Pope Pius XII 1942 consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Alexandrina of Balazar was the great messenger of Jesus to the request of the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary made by Pope Pius XII.

Alexandrina Maria da Costa, from Balazar, was a Portuguese mystic who reported many private apparitions, messages and prophecies received directly from Jesus and the Virgin Mary. In June 1938, based on the request of her spiritual director, Mariano Pinho, several bishops from Portugal wrote to Pope Pius XI, asking him to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In June 1938, Pinho conducted a retreat at Fátima, Portugal, for the Portuguese bishops, at the end of which the bishops forwarded their own request to Pius XI for the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This request was renewed several times.

At that time, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) was the secretary of the state of the Vatican. On October 31, 1942, Pius XII made a solemn act of consecration of the church and the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, joined by the bishops of Portugal, gathered at the Cathedral in Lisbon. Pius spoke by radio, in Portuguese, to an audience of thousands of pilgrims who had come to Fatima to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the last apparition of Our Lady.[1]

At that time, German troops under General Rommel had conquered strategic parts of North Africa while advancing towards the Suez Canal, and in Russia fighting continued against an expanding German invasion. On October 31, 1942, Pius XII called for a prayer crusade to Mary the Queen of Peace, and stated that only her intercession could save the situation. He then dedicated the whole human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He renewed the consecration again on December 8, 1942.[2][3]

Supporters of Pope Pius and his Marian views point out that indeed the battlefield situation improved markedly for the Allies. Shortly afterwards, in the battle of El Alamein, British forces achieved a major breakthrough. According to Winston Churchill, not known as a Marian devotee, one can almost say, before El Alamein, we did not have a single victory, and after not a single defeat.[4] In the Pacific, the Japanese defenders were decisively beaten during the Guadalcanal Campaign, as part of the larger land and sea battles in the Solomon Islands Campaign, within a few days after the consecration. The downfall of Stalingrad began a few days later as well with the encirclement on November 19, 1942. Stalingrad surrendered on the Marian feast day, February 2, 1943. This view is not shared by everyone, but is popular among Marian devotees of Pope Pius XII.[5][6][7]

• For Love Alone! Costa, Alexandrina Maria (organized by Eugénie Signorile and translated by Leo Baron Madigan of Lumiar)
• Calkins, Arthur Burton. Totus tuus: John Paul II's program of Marian consecration and entrustment, 1992, ISBN 0-9635345-0-5