Mariology
Encyclopedia
Roman Catholic Mariology
is theology
concerned with the Virgin Mary
, the mother of Jesus Christ
as developed by the Catholic Church. Roman Catholic teachings on the subject have been based on the belief that "The Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is believed to hold a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God." Theologically, Roman Catholic Mariology deals with not only her life but also with veneration of her in daily life, prayer, hymns
, art
(where she has been a favorite topic), music
, and architecture in modern and ancient Christianity throughout the ages.
The development of Roman Catholic Mariology is ongoing. It continues to be shaped not only by papal encyclicals but also by the interplay of forces ranging from sensus fidelium
, to the writings of the saints
, to the construction of major Marian churches
at the sites of Marian apparitions
. In some cases, sensus fidelium has influenced Marian papal decisions, providing Mariology with a "theology of the people" component that distinguishes it from other parts of formal theology.
In terms of popular following, membership in Roman Catholic Marian Movements and Societies
has grown significantly in the 20th century. This has continued to be matched by support from the Holy See
, with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) stating: "It is necessary to go back to Mary, if we want to return to the truth about Jesus Christ". The ongoing development of Mariology continued in the 20th century, e.g. in his Angelus
address in September 1985 Pope John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal
.
In parallel to the traditional views, since the late 19th century, a number of other perspectives have been presented as a challenge to Roman Catholic Mariology. These have ranged from feminist criticisms that consider the image of Mary a construct of the patriarchal mindset which limits equal opportunity for women, to other Christian views that see Mariology as a distraction from Christ, to modern psychological interpretations of Mary as the equivalent of mythical Goddesses ranging from Diana
to Kwan Yin.
(the study of Christ
) and in Roman Catholic teachings has been positioned as a logical and necessary consequence of Christology: Jesus and Mary are son and mother, redeemer and redeemed. Pope John Paul II expressed this concept in Redemptoris Mater
by stating: "At the center of this mystery, in the midst of this wonderment of faith, stands Mary. As the loving Mother of the Redeemer, she was the first to experience it: "To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator"!" Roman Catholic theologians have also expressed the view that: "Mariology is Christology developed to its full potential".
In Roman Catholic theology, Mary and her son Jesus are very close but not identical. Therefore, the study of Mary, while contributing to the study of Christ, is also a separate discipline in its own right, with an understanding of the figure of Mary contributing to a fuller understanding of who Christ is and what he did. In the Roman Catholic view, a Christology without Mary is incomplete because it is not based on the total revelation of the Bible.
Early Christians and numerous saints focused on this parallel interpretation. Popes highlighted the inner link between Marian dogmas and the full acceptance of christological dogma. The Church is the people of God as she is the Body of Christ. The Church lives in its relation to Christ. Being the Body of Christ, the Church has also a relation to his mother, which is the subject of Catholic Mariology. She is seen as the original image of the Church, or, as Vatican II states, Mother of the Church
.
In his 1946 publication Compendium Mariologiae, respected Mariologist Gabriel Roschini
explained that Mary did not only participate in the birth of the physical
Jesus but also, with conception, she entered with him into a spiritual
union. The divine salvation plan, being not only material, includes a permanent spiritual unity with Christ. Most Mariologists agree with this position. This echoed the sentiments of Pope Saint Pius X who in Ad Diem Illum
stated: "there is no more direct road than by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ."
Mariology is ongoing. It includes dogmas, traditions, confirmed and hypothetical theological positions on Mary, contemporary as well as historical. Mariology is not simply a theological field studied by a few scholars, but a devotional concept embraced by millions of Catholics who venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary. As discussed below, it differs from other parts of theology in that its progress has quite often been driven from the ground up, from the masses of believers, and at times from religious experiences of young and simple children on remote hilltops, which have then influenced the higher levels of the Holy See
in Rome via sensus fidei.
Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church, including the four dogmas mentioned below, are the central part of Mariology consisting of confirmed teachings and doctrines regarding Mary's life and role, but excluding the overall perspectives, the controversies and the cultural aspects of Marian devotion. Mariology is both part of abstract doctrine and an important part of church life: Marian prayers, pilgrimages to Marian shrines, Marian devotions during the months of May and October, Marian apparitions, Marian titles, and Marian Feast days are detailed in Blessed Virgin Mary
. Therefore, this article on Roman Catholic Mariology presents an overview of the major issues, developments and controversies of the ecclesiogical
movement.
The history of Mariology goes back to the 1st century. Early Christians focused their piety at first more upon the martyrs around them. Following that, they saw in Mary a bridge between the old and the new. The earliest recorded prayer to Mary, the sub tuum praesidium
, is dated in its earliest form to around the year 250.
In the 5th century, the Third Ecumenical Council declared Mary as Theotokos
(God-bearer). Churches dedicated to Mary were constructed across the Christian world, among the most famous being Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Teaching of the Assumption of Mary
became widespread across the Christian world. The Middle Ages saw growth and development for Mariology and brought major champions of Marian devotion to the fore, including Ephraim the Syrian, John Damascene and Bernard of Clairvaux
. Prayers to Mary included the Ave Maria
, and chants such as Ave Maris Stella
and the Salve Regina
emerged and became staples of monastic plainsong. Devotional practices grew in number.
