are sufficiently interested in Our Lady’s promise to convert Russia and bring peace to the world.

If you are wearing the Scapular and saying the Rosary daily, to sanctify your day in reparation for the sins which are the cause of the world’s sad state, what more could we ask? That, and that alone, will bring about the conversion Our Lady promised.

But as a RESULT of the millions now fulfilling Our lady’s Requests… we see things happening. We see the MIRACULOUS ICON of Russia, officially known for centuries as the LIBERATOR AND PROTECTRESS OF RUSSIA, appearing for redemption and we, of the Blue Army, given the chance to redeem to Fatima, where Our Lady PROMISED TO LIBERATE RUSSIA, and then ultimately return it to its Basilica in Moscow which the Soviet made into a museum of atheism.

I do not like writing this letter, but I do not hesitate to do so. It is a joy to find ourselves on the road with Our Lady BACK TO RUSSIA… the road of victory.

Please use the enclosed coupon even if you cannot help financially. The prayers will be JUST AS MUCH appreciated as an offering.

Yours in the Sacred Hearts,

(sgn) J.Haffert Lay Delegate
&
By Rev.Msgr.H.V.Colgan. founder

Icon revered as “Savior and patron Saint Russia” to deliver Russia from all her enemies is to be restored to the Russian people through Fatima apostolate

Twenty million Russians died for their faith during the past half century. Most died in Siberia. Over three million died right on their own farms in the Ukraine “No century in history has witnessed the blood of so many martyrs… coursing with the blood of wars which Our Lady said are “Caused by sin.

In the land of those twenty million martyrs there had been an Icon, or holy picture (like the one of Guadalupe, in Mexico which was the centre of these martyrs devotion. It was called the icon of Kazan (the city 500 miles east of Moscow where the miracles began centuries ago) and which had been enshrined in Moscow in a Basilica which took their forefathers more than a quarter of a century to build. The Icon bore the title: LIBERATOR AND PROTECTRESS OF Russia.

But the Soviets had removed the Icon and turned the Basilica into an Atheist Museum. A similar Basilica in St. Petersburg, also in honor of Our Lady of Kazan, was made the centre of militant atheistic propaganda for the entire world.

What had the atheistic persecutors done with the miraculous Icon? All their diabolical hate was centred against it. To what depredations had they submitted it?

No one knows what happened. This is, and, probably will remain, a mystery of history like that of the assassination of the Czar and his family. The Soviets say priests stole it. An Orthodox Bishop in the Western World says that It was sold abroad as a work of art by the Soviets because of its great value (estimated as high as three million dollars).

In any event, an English millionaire bought it at a London auction without knowing it was THE Icon of Russia. (It was obviously important because it was decorated with over one thousand precious stones). After it was hung in Farley Castle, a guest recognized It as the original Icon of Kazan formerly honored in the Moscow Basilica. The Orthodox Archbishop of Paris, who had been in Moscow before the revolution was Invited to see it. He was hardly able to believe his eyes. With tears of joy he acknowledged that it was the “Liberator and Protectress of Russia.”

Another Archbishop, the Metropolitan Leonty of New York, had also celebrated the liturgy in Russia with the Icon of Kazan, and he too confirmed it. Then Archbishop Shahovskoy of San Francisco, who is the spiritual head of al! the Orthodox Catholics of the Western United States, undertook a campaign throughout the country to redeem the Icon and to build a Shrine for it in San Francisco.

Apparently Our Lady did not want a Shrine in San Francisco… Years passed and the Icon was about to be sold on the open market. Because of the publicity (the Icon had been shown at the World’s Fair) it seemed almost certain that the Soviets would buy it back. At this point Father Karl Pazelt director of the Byzantine Centre in San Francisco, begged the leaders of the Blue Army of Our Lady to intervene. They in turn sought the advice of Fatima and Rome.

Icon revered as “Savior and Patron of Russia” to deliver Russia from her Enemies” is to be restored to the Russian People through Fatima Apostolate

The icon is at least five centuries old. No one knows. But experts say it was painted in Constantinople, “Rome” of the East, about 1300. It was taken across the Black Sea and up the Don River to the Port of Kazan where it was apparently hidden in the walls of the Kazan Monastery. That city was sacked in 1209. All in the monastery perished. The icon could have been “lost” at that time. We first know of it as “miraculous” from July 8th, 1579

On that day, a young girl named Matrona saw the icon in a vision in the ruins of the monastery wall. The townspeople decided to investigate. When the icon was discovered, a blind person exclaimed at the beauty of the picture and gazing upon it, described it exactly.

