During the month of January, the feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor is commemorated. It was nearly 200 years ago, that Our Lady, under this title of Prompt Succor, came to the aid of Her Catholic children in America - who sought Her intercession and begged Her powerful protection. It is a story to be remembered.

It was the winter of 1815, in New Orleans, Louisina. The women had been arriving all day. As evening approached, their anxiety increased. They were mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters - all now huddled together before an unfamiliar image of Our Lady and her Son in the chapel of a convent staffed by foreign nuns. Plaintive, even desperate, pleas were poured out at the foot of the statue amid many tears and moans. Their sons, husbands, brothers, and fathers were average common men. They were fishermen, farmers, riverboat men, merchants, and frontiersmen. All common men who had been called by providential fate to an uncommon task - they must defend and protect the city of New Orleans from a large, well-trained, battle-tested, superbly equipped British army.

The British, encouraged by their recent victory over Napoleon’s forces, had turned their attentions to the United States. First, they raided its capital, Washington, DC. They set fire to the White House and attacked Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, MD. Then they devised a plan to conquer the central portion of the U.S. by attacking Louisiana. To accomplish this end, they sent the elite of their army and navy - no strangers to victory at the point of a sword or the barrel of a gun.

In December of 1814, the invasion force arrived nine miles below the city of New Orleans. Throughout the month, skirmishes were held to test the best possible attack route and to determine the defenses of the city. By January, the English had determined that there were only 6,000 men available to protect New Orleans, and these men were not professional soldiers. What match would they be for the 20,000 British militia, well-educated in military victory on so many bloody battlefields of glory? The British felt that the Battle for New Orleans would hardly require more than a brief tactical exercise.

Word quickly spread of the impending doom as General Andrew Jackson (later to be elected President of the U.S.) hurriedly planned his desperate defense. He sent his personal messenger to the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans to request prayers for success. The evening of January 7th came, along with the news that the British were about to attack. The women of the city gathered together in the Ursuline chapel before the statue of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. They prayed throughout the night.

At dawn the cannon fire could be heard coming from the nearby Chalmette Plantation. With terror thus intensified as the reality of the war crashed in about them, their supplications became even more fervent. They all feared for the worst, but by God’s grace (obtained for them by the Mother of God) they continued to hope for the impossible.

That morning in the midst of Holy Mass, a courier rushed into the chapel announcing the defeat of the enemy. A Te Deum was immediately intoned amid a joyous litany of grateful tears and jubilant cries. The details of the victory were stunning beyond belief. The British had suffered extraordinary casualties: One British writer commented, "They fell like blades of grass beneath the scythe." Even more miraculously, the American forces suffered precious few injuries. The British withdrew and made no further attempts to take the city.

Mary had obtained the impossible victory over a very large, coordinated, well-equipped invincible enemy by a small band of weak, untrained, ill-equipped defenders. General Jackson himself admitted that his victory was completely due to Divine intervention, and he himself went in person, together with his staff, to thank the Sisters of the Ursuline Convent and Our Lady of Prompt Succor.

Be sure to listen to this story in its dramatized format. Follow this link to the "Free Downloads" page to download your free MP3 copy of "The Battle for New Orleans" and other true stories. All of these true stories include music, vocal acting, and sound effects - and all are as entertaining as they are inspiring.