The Renaissance
period witnessed a dramatic growth in Marian art
and masterpieces by Boticelli, Leonardo da Vinci
and Raphael
were produced. In the 16th century, the Council of Trent
confirmed the Catholic tradition of paintings and artworks in churches. This resulted in a great development of Marian art and Mariology during the Baroque Period. During the Reformation
, the Catholic Church defended its Mariology against Protestant views. With the victory at Battle of Lepanto (1571)
accredited to her, it "signified the beginning of a strong resurgence of Marian devotions." The baroque literature on Mary experienced unforeseen growth. More than 500 pages of Mariological writings were published during the 17th century alone.
Mariology in the 19th century was dominated by discussions about the Immaculate Conception
and in 1854, Pope Pius IX
proclaimed it a dogma. Mariology in the 20th century was dominated by a genuine Marian enthusiasm. Pope Pius XII
issued the Dogma of the Assumption and the Second Vatican Council
declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church.
Popes have been an important element in shaping both the theological and the devotional aspects of the Roman Catholic perspective on the Blessed Virgin. Theologically, popes have highlighted the inner link between Virgin Mary and the full acceptance of Jesus Christ as son of God, the encyclicals Mystici Corporis, Lumen Gentium
and Redemptoris Mater
being examples. Furthermore, popes have fostered the veneration of the Blessed Virgin through the promotion of Marian devotions, feast days, prayer
s, initiatives, the acceptance and support of Marian congregations, and, the formal recognition of Marian apparitions such as in Lourdes
and Fátima
.
Popes have at times followed on devotions initiated by previous popes, for instance in the 16th century, Pope Clement VIII
started the venerative practice of crowning Marian images, a practice that was followed by pope Pius XII in the 20th century via the crowning of the Salus Populi Romani
icon, as he declared the Queenship of Mary. Similarly, popes Alexander VII and Clement X both promulgated the veneration of the Heart of Jesus
and the Heart of Mary
, a concept which was embraced by pope John Paul II in the 20th century as the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
.
A number of Marian papal encyclicals and Apostolic Letters
have been issued since the 16th century. Pope Leo XIII issued 11 encyclicals just on the Rosary. In Ecclesiam Suam
Pope Paul VI
called Mary the "ideal of Christian perfection"." These papal documents reflect the support of the popes for both Marian devotions and Marian doctrines. The two Marian dogmas of Assumption
and Immaculate Conception
were established by popes in the 20th century. In 1904 at the 50th anniversary of the Dogma
of the Immaculate Conception
, Saint Pope Pius X
with the encyclical
Ad diem illum
encouraged the entire Church to honor the Virgin Mary.
In recent years, popes have emphasized the role of Mary as the Mother of the Church
and the Marian elements of Christology
. In his 2002 Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae
, Pope John Paul II
quoted Saint Louis de Montfort
, and said:
De Fide Definita or De Fide Credenda doctrines have the highest degree of dogmatic certainty. These doctrines come in several forms, namely teachings which have been specifically defined as Revealed by an extraordinary definition by a Pope or Ecumenical council, or those teachings infallibly taught to be Revealed by the ordinary universal Magisterium. As in the case of the Immaculate Conception
or the Assumption
, these doctrines were held by the Church prior to the date of official definition, but open for discussion. The date of definition must be accepted by all faithful members of the Catholic Church as contained specifically in the Deposit of Faith and owed supernatural faith in itself (de fide credenda)
There are four Marian dogmas among a large number of other teachings about the Blessed Virgin
:
For a discussion of a proposed fifth Marian dogma, see the section on Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix below.
, and Oriental Orthodox doctrine affirms Mary's
"real and perpetual virginity
even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made Man." Thus, by the teaching of this dogma
, the faithful believe that Mary was ever-Virgin (Greek ) for the remainder of her life, making Jesus her only biological son, whose conception
and birth
are miraculous.
In the year 107, Ignatius of Antioch
described the virginity of Mary as "hidden from the prince of this world ... loudly proclaimed, but wrought in the silence of God." The affirmation of the doctrine of Mary's virginity before, during and after the birth of Jesus was the principal aim of the early 2nd century work, the Protoevangelium
of James (c. 120-150). The work, concerned with the character and purity of Mary, claims that Joseph had children from a marriage previous to Mary. However, the text does not explicitly assert the doctrine of perpetual virginity. The earliest such surviving reference is Origen's Commentary on Matthew, where he cites the Protoevangelium in support.
By the 4th century, the doctrine was generally accepted. Athanasius described Mary as "Ever-Virgin", Orations against the Arians, as did Epiphanius
in his Medicine Chest Against All Heresies. Hilary
argued in favor of the doctrine in his Commentary on Matthew and to this may be added Didymus
(The Trinity) Ambrose
of Milan, Jerome
, in Against Helvetius, Siricius
' and others.
Further important statements of the belief include the Lateran Synod of 649, Thomas Aquinas's
teaching (Summa Theologiae III.28.2) that Mary gave birth painlessly in miraculous fashion without opening of the womb and without injury to the hymen
, and Pope Paul IV
's Cum quorundam of 7 August 1555 at the Council of Trent
. Before this last extraordinary papal/concilliar definition, really an afterthought, the teaching can be considered to have been always taught infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium as a truth contained in the deposit of faith, as opposed to by any specific extraordinary definition.