Because of subsequent wonders, the icon became not only famous but it became a centre of Russian devotion to Our Lady and is believed to have been instrumental in several major victories.

The first was at the gates of Kazan itself, when the Icon was used in battle by the soldiers of Ivan the Terrible… victoriously. When Moscow was conquered from the West in 1612, Prince Pozharski fled to Kazan to obtain the Icon and soldiers joined him along the way as he carried the miraculous image ‘back to Moscow… where he expelled the invaders. This time a great Cathedral was built in the Russian Capital… known as the Kazan Cathedral… to enshrine the miraculous image, now “Patroness of Russia”.

The last and most famous use of the icon in battle was against Napoleon, on Sept. 14th 1812.

Marshal Koutesov took the Icon from the Cathedral and rallied his troops to cut off Napoleon’s supplies and harass his troops. The strategy succeeded not only in Napoleon’s retreat from Russia, but was as a major factor in the dictator’s ultimate defeat and exile

During the Bolshevik revolution, the Icon disappeared from the Cathedral… which was turned into an atheist museum. The militant atheists who took over in Russia, with the avowed purpose of taking over in the world, had to root out Russia’s devotion to Mary, They had to “deliver” Russia from her “Deliverer”.

At the very time the Bolshevik revolution was taking place, Our Lady appeared to three children at the opposite end of Europe… foretold what was happening in Russia and how the evils of Communism would spread “through the entire world, fomenting further wars.” But she asked for the consecration of Russia and the world to Her Immaculate Heart and promised that RUSSIA WILL BE CONVERTED AND AN ERA OF PEACE CONCEDED TO MANKIND if her requests are heard.

Some say that fleeing members of the Royal family took the icon and sold it, together with other treasures, to support themselves in exile. Since the principal members of the royal family never got out of Russia, but were murdered, it is more probable that the icon was sold to help pay for the Bolshevik Revolution… as is the opinion of art expert Mr. Frank Dorland, who was instrumental in having the icon visit the United States in 1962.

It is known that the icon passed through several hands, and that it has been appraise by jewelers here in the United States for almost one million dollars. It has been kept under constant guard whenever shown publicly, otherwise it has been reserved in a vault of the Bank of America.

The Byzantine Chapel at Fatima was the idea of the same Blue Army leader who was instrumental in obtaining the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan. He got the idea in 1950, the same year the Icon was bought by those now selling it to the Blue Army, and the same year the Pilgrim Virgin of Our Lady of Fatima entered Moscow to be enshrined in the chapel of the U.S. Embassy there. He thought:

“We ought to build a centre of our apostolate at Fatima, and have in it two chapels: One of the West, and one of the East. ”

In 1951, while arranging for a Byzantine Mass at Fatima on October 13th, closing of the Holy Year for all the world outside of Rome, he met John Mowatt, then a seminarian at the Russian College in Rome. And he suggested then that one day, after ordination, John Mowatt would return to Fatima as the Chaplain of this house with Russian and Roman Chapels…

Meanwhile, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant suggested a Russian priest who had formerly been a Captain in the Soviet air force and had defected to the west after the war in the hope of becoming a priest. He was ordained in Rome in 1950, and since he was both Russian and an engineer, the Cardinal recommended him for the Fatima project.

The former Soviet flier felt that the plans of the Blue Army were too small to be worthy of such an important idea and he spent almost all the available funds just on improved architectural plans… for a building and for chapels to cost thirty times more than had been originally planned.

Monsignor Harold Colgan, founder of the Blue Army, decided to go ahead with the project which now seemed impossible for an “Army” which had no meetings and no dues and no resources whatever! … (It was an army formed merely by those who promised to fulfill the conditions of Our Lady of Fatima for Russia and peace.)

The impossible was accomplished, and without debt.

