Historical Background of the Saturdays in Honor of Mary

To dedicate Saturday in honor of Mary is an ancient custom. It is based on a legendary account that Jesus appeared to Mary on the Saturday, the day after His death. He did so to reward her for her steadfast faith in his divinity, which did not waver under the Cross. Another strain of devotional thought explains that Divine Wisdom, becoming flesh of the Virgin Mary, rested (Saturday=Sabbath=day of rest) in Mary as on a bed.

One of the oldest customs traced to honoring Mary on Saturday in the Church of Rome took place on the Saturday before "Whitsunday" [White Sunday]. The newly-baptized members of the Church were led from St. John's baptistry of the Lateran to Mary's great shrine on the Esquilin, St. Mary Major [built under Pope Liberius 352-66]. St. John of Damascus' († 754) writings testify to the celebration of Saturdays dedicated to Mary in the Church of the East. The liturgical books of the ninth and tenth centuries contain Masses in honor of Mary on Saturday.

The Dictionary of Mary states:

Hence, Saturday acquired its great Marian tone and the existing fast on that day became associated with Mary. Today, the strongest trace of Mary's relationship with Saturday occurs in the Liturgy. Saturday is dedicated to Mary by a Mass or Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through these liturgical acts, Christians exalt the person of Mary in the action that renews the sacrifice of Christ and in the action that prolongs his prayer.

This liturgical attribution of Saturday to Mary was largely the work of Alcuin (735-804), the Benedictine monk who was "Minister of Education" at the court of Charlemagne and who contributed in a decisive manner to the Carolingian liturgical reform. Alcuin composed six formularies for Votive (That is, devotional Masses – one for each day of the week. And he assigned two formularies to Saturday in honor of Our Lady. The practice was quickly and joyously embraced by both clergy and laity. ...

http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/firstsaturday.html

What is the Sabbatine Privilege?
Around the year 1251. the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock. She gave him the brown scapular and made a promise, "this shall be to you and all Carmelites a privilege, that anyone who dies clothed in this shall not suffer eternal fire: and if wearing it they die, they shall be saved."

Later, on March 3, 1322, a bull was issued by Pope John XXII regarding an additional grace from the use of the brown scapular. This was the Sabbatine Privilege. Mary appeared to him (before he was pope) and made an additional promise that the scapular wearer can be delivered from Purgatory on the first Saturday after their death, provided that the conditions of the privilege are met.

The conditions are 1) wear the brown scapular continuously; 2) lead a chaste life, and; 3) recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin every day. The third requirement can be substituted with a) observing the fasts of the Church and abstaining from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays; b) pray five decades of the rosary if permission is granted for this by a priest, or c) with permission from a priest, perform an act of charity.

To take full advantage of the blessings of the scapular, one must be enrolled in the Brown Scapular by a priest. One advantage for enrollment in the Brown Scapular is that you will not need to have any new scapulars you wear blessed by a priest. Contact us for more information on the Scapular Ritual for Priests.

http://www.holysouls.info/index.php?start=33

The great theologians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Sts. Bernard, Thomas and Bonaventure explained the dedication of Saturdays to Mary by pointing to the time of Christ's rest in the grave. Everyone else had abandoned Christ; only Mary continued to believe. This was her day!

“Holy Mary , Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.”