Virginity before birth
Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit
without participation of any man. (De fide). Non-Christians questioned this belief of the early Church Jews and Christians differed on the prediction in Isaiah 7,14 Along with other Christian groups the Catholic Church continues to teach today, that Mary bore her son Jesus while still a virgin. From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived "by the Holy Spirit without human seed". The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own. Catechism of the Catholic Church
,
Virginity during birth
Mary gave birth without losing her corporal virginity (De fide). Her corporal integrity was not affected by giving birth. The Church does not teach how this occurred physically, but insists that virginity during child birth is different from virginity of conception. Pope Pius XII
in Mystici Corporis "Within her virginal womb she brought into life Christ our Lord in a marvellous birth." indicating the miraculous nature of the Virgin birth. Numerous early Church writers used analogies to explain this mystery, like Christ leaving the sealed tomb on Easter Sunday, or, Christ walking through closed doors, or, light and sun penetrating through glass windows.
Virginity after birth
Mary remained a virgin after giving birth (De fide). This belief of the Church was questioned in its early years Today most Protestants disagree with this teaching, although Martin Luther and his contemporaries believed in the ever Virgin Mary The scriptures say little about this, mentioning the brothers of Jesus, but never "sons of Mary," suggesting to the patristical writers a broader family relationship.
Mary is truly the mother of God (De fide). After Church fathers found common ground on Mary's virginity before, during and after giving birth, this was the first specifically Marian doctrine to be formally defined by the Church. The definition Mother of God (in Greek:Theotokos
) was formally affirmed at the Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus
in 431
. The competing view, advocated by Patriarch
Nestorius
of Constantinople, was that Mary should be called Christotokos, meaning "Birth-giver of Christ," to restrict her role to the mother of Christ's humanity only and not his divine nature.
Nestorius' opponents, led by Cyril of Alexandria
, viewed this as dividing Jesus into two distinct persons, the human who was Son of Mary, and the divine who was not. To them, this was unacceptable since by destroying the perfect union of the divine and human natures in Christ, it sabotaged the fullness of the Incarnation and, by extension, the salvation of humanity. The council accepted Cyril's reasoning, affirmed the title Theotokos for Mary, and anathema
tised Nestorius' view as heresy
. (See Nestorianism
)
In letters to Nestorius which were afterwards included among the council documents, Cyril explained his doctrine. He noted that "the holy fathers... have ventured to call the holy Virgin [T]heotokos, not as though the nature of the [W]ord or his divinity received the beginning of their existence from the holy Virgin, but because from her was born his holy body, rationally endowed with a soul, with which [body] the [W]ord was united according to the hypostasis
, and is said to have been begotten according to the flesh" (Cyril's second letter to Nestorius).
Explaining his rejection of Nestorius' preferred title for Mary (Christotokos, Mother of Christ), Cyril wrote: "Confessing the Word to be united with the flesh according to the hypostasis, we worship one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ. We do not divide him into parts and separate man and God as though they were united with each other [only] through a unity of dignity and authority... nor do we name separately Christ the Word from God, and in similar fashion, separately, another Christ from the woman, but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own flesh... But we do not say that the Word from God dwelt as in an ordinary human born of the holy virgin... we understand that, when he became flesh, not in the same way as he is said to dwell among the saints do we distinguish the manner of the indwelling; but he was united by nature and not turned into flesh... There is, then, one Christ and Son and Lord, not with the sort of conjunction that a human being might have with God as in a unity of dignity or authority; for equality of honor does not unite natures. For Peter and John were equal to each other in honor, both of them being apostles and holy disciples, but the two were not one. Nor do we understand the manner of conjunction to be one of juxtaposition, for this is insufficient in regard to natural union.... Rather we reject the term 'conjunction' as being inadequate to express the union... [T]he holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to hypostasis, for that reason we call her Theotokos... If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is Theotokos (for she bore in a fleshly manner the Word from God become flesh), let him be anathema
." (Cyril's third letter to Nestorius)
). The Immaculate Conception
is, according to Roman Catholic
dogma
, the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus without any stain of original sin
, in her mother's womb: the dogma thus says that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divine grace
. It is further believed that she lived a life completely free from sin
. Her immaculate conception in the womb of her mother, by normal sexual intercourse (Christian tradition identifies her parents as Sts. Joachim and Anne
), should not be confused with the doctrine of the virginal conception of her son Jesus
.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception
, celebrated on December 8, was established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV. He did not extraordinarily define it as a dogma at this time, but this does not mean Catholics were free to believe in it or not. The Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma
by Pope Pius IX
in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus
, on December 8, 1854 as a truth not merely implied by the deposit of faith and discerned by the Church under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit (de fide tenenda), but as specifically and explicitly contained as an object of supernatural faith in the Public Revelation of the Deposit of Faith (de fide credenda).
The Catholic Church believes the dogma is supported by Scripture (e.g. Mary's being greeted by Angel Gabriel as "full of grace" or "highly favoured"), as well as either directly or indirectly by the writings of many of the Church Fathers
, and often calls Mary the Blessed Virgin (Luke
1:48). Catholic theology maintains that, since Jesus became incarnate
of the Virgin Mary, it was fitting that she be completely free of sin for expressing her fiat. (Ott, Fund., Bk 3, Pt. 3, Ch. 2, §3.1.e).