Now the Icon will be restored to the Russian people through a Russian at Fatima in 1970… when Monsignor John Mowatt, after a wait of twenty years, has officially assumed the position there as chaplain, both for East and West (Monsignor Mowatt is himself of Russian descent, celebrating Mass in both rites). To add to happy coincidences: 1970 marks the foundation of the Guild of Our Lady of Kazan at Fatima, and the fiftieth anniversary of Monsignor Colgan’s ordination… the year when he had planned to return to Fatima “for the last time”. (The 72 year old Monsignor resigned his parish two years ago because of poor health.) After the AMI Directors decided to purchase the Icon, one of them exclaimed to Monsignor Colgan:

“What a Golden Jubilee present for you! To be able to restore the holiest Icon of Russia to the Russian people through the Blue Army’s Byzantine Chapel at Fatima! What a glorious climax to your inspired apostolic of prayer for the deliverance of the Russian people!”

Actually the Byzantine Chapel at Fatima is a memorial Chapel of the SAUL Family of Washington, D.C., through the niece of the great “Park Builder” and beautifier of the Nation’s Capital, Mrs. Rose Saul Zalles… currently known as one of Washington’s most famous (and often most elusive) hostesses.

When the Blue Army first decided to go ahead with the grand ideas proposed by the former Soviet flier (Rev. Pavel Bliznetsov) it’s only thought of raising money was to ask people who had it. And of the few they did ask, Mrs. Zalles was the only one who volunteered. She offered to pay for the chapel.

Her offering was far more important. It made the beginning; of the entire project possible. And although the chapel finally cost four times more than had been anticipate, … it was a gift twice given. And Mrs. Zalles, was arranging to have icons painted on the inside of the dome: when the acquisition of the Miraculous Icon of Kazan became possible.

Mrs. Zalles could not be at once reached, but it is thought she will defer the icon on the dome… to help make possible the purchase of the Icon of Kazan. Any reference to this in any public statement must be withheld however until Mrs. Zalles confirms.

At one time the Russians built a great Shrine in Moscow for this Icon… centre of devotion for the Russian people.

Symbolically, the Communists turned that Shrine into a Godless, atheist museum… a place to show the youth and the world that there is no God, while Our Lady appeared at Fatima to prove them wrong.

Even more symbolically, a chapel was built at Fatima as a Saul memorial… and Mrs. Zalles specifically had in mind the conversion of SAUL to PAUL, and the promise of Our Lady to convert Russia and to bring peace to the world. And this chapel, now, in the Providence of God and in the loving tenderness of the Mother of all men, will become the Sanctuary of the Holy Image… the new Shrine, housing that precious symbol which Communists tried to replace with images signifying that God doesn’t exist.

Our Lady’s promise that Russia will be converted… comes closer and more evident with each passing day.For the past eight years, the Icon has been in the custody of Dorlands, of San Francisco, Conservators of Art. The transfer of the Icon to the Shrine of Fatima was effected through the zealous efforts of Mr. Frank Dorland and Rev. Karl Pazelt, director of the Russian Centre in San Francisco. Mr. Dorland has suggested that after the presentation of the Icon to the Centre at Fatima a world pilgrimage of the Icon, linked with prayer for the conversion of Russia, be organized by Byzantine Centres everywhere. It is also thought that the story of the Icon at this time would make a spectacular and topical motion picture, particularly if the actual Ikon itself were used in some of the famous battle scenes. The Blue Army directors are most sympathetic to these suggestions. To Venerate lcon Catholic, Orthodox Rites

The icon, set in a frame encrusted with precious stones, dates back from the early 17th Century.

CREDITED with inspiring the troops who liberated Moscow in 1612, it was venerated in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan there from 1630 until after the Bolshevik resolution.

Saturday Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken will lead a procession accompanying the icon into St. Boniface, where he will preside at 10 a.m. mass and preach the sermon.
The icon will remain there until 8 p.m. for personal veneration, then be taken to Holy Trinity Cathedral for enshrinement by Archbishop John, Russian Orthodox Archbishop of San Francisco and the Western States.

SUNDAY the icon will be re-enshrined in St. Boniface Church with mass at 10 a.m. to be followed by individual veneration throughout the day. Orthodox and Roman Catholic choirs will sing Marian hymns from 3 to 5 p.m.

Following veneration in San Francisco, the icon will he taken to the New York World Fair for enshrinement in a replica of the historic Fort Hoes Russia Orthodox Chapel.

