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The Pardon Crucifix of San Pio X
The Pardon Crucifix Indulgences were granted Pope St. Pius X to all those who use the Pardon Crucifix.
The Pardon Crucifix is a powerful Sacramental that encourages us to meditate on the Passion of Our Lord and of the Sorrowful Virgin; It is precisely because of this union with the sufferings of Jesus and Mary, that this Crucifix, if we venerate it properly, can win us numerous indulgences.
During the First World War, the American army distributed among its soldiers a multitude of Rosaries, known for that reason as “Combat Rosaries”, which had been made in 1916. Many of the combatants attributed the saving of their lives to the fact of carrying said Rosary, which was also carried combatants of the Second World War.
From this American Combat Rosary hung the so-called The Pardon Crucifix, which was presented at the Marian Congress in Rome in 1904, with the help of the Archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Coullié, and which obtained general approval.
The Pardon Crucifix Meaning
In its front part, on the image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, appears the inscription “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum” or its abbreviated formula “I.N.R.I.”, which translated from Latin means: Jesus Nazarene King of the Jews. (Matthew 27:37)
On the reverse side, on the transverse side of the arms, appears the phrase: “Father forgive them”, one of the seven phrases Jesus said as he hung dying on the cross. (Luke 23:34) and the vertical inscription reads: “Behold, Here is this heart that has loved men so much.” It is completed with the motif of the Sacred Heart of Jesus engraved in the center. At the foot of the cross appear a star and the letter M, the initial of Mary, wanting to indicate the place that the Blessed Virgin occupied at the feet of her Divine Son, crucified.
The Saint Benedict Pardon Crucifix
There is a version of The Pardon Crucifix from which the Miraculous Medal and the Saint Benedict Medal hang on both sides, although the most common is to find the simplest version in which the medals are suppressed. For this reason, in the Combat Rosaries, individual medals appear added in isolation from the crucifix.
The Pardon Crucifix Indulgences
The Pardon Crucifix Indulgences were granted Pope St. Pius X to all those who use the Pardon Crucifix
These partial indulgences were declared upon the Pardon Crucifix Pope St. Pius X in Rome, June 1, 1905 and have been approved in the pardon of the living and the souls in Purgatory in 1907 (no longer mentioned in the new enchiridion).
In carrying and kissing The Pardon Crucifix with devotion, whenever it is blessed a priest, Pope Saint Pius X granted valuable indulgences that I will explain below:
Anyone who wears the Pardon Crucifix on his person will earn 300 days of indulgence each day.
Every time this Crucifix is kissed with devotion, he will get 100 days of indulgence.
Anyone who says the following invocations before the Crucifix, can win each time an indulgence of 7 years and 7 quarantines: “Our Father who art in Heaven, forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors” / “I pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that she may intercede for me before God Our Lord.”
Anyone who is habitually devoted to this Crucifix and fulfills the necessary conditions of the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, can win a Plenary Indulgence on the following festivals: Festival of the Five Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Although this festival is not celebrated in the whole Church, the Office and the Mass are considered in the appendix to the Breviary and the Missal); Festivity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 13); Festivity of the Holy Cross (May 3); Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8); Festivity of the Seven Sorrows of the Holy Virgin Mary (September 15).
Anyone who, at the time of death, fortified with the Sacraments of the Church, or contrite of heart, or in the supposition of being incapable of receiving them, kissing this crucifix and asking God for forgiveness for his sins and that of his fellow men, you can earn a Plenary Indulgence.
On November 14, 1905, his Holiness, Pope Pius X granted that the indulgences obtained through the Pardon Crucifix were applicable to the Blessed Souls in Purgatory.
On Partial Indulgences (days and years)
Originally, partial indulgences were counted in days (such as, 300 days) or years (for example, 5 years).
However, with Pope Paul VI’s 1968 revision of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (Collection or Handbook of Indulgences), this way of counting partial indulgences was suppressed, and the evaluation of a partial indulgence left to God.
Still, all modes of prayers previously indulgenced continue to receive their partial indulgence under the general grants of indulgence which Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul II in his 1999 revision of the Enchiridion, established.
These general grants establish partial indulgences for devout prayer, penitence and charity, and have made it unnecessary to grant specific time based indulgences to prayers and other pious acts, as was done in the past.
The Combat Rosary
On the centenary of the original Combat Rosary of 1916, Lieutenant Colonel Cristoph Graf, Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, delivered a speech on May 6, 2016, addressed to the new recruits who were to take their oath into the corps.
At a certain moment in his speech, the Colonel raised in his hand a Combat Rosary with the pardon crucifix made of cannon metal, at the time that he pronounced the following words:
“Earlier this year, a generous donor surprised us with a gift. He sent the Swiss Guard the most powerful weapon on the market: the Combat Rosary. It has now been gifted to all guards. It is important that we may find the path of prayer, especially praying the Holy Rosary. Our life, our works and our actions are in the hands of God. However, this does not mean that we surrender. God uses us as instruments to ward off evil in some situations. That is why we need faith in God and prayer. “
Divine Protection
Whenever I think of the First World War, the plaque of gratitude in Lourdes next to the reliquary of Saint Bernadette comes to mind. In it, a woman thanks Our Lady for the protection she gave her husband, thanks to which she survived the Great War. We do not know if the knight in question carried a rosary, but the truth is that he had divine protection to survive in such a warlike hell.
“Mother dear, thank you with all my heart for having protected my husband during the war (1914-1918). Always protect us. In You we trust, Queen “.
There are many challenges that lie ahead and to face them we will need an immense faith in God and trust in the protection of Our Lady, as well as our continuous prayer, especially of the Holy Rosary, which constitutes the best weapon for these times. And in the moments of greatest anguish, let us contemplate how Our Lord was crucified and confidently abandon ourselves into his hands.