It seemed to Pius XII that the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wished to confirm by some special sign the definition, because, less than four years later, in a French town
For the whole Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from these apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes
in 1858. In Lourdes
a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation
, except where conferences of bishops have decided, with the approval of the Holy See, not to maintain it as such. It is a public holiday in some countries where Roman Catholicism is predominant e.g. Italy. In the Philippines
, although this is not a public holiday, the predominance of Catholic Schools make it almost a holiday.
is one basis for the 1950 dogma. Another was the century old Church-wide veneration of the Virgin Mary as being assumed into heaven, which Pope Pius XII referred to in Deiparae Virginis Mariae
and reported in Munificentissimus Deus
. Although the Assumption
was only recently defined as dogma
, accounts of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven have circulated since at least the 5th century. The Catholic Church itself interprets chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation
as referring to it.
The earliest assumption narrative is the so-called Liber Requiei Mariae (The Book of Mary's Repose), a narrative which survives intact only in an Ethiopic
translation. (Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption] Oxford University Press, 2002, 2006). Probably composed by the 4th century, this early Christian apocryphal narrative may be as early as the 3rd century. Also quite early are the very different traditions of the "Six Books" Dormition narratives. The earliest versions of this apocryphon are preserved by several Syriac
manuscripts of the 5th and 6th centuries, although the text itself probably belongs to the 4th century.
Later apocrypha based on these earlier texts include the De Obitu S. Dominae, attributed to St. John, a work probably from around the turn of the 6th century that is a summary of the "Six Books" narrative. The story also appears in De Transitu Virginis, a late 5th century work ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis
that presents a theologically redacted summary of the traditions in the Liber Requiei Mariae. The Transitus Mariae tells the story of the apostles being transported by white clouds to the death-bed of Mary, each from the town where he was preaching at the hour.
The Decretum Gelasianum
in the 490s declared some transitus Mariae literature as apocryphal.
An Armenian letter attributed to Dionysus the Areopagite also mentions the event, although this is a much later work, written sometime after the 6th century. Other saints also describe it, notably St Gregory of Tours
, St John Damascene, and St Modestus of Jerusalem
.
Theological debate about the Assumption continued until 1950 when, in the Apostolic Constitution
Munificentissimus Deus
, it was defined as definitive doctrine by Pope Pius XII:
Since the 1870 solemn declaration of Papal Infallibility
by Vatican I in 1870, this declaration by Pius XII has been the only ex cathedra
use of Papal Infallibility. While Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption, the more common teaching of the early Fathers is that she did.
The Catholic Church teaches that the Virgin Mary is mother of the Church and of all its members, namely all Christians. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
In addition, Mary is seen as mother of Christians because Christians are said in scripture to become spiritually part of the body of Christ. Christians are adopted by Jesus as his "brothers". They therefore share with Him the Fatherhood of God and also the motherhood of Mary. Again, in the New Testament
book of John Jesus, from the cross gives the Apostle John
to Mary as her son, and gives Mary to John as his mother. John here, as the sole remaining Apostle remaining steadfast with Jesus is taken to represent all loyal followers of Jesus from that time on.
The devotion to the Virgin Mary thus continues to be emphasized in Roman Catholic teachings. For instance, in his encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II
discussed how his own motto "Totus Tuus" was inspired by the writings of Saint Louis de Montfort
on total consecration to the Virgin Mary, which he quoted:.
In a separate address to the Montfortian Fathers, Pope John Paul II
stated that reading Saint Louis de Montfort
's work on Devotion to Mary had been a "decisive turning point" in his life
s, but Mary is seen as having the greatest intercessionary power. The earliest surviving recorded prayer to Mary is the Sub tuum praesidium
, written in Greek.
Mary has increasingly been seen as a principal dispenser of God's graces and Advocate for the people of God and is mentioned as such in several official Church documents. Pope Pius IX
used the title in Ineffabilis Deus
. In the first of his so called Rosary encyclicals, Supremi Apostolatus (1883), Pope Leo XIII
calls Our Lady the guardian of our peace and the dispensatrix of heavenly graces. The following year, 1884, his encyclical Superiore Anno speaks of the prayers presented to God through her whom He has chosen to be the dispenser of all heavenly graces. Pope Pius X
employed this title in Ad Diem Illud in 1904, Pope Benedict XV
introduced it into the Marian liturgy when he created the Marian feast of The Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces in 1921, In his 1954 encyclical
Ad caeli reginam
, Pope Pius XII calls Mary the Mediatrix of peace. The theological discussion ongoing, neither Pius XII nor his successors moved to a closure of this issue.
_basilica_inferiore_di_assisi_(1310-1329).jpg)
Co-Redemptrix
refers to the participation of Mary in the salvation process. Already, Irenaeus
, the Church Father (Died 200), referred to Mary as "causa salutis" [cause of our salvation] given her "fiat
It is teaching, which has been considered since the 15th century but never declared a dogma. The Roman Catholic view of Co-Redemptrix does not imply that Mary participates as equal part in the redemption of the human race, since Christ is the only redeemer. Mary herself needed redemption and was redeemed by Jesus Christ her son. Being redeemed by Christ, implies that she cannot be his equal part in the redemption process.