Fort Ross was the chapel built by the Russians on their migration from Alaska to California

The “rizza”, or decorative cover of the icon, has 1,003 jewels: 663 diamonds, 158 rubies, 32 emeralds and 150 pearls.

The jewels were the gifts of Russian people through the centuries in thanksgiving for miracles and favors. We can presume that many of the gems were purchased by the small gifts of thousands of poor Russian people. This was their way of saying “Thank you” to their Patroness, their Deliverer, their Mother.

The Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, which is the official apostolate in the world for the conversion of Russia through fulfillment of the Fatima conditions, built a pure Russian Church at Fatima on the spot where Our Lady promised Russia’s conversion. It was dedicated by Eugene Cardinal Tisserant as personal Legate of Pope Pius XII on August 15th, 1958.

The Blue Army had its first “official contact” with the Icon on Sept. 13th, 1965, at the Vatican Pavilion of the New York World’s Fair. On this night, the Pavilion was filled with members of the Blue Army, led by the Bishop of Fatima himself, in the presence of the Icon and of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The entire night was spent in adoration and prayer for the conversion of Russia and world peace. Blue Army groups around the world, in many cities, held similar all night vigils on that same date for the same intention.

In January, 1970, the leaders of the Blue Army in the United States took the bold decision of restoring the icon to the Russian people through the Russian Chapel at Fatima. One of the leaders describes what happens:

“I was told that the Icon was about to be sold into private hands again, The thought immediately came to me that since it was so important to Russia… as a symbol of Our Lady’s love and protection for the entire Russian nation… that it might be God’s Will that the Icon go to Fatima where, at the very hour of the Bolshevik Revolution, Our Lady promised to turn that revolution back and one day both free Russia and bring peace to mankind.

NEW York – Official World’s Fairs Book 1964-65

“In order to KNOW whether this was an inspiration or not. I wrote to the director of the Byzantine Centre at Fatima and asked his opinion.

“To my amazement, not only did he reply that he thought it Providential, but that JUST BEFORE MY LETTER ARRIVED HE HAD PUBLISHED BULLETIN ANNOUNCING AT FATIMA THE FOUNDATION OF A GUILD OF OUR LADY OF KAZAN… as the guild to support the apostolate there for the Byzantine Church and Unity. He enclosed a copy of the bulletin.”

The above mentioned bulletin from Fatima reads in part:

“After a delay of one year (during which time however you were still remembered in the Holy Sacrifice once each month) I am again re-organizing the Guild of Our Lady of Kazan but with one difference… that it is here in Fatima, the Garden of Our Blessed Lady. February has been the traditional month of seeking membership and membership renewals and so it is with this purpose in mind that I now approach you. Many of you are long-standing members of the Guild and have assisted me for a number of years in Boston… others will be new friends to whom I make this appeal. I am also sending out this letter by air mail since the organizing of the Guild is urgent and your help is most m gently needed in the work which I am now engaged in.

As most of you know Our Lady of Kazan is the title of one of the most popular and loved icons of the Mother of God in Russia. Eventually we hope to set up here in the Chapel a special Shrine dedicated to Our Blessed Lady under this title. Your membership in the Guild will help to make this possibility a reality. Perhaps, if your response is great enough, the Shrine to Our Lady of Kazan in Fatima will be the “memorial” of all the members, the living and the deceased, of our little Guild.

In his letter, Monsignor John Mowatt, rector of the Byzantine Centre at Fatima, said:-

The Kazan Icon was in my church in Boston for 24 hours on December 8th. It is magnificent and is supposed to be one of the 3 originals. The large emeralds in it were given by people who had their sight restored and the Crown of diamonds was given by the Empress Catherine the Great. The 1st Icon in Kazan was lost or stolen and never recovered (this possibly could be it); the 2nd Icon was commissioned by the Tzar Ivan the Terrible for enthronement in Moscow (personally think that this is the icon now in California); the 3rd Icon was commissioned by the Tzar Peter the Great to be enshrined in his new capital, St. Petersburg (the Soviets claim that this is still in Leningrad, the Kazan Sanctuary is however the official God-less museum there). It is also a known fact that the Russian Orthodox Church in the USSR and also the Soviet Government tried to buy this Icon a few years ago but the English woman who owns it would not let it be sold to them.

