At a certain point in the Legion meeting, the Catena Legionis is recited. It is the Magnificat, the Song that the Most Holy Mother of God sang at the time in which she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth and the infant St. John the Baptist was sanctified in the womb of his mother by the sound of Mary's voice.
In this place and application, the Magnificat is called the Catena Legionis, because it is the chain, which unites the Legion together. It is the source of the Legion's identity, the shared battle chant. It begins with the proclamation of the Lord's greatness and continues with a calling to mind of all the things that He has done for His people. In the final verses of the song, it is clear that God's great works on behalf of His people are understood in a series of astounding reversals: "He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly/ He fills the starving with good things and sends the rich away empty." Here, we find a terse statement of what can be seen to be God's complete, Scriptural program. As St. Paul puts it, "God has chosen the weak of this world to shame the strong." Again and again, in the whole story of human history, God waits until all reasonable, earthly hope is lost. Then, He intervenes for the salvation of His people. He behaves in this way in the interest of faith. In this way, everyone must confess the miraculous nature of the deliverance that is affected.
Today, the Byzantine Church commemorates the event, 2 July 458, when the miraculous robe of the Most Holy Mother of God arrived in the harbor of the city of Constantinople. The robe's arrival was the culmination of a journey that began in Nazareth over a year earlier. All the people of the city went down to the Golden Horn to meet the ship. Then, Patriarch Gennadios took the relic in a long procession through the city and deposited it in the treasury of the Vlachernae Palace.
From the very first, the robe was a sign to the city and to the world of the astounding reversals that the True God likes to work in human history. The most famous example of such a miraculous reversal was the salvation of the city from the threat posed by the Slavic fleet in 836. At a time when the imperial capital was virtually undefended because of another war in the east, the Slavs, led by Oleg of Kyiv, decided to attack Constantinople in early October. A prayer vigil was organized in the Church dedicated to the Mother of God in the Vlachernae Palace. There, in the early morning hours, the people had a vision of an army of angels arriving led by the Most Holy Mother of God. They saw her walk up into the sanctuary and stretch forth her hands, spreading her robe protectively over the entire city. At that very hour, a terrible storm arose at sea and destroyed the Slavic fleet.
Since that event in 836, the story of Constantinople's miraculous salvation was told and retold across Europe from one end of the continent to the other. As a result, images of the Mother of God covering mankind with her mantle proliferated widely. Germany in particular became especially devoted to Our Lady's Schutzmantel (Protective Robe).
Let the Catena be a continuous reminder to us that our God is the God of astounding reversals. Whatever difficulties the praesidium or the Legion at large may face, we can be confident that those difficulties will vanish like smoke in response to sincere prayer. We can be confident that God will only allow our apostolate to suffer setbacks, so that we can grow in virtue, because we are enwrapped in the protective mantle of His Holy Mother.
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