Co-redemptrix refers to an indirect or unequal but important participation by Mary in the redemption process. She gave free consent to give life to the redeemer, to share his life, to suffer with him under the cross and to sacrifice him for the sake of the redemption of mankind. Co-redemption is not something new.
Papal teaching begin to mention this aspect in official Church documents during the pontificate of Pope Pius X
Pius X referred to it in his encyclical Ad Diem Illum
. Pope Benedict XV
first described the term in his own right in his Apostolic Letter, Inter Soldalica, issued March 22, 1918. Pope Pius XII
repeated this argument with slightly different accents in his encyclical Mystici Corporis. In the Papal bull Munificentissimus Deus
on dogma of the assumption, Pope Pius declares that “the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, as the noble associate of the divine Redeemer
The doctrine that the Virgin Mary has been crowned Queen of Heaven
goes back to the early patristic writers of the Church such as] St. Gregory Nazianzen "the Mother of the King of the universe," and the "Virgin Mother who brought forth the King of the whole world," Prudentius
, the Mother marvels "that she has brought forth God as man, and even as Supreme King." and, St. Ephrem
, "Let Heaven sustain me in its embrace, because I am honored above it. For heaven was not Thy mother, but Thou hast made it Thy throne. How much more honorable and venerable than the throne of a king is her mother." The Catholic Church often sees Mary as queen in heaven, bearing a crown of twelve stars in Revelation
Many Popes have given tribute to it. Mary is the Queen of Heaven and Earth, (Pius IX), Queen and Ruler of the Universe (Leo XIII) and Queen of the World (Pius XII) The theological and logical foundation of these titles rests in the dogma of Mary as the Mother of God. As mother of God, she participates in his salvation plan. The Catholic faith teaches that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen:
for insults that she suffers. The Raccolta
Catholic prayer book (approved by a Decree of 1854, and published by the Holy See
in 1898) includes a number of such prayers.
These devotions and prayers do not involve a petition for a living or deceased beneficiary, but aim to repair the sins
of others against the Virgin Mary.
. In several crucial cases, these devotions have not been started with decrees issued in Rome, but by religious experiences (and visions) of simple and modest individuals (in many cases children). Their recounting of their experiences in time created strong emotions among numerous Roman Catholics, who independently adopted practices and devotions. Their faith and beliefs influenced priests and the higher levels of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
A good example is the case of Saint Juan Diego. In 1531, he reported an early morning vision of the Virgin Mary in which he was instructed to build an abbey on the Hill of Tepeyac
in Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and asked for a miraculous sign. This was provided by an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe
permanently imprinted on the saint's cloak where he had gathered roses.
By all accounts, Juan Diego did not receive a lot of attention in Rome during the 1530s, since the Church was busy with the challenges of the Protestant Reformation
of 1521 to 1579. Yet, Juan Diego's reported vision of the Virgin Mary was considered instrumental in the attraction of almost 8 million people to the ranks of Catholics in the Americas between 1532 and 1538. With tens of millions of followers, Juan Diego impacted Mariology in the Americas and beyond, and was eventually declared venerable
in 1987, beatified in 1990, and canonized in 2002.
The spread of Marian devotions, such as the Holy Rosary
via lay Catholic organizations, has also influenced Mariology. The 20th century witnessed significant growth in the number of volunteer-based lay Marian devotional organizations, such as free rosary
distribution groups. An example is Our Lady's Rosary Makers
, which was formed with a $25 donation for a typewriter in 1949. It now has thousands of volunteers who have distributed hundreds of millions of free rosaries to Catholic missions worldwide. The growth of Marian devotions builds sensus fidelium
, which in time influences the direction of Mariology as a whole.
's reported vision of Our Lady of Lourdes
was similar. Both saints reported a miraculous Lady on a hill who asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the vision. Both visions included a reference to roses. Large churches were built at the sites: Our Lady of Guadalupe
in Mexico, and Our Lady of Lourdes
in France.
A simple, 14 year old peasant girl of no significant education, Bernadette Soubirous
reported her vision of a woman in white, who said, Que soy L’Immaculado concepciou, I am the Immaculate Conception and asked that a church be built there. At first ridiculed, questioned, and belittled by Church officials and other contemporaries, Bernadette firmly but modestly insisted on her vision. Eventually the Church believed her and she was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933. In time, many churches were built on that hilltop (one of them, the Basilica of St. Pius X
can accommodate 25,000 people). Lourdes is now a major Marian pilgrimage site. Within France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes.
Three Portuguese children, Lucia dos Santos, Jacinta Marto, and Francisco Marto, were equally young and without much education when they reported the apparition of Our Lady of Fátima
in 1917. The local administrator initially jailed the children and threatened that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil. The children were consoled by the other inmates in the jail, and then led the inmates in praying the Rosary.
With millions of followers and Roman Catholic believers, the reported visions at Fatima gathered respect. After a canonical enquiry, the visions of Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" in October 1930 by the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima. Popes Pius XII, John XXIII
, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI voiced their acceptance of the supernatural origin of the Fátima events. John Paul II credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life following an assassination attempt on the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima, 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him to the Roman Catholic sanctuary at Fátima, Portugal
.