To have this Icon here in Fatima! First of all it is an authentic Miraculous Icon (two famous images of Our Lady, East and West, of Kazan and of Fatima in one site would certainly be something unique). It would draw a, lot of pilgrims, tourists and the curious to see it (the commercial value is all of seven hundred thousand dollars). It might serve as a link with Eastern Orthodoxy. The chapel here is certainly cathedral-like and would be a fitting place to enshrine it.

It is strange… when that Icon was at our church in Boston I had a feeling that I was going to see it again. Several times recently (in the past few months) I have thought of it aid wondered where it was. And just as your letter arrived I had just completed mailing out 400 letters asking people to join - The Guild of OUR LADY OF KAZAN in Fatima. I planned this Guild to assist in the work of the Center and Chapel and decided to name it after Our Lady under this title.

signed MSGN Mowatt

The directors of Ave Maria Institute, National offices of the Blue Army of Our Lady in the United States, immediately took steps for the purchase of the Icon. Their decision to purchase it was immediate and unanimous. But when they made it, only one of them knew of Monsignor Mowatt’s premonition that he would see the Icon again, and that on the very day a letter was being sent to ask his advice the purchase of the Icon he was sending out four hundred bulletins, declaring that he had just established a guild at Fatima under the title of this very icon. He had even written in that bulletin:

“Perhaps… the Shrine of Our Lady of Kazan in Fatima will be a memorial…”

And he had not the remotest way of knowing that on the very day he wrote those worlds, the icon had been offered to the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, of whose chapet at Fatima he was rector.

“I did not tell this to the other members of the Board, ” the one director who knew it relates, “because I wanted their decision to be objective. We do many things in the Blue Army because we feel that they are Providential, or have definite signs from Our Lady. But such signs merely guide us. They do not influence our ultimate judgments. We tell you this now only because this inexplicable coincidence seems but a surfacing of the great spiritual currents by which Our Lady… the Mother of Miracles and of Peace… draws her children together from West and East. She will be the Deliverer of us all.”

WELCOME, Russians !

The symbol of DOMUS PACIS is the Byzantine Dome.

If you go to the nearby castle of Ourem (which is one of the most worthwhile half-day trips you can take while here) you will see only two things as you look towards Fatima over the hills: The tower of the Basilica of Our Lady, and the Byzantine Dome of this house.

This is the symbol of Domus Pacis not only because it is a Fatima landmark but because Our Lady’s promise of peace is connected with the conversion of Russia. She said: “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph, Russia will be converted and an era of peace will be conceded to all mankind.”

Our Byzantine chapel is the “Welcome” to the Russians whom OUR LADY invited here. She showed herself a Queen (in the miracle of the sun) when she came to Fatima, but even more she showed herself a mother . . . in all her words to her children, but especially in’ her words to Russia where as Pope Pius XII said, when he consecrated Russia to her Immaculate Heart: “Her icon lies hidden awaiting better days.”

Below, Blessing of Chapel with Cardinal Tisserant presiding.

HEARTBEAT FOR RUSSIA

Most important in Domus Pacis is not just the Byzantine Church, which was designed by a Russian captain who flew his plane out of Russia to become a priest, but even more it is the Byzantine Centre which is a heartbeat for Russia of a world that looks to the East Linked with this Byzantine Centre at Fatima are similar centres in several other nations. At the head of this centre is an Archpriest of the Byzantine Russian Rite: Monsignor John Mowatt.

You may be surprised to converse with Msgr. Mowatt in your own tongue. You may be more surprised to see him one day celebrate the Russian liturgy in its purest form, and another day celebrating a Latin Mass in the Latin chapel downstairs!

But as Domus Pacis symbolizes unity of east and west in its two chapels, one on top of the other, so it expresses this unity in the very person of its director, Monsignor Mowatt.

Would you like to be part of something so vital to Fatima and to world peace?

THIS PAGE IS A REPRINT FROM RECENT ISSUE OF OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE BLUE ARMY of which “Domus Pacis” is the International Centre.

Write for LOOKING EAST
Blue Army, Washington, N.J.

Tags: Blue Army | Lady of Fatima | Mitchell-Hedges

Posted: 02|9|08 at 1:33 pm. Category: The Virgin of Kazan.
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