What Is the Acies?

Acies is a Church function which is held annually about the Feast of the Annunciation for the members to renew their consecration to Mary.

Bearing in mind the importance of devotion to Mary in the Legion system, each year there shall be a consecration of legionaries to Our Lady. The consecration - which shall comprise both an individual and a collective consecration - will take place on the 25 March or on a day close thereto, and will be known as the Acies. This Latin word, meaning as it does an army ranged in battle array, is appropriate to a ceremony in which the legionaries as a body assemble to renew their fealty to Mary, Queen of the Legion, and from her to receive strength and blessing for yet another year's battle with the forces of evil. Moreover, the word is in effective contrast with praesidium, which contemplates the Legion, no longer drawn up in united array, but split up into its various sections, each engaged in its own particular sphere of duty.

The Acies is the great central annual function of the Legion, so that it is necessary to stress the importance of attendance on the part of every member. The essential idea of the Legion, upon which all else is built, is that of working in union with and in dependence on Mary, its Queen. The Acies is the solemn expression of that union and dependence, the renewal-individual and collective-of the legionary declaration of fealty. Hence it is manifest that any legionaries who can attend, and yet fail to do so, have little or none of the spirit of the Legion in them. The membership of such persons is not an asset to the Legion

For more on the Acies information please see these links below

ACIES ADDRESS AT THE ACIES OF THE LEGION OF MARY As spoken by Most Rev. BISHOP CHARLES H. HELMSING, DD in St. Louis Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri , 1985 Consecration of all Individuals and Peoples of the World (Pope John Paul II, 1984) from EWTN library Consecration to Mary, the desire of Jesus by Father George Kosicki, C.S.B