Mariologists refer to Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque
, as "living proof how Marian devotion is linked to 'Christology'" and the adoration of Jesus Christ. She made a vow at age 14 to dedicate her life to the Virgin Mary. As a simple Marian nun, she was subjected to many trials to prove the genuineness of her vocation and her visions of Jesus and Mary
relating to the Sacred Heart
. She was initially rebuffed by her mother superior and was unable to convince theologians of the validity of her visions. A noted exception was Saint Claude de la Colombière
, who supported her. The devotion to the Sacred Heart
was officially recognized 75 years after Alacoque's death. In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor
, Pope Pius XI
stated that Jesus Christ had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret and referred to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times.
Mariette Beco was twelve years old when she reported Marian apparitions in 1933 in Banneux
, Belgium. In this case, the Lady in White reportedly declared she was the Virgin of the Poor and said: "Believe in me and I will believe in you." In 1942, the Holy See
permitted the local bishop to allow the veneration of the Virgin of the Poor.
website admitted in 2004. Thus, "The dogma
of the Immaculate Conception
was defined by Pius IX not so much because of proofs in Scripture or ancient tradition
, but due to a profound sensus fidelium
, a century-old sense of the faithful, and the Magisterium".
The Vatican quotes in this context Fulgens Corona
, where Pius XII supported such a faith:
In several Marian teachings, such as the Immaculate Conception, the "theology of the people", the profound and century-old sense of the faithful took precedence over academic theology. Identical arguments were made for the dogma of the Assumption
by Pope Pius XII. To some non-Catholics and even to some theologically oriented Catholics, like Karl Rahner
, this sensus fidei has some problems.
Nevertheless, popular Mariology has been a major driving force in the past 150 years. It led to the two infallible, ex cathedra
dogma
s: Immaculate Conception
(1854) and Assumption
(1950). Since the 1870 solemn declaration of Papal Infallibility
by Vatican I, the 1950 declaration by Pius XII has been the first and only ex cathedra use of papal infallibility. Thus while the dogmatic definitions of the Assumption
, took place only in the 20th century, the sensus fidelium was already being shaped in the Middle Ages, and by 1530, Antonio da Correggio
had completed his contract for the elaborate scene of the Assumption in the Cathedral of Palermo
.
and venerations. Yet these views have changed and been transformed over time.
An example of the changing perspectives on the Virgin Mary based on specific spiritual views, and its adoption within a culture a world away is the transformation of the image of Mary from a Heavenly Queen
to a mother of humility, and the construction of views to accommodate both perspectives. While depictions of the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven
or Coronation of the Virgin
by artists such as Paolo Veneziano
or Giuliano da Rimini
were common in the early part of the 14th century, they did not fit with the virtue of humility
which was a key tenet of the spirituality of Saint Francis of Assisi
. The concept of the Virgin of humility was developed in the 14th century in order to accommodate Franciscan piety, by depicting the Madonna
sitting on the ground, rather than a throne. It offered a view of the Virgin Mary (often barefoot) as a mother nursing a child, rather than a Queen in a coronation scene.
As the Franciscans began to preach in China, the notion of the Virgin of humility resonated well with the Chinese, partly due to the cultural acceptance of humility as a virtue in China, and partly due to its similarity to the motherly, merciful figure of Kuanyin, which was much admired in south China. However, by the middle of the 15th century, a dual view had emerged in Europe, as represented by Domenico di Bartolo
's 1433 Madonna of humility
which expressed the symbolic duality of her nature: an earthly barefoot woman, as well as a heavenly queen. Despite her low, sitting position, the depiction of star and the gems, as well as a halo, signify the regal status of the Virgin, as she is being attended to while she holds the Child Jesus
.
Saint Juan Diego's account of the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to him in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico provides another example of the cultural adaptation of the view of the Virgin Mary. Juan Diego did not describe the Virgin Mary as either European or Middle Eastern, but as a tanned Aztec
princess who spoke in his local Nahuatl
language, and not in Spanish
. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe that is highly venerated in Mexico has the appearance of a South American, rather than a European woman, and the clothing of the Virgin of Guadalupe has been identified as that of an Aztec princess. The Virgin of Guadalupe was a turning point in the conversion of Latin America to Catholicism, and is the primary view of Mary among millions of Catholics in Mexico in the 21st century. Pope John Paul II reinforced the localization of this view by permitting local Aztec dances during the ceremony in which he declared Juan Diego a saint, spoke in Nahuatl as part of the ceremony, called Juan Diego "the talking eagle" and asked him to show "the way that leads to the Dark Virgin of Tepeyac".
The view of the Virgin Mary as a "miracle worker" has existed for centuries and is still held by many Catholics in the 21st century. The legends of the miracles of the Maddona of Orsanmichele
in Florence
, Italy go back to the Renaissance
. The legends of miracles performed by the image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa
also go back for centuries, and it continues to be venerated today as the Patron of Poland
. Every year, millions of Catholic pilgrims visit the Basilica at Our Lady of Lourdes
in search of miraculous cures. Although millions of Catholics hope for miracles on their pilgrimages, the Vatican has generally been reluctant to approve of modern miracles, unless they have been subject to extensive analysis.
Since the end of the 19th century, a number of progressive and liberal perspectives of Mariology have been presented, ranging from feminist criticisms to interpretations based on modern psychology and liberal Catholic viewpoints. These views are generally critical of the Roman Catholic approach to Mariology as well as the Eastern Orthodox church, which has even more Marian emphasis within its official liturgy.
Some feminists contend that, as with other women saints such as Joan of Arc
, the image of Mary is a construct of the patriarchal mind. They argue that Marian dogmas and doctrines and the typical forms of Marian devotion reinforce patriarchy by offering women temporary comfort from the ongoing oppression inflicted on them by male dominated churches and societies. In the feminist view, old gender stereotypes persist within traditional Marian teachings and theological doctrines. To that end books on "feminist Mariology" have been published to present opposing interpretations and perspectives.
The psychological analysis of Marian teachings dates back to Sigmund Freud
, who used the title of a poem by Goethe in his 1911 paper Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Freud argued that Marian venerations were a surrogate for the worship of the Goddess Diana
. Carl Jung
, on the other hand, viewed the Virgin Mary as a spiritual version of the more loving Goddess Eros
. A large number of other psychological interpretations have been presented through the years, ranging from the study of the similarities of the Virgin Mary and the Buddhist Goddess Tara
, or the humble and loving figure presented by the East Asian Goddess Kwan Yin.
Since the Reformation
many Christians have opposed Marian venerations, and that trend has continued into the 21st century among progressive and liberal Christians, who see the high level of attention paid to the Virgin Mary both as being without sufficient grounding in Scripture and as distracting from the worship due to Christ
.
Groups of liberal Catholics view the traditional image of the Virgin Mary as presented by the Catholic Church as an obstacle towards realization of the goal of womanhood, and as a symbol of the systemic patriarchal oppression of women within the Church. Moreover, some liberal Catholics view the cultivation of the traditional image of Mary as a method of manipulation of Catholics at large by the Church hierarchy. Other liberal Christians argue that the modern concepts of equal opportunity for men and women does not resonate well with the humble image of Mary, obediently and subserviently kneeling before Christ.
which emphasises her falling asleep to be later assumed into heaven. The differences in these observances is for some Eastern Catholics superficial. However, Roman Catholics in general object to this doctrine.
is a teaching of Eastern origin but expressed in the terminology of the Western Church. The Western concept of the Virgin Mary being free from original sin as defined by St. Augustine of Hippo is not accepted in the East. However, Eastern Catholics recognized from ancient times that Mary was preserved by God from sin. Eastern Catholics while not observing the Western feast, have no difficulty affirming it or even dedicating their churches to the Virgin Mary under this title.
took a major step forward between the Holy Year 1950 and 1958 based on the actions of Pope Pius XII
, who authorized institutions for increased academic research into the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Of these organizations, the Marianum Pontifical Theological Faculty is the most active marilogical centre in Rome (www.marianum.it). This Pontifical Catholic Faculty was founded by Father Gabriel Roschini
(who directed it for several years) under the direction of Pope Pius XII in 1950. At the Marianum, one can get a Master's degree in Mariology (2-year academic program) and one can also get a doctorate in Mariology. This mariological facility has a library with more than 85,000 volumes on Mariology and a number of magazines and journals of theological and Mariological concern. Marianum is also the name of the prestigious journal of Marian theology, founded by Father Roschini
in 1939.
In 1975, the University of Dayton
in Ohio formed the International Marian Research Institute in affiliation with the Marianum
to offer a doctorate in sacred theology (S.T.D.) and a licentiate in sacred theology (S.T.L.).
Mariology
Roman Catholic Mariology is theology concerned with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ as developed by the Catholic Church. Roman Catholic teachings on the subject have been based on the belief that "The Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is believed to hold a certain...
is theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
concerned with the Virgin Mary
Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on Holy Scripture: In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin. The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God through Mary thus signifies her honour as Mother of God...
, the mother of Jesus Christ
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
as developed by the Catholic Church. Roman Catholic teachings on the subject have been based on the belief that "The Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is believed to hold a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good which is God." Theologically, Roman Catholic Mariology deals with not only her life but also with veneration of her in daily life, prayer, hymns
Hymns to Mary
Marian Hymns are Christian songs focused on the Virgin Mary. They are used in both devotional and liturgical services, particularly by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. They are often used in the month of May devotions. Some have also been adopted as Christmas...
, art
Roman Catholic Marian art
The Blessed Virgin Mary has been one of the major subjects of Christian Art, Catholic Art and Western Art for many centuries. Literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of...
(where she has been a favorite topic), music
Roman Catholic Marian music
Roman Catholic Marian music shares a trait with some other forms of Christian music in adding another emotional dimension to the process of veneration and in being used in various Marian ceremonies and feasts...
, and architecture in modern and ancient Christianity throughout the ages.
The development of Roman Catholic Mariology is ongoing. It continues to be shaped not only by papal encyclicals but also by the interplay of forces ranging from sensus fidelium
Sensus fidelium
The concept of sensus fidelium in Roman Catholic teachings can be implicitly traced back to the early Fathers of the Church...
, to the writings of the saints
Mariology of the saints
Roman Catholic Mariology is the area of theology concerned with the Blessed Virgin Mary, not only with her life, but her veneration in daily life, prayer, art, music, and architecture....
, to the construction of major Marian churches
Roman Catholic Marian churches
Throughout history, Roman Catholics have built churches to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, a large number of Roman Catholic churches dedicated to the Blessed Virgin exist on all continents...
at the sites of Marian apparitions
Marian apparitions
A Marian apparition is an event in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have supernaturally appeared to one or more people. They are often given names based on the town in which they were reported, or on the sobriquet which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition...
. In some cases, sensus fidelium has influenced Marian papal decisions, providing Mariology with a "theology of the people" component that distinguishes it from other parts of formal theology.
In terms of popular following, membership in Roman Catholic Marian Movements and Societies
Roman Catholic Marian Movements and Societies
Throughout the centuries the devotion to and the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Roman Catholics has both led to, and been influenced by a number of...
has grown significantly in the 20th century. This has continued to be matched by support from the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) stating: "It is necessary to go back to Mary, if we want to return to the truth about Jesus Christ". The ongoing development of Mariology continued in the 20th century, e.g. in his Angelus
Angelus
The Angelus is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ The Angelus (Latin for "angel") is a Christian devotion in memory of the Incarnation. The name Angelus is derived from the opening words: Angelus...
address in September 1985 Pope John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary refers to the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary...
, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal
Fátima, Portugal
Fátima is a city in Portugal famous for the Marian apparitions, recognized by the Catholic Church, that took place there in 1917. The town itself has a population of 7,756 and is located in the municipality of Ourém, in the Centro Region and Médio Tejo Subregion...
.
In parallel to the traditional views, since the late 19th century, a number of other perspectives have been presented as a challenge to Roman Catholic Mariology. These have ranged from feminist criticisms that consider the image of Mary a construct of the patriarchal mindset which limits equal opportunity for women, to other Christian views that see Mariology as a distraction from Christ, to modern psychological interpretations of Mary as the equivalent of mythical Goddesses ranging from Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
to Kwan Yin.
Mariology and Christology
Mariology (the study of Mary) has been related to ChristologyChristology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
(the study of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
) and in Roman Catholic teachings has been positioned as a logical and necessary consequence of Christology: Jesus and Mary are son and mother, redeemer and redeemed. Pope John Paul II expressed this concept in Redemptoris Mater
Redemptoris Mater
Redemptoris Mater is the name for certain Roman Catholic seminaries which operate under the auspices of the Neocatechumenal Way and claim as their mission the formation of priests for the "New Evangelization". These seminaries are distributed worldwide, with nearly 1,500 seminarians currently in...
by stating: "At the center of this mystery, in the midst of this wonderment of faith, stands Mary. As the loving Mother of the Redeemer, she was the first to experience it: "To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator"!" Roman Catholic theologians have also expressed the view that: "Mariology is Christology developed to its full potential".
In Roman Catholic theology, Mary and her son Jesus are very close but not identical. Therefore, the study of Mary, while contributing to the study of Christ, is also a separate discipline in its own right, with an understanding of the figure of Mary contributing to a fuller understanding of who Christ is and what he did. In the Roman Catholic view, a Christology without Mary is incomplete because it is not based on the total revelation of the Bible.
Early Christians and numerous saints focused on this parallel interpretation. Popes highlighted the inner link between Marian dogmas and the full acceptance of christological dogma. The Church is the people of God as she is the Body of Christ. The Church lives in its relation to Christ. Being the Body of Christ, the Church has also a relation to his mother, which is the subject of Catholic Mariology. She is seen as the original image of the Church, or, as Vatican II states, Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church is a title, officially given to Mary during the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI. The title was first used by Saint Ambrose of Milan and rediscovered by Hugo Rahner, the brother of Karl Rahner.- Ambrose and Hugo Rahner :...
.
In his 1946 publication Compendium Mariologiae, respected Mariologist Gabriel Roschini
Gabriel Roschini
Gabriel M. Roschini, O.S.M. , was a Roman Catholic Italian priest and professor of Mariology, who published over 900 titles on Mariology. During the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, he worked closely with the Vatican on Marian publications....
explained that Mary did not only participate in the birth of the physical
Physical
Physical may refer to:*Body, the physical structure of an organism**Human body, the physical structure of a human*Physical abuse, abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm...
Jesus but also, with conception, she entered with him into a spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
union. The divine salvation plan, being not only material, includes a permanent spiritual unity with Christ. Most Mariologists agree with this position. This echoed the sentiments of Pope Saint Pius X who in Ad Diem Illum
Ad Diem Illum
Ad diem Illum Laetissimum is an encyclical of Saint Pope Pius X on the Immaculate Conception, Given at Rome in St. Peter's on the second day of February, 1904, in the first year of his Pontificate. It is issued in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate conception...
stated: "there is no more direct road than by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ."
Mariology is ongoing. It includes dogmas, traditions, confirmed and hypothetical theological positions on Mary, contemporary as well as historical. Mariology is not simply a theological field studied by a few scholars, but a devotional concept embraced by millions of Catholics who venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary. As discussed below, it differs from other parts of theology in that its progress has quite often been driven from the ground up, from the masses of believers, and at times from religious experiences of young and simple children on remote hilltops, which have then influenced the higher levels of the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in Rome via sensus fidei.
Marian doctrines of the Catholic Church, including the four dogmas mentioned below, are the central part of Mariology consisting of confirmed teachings and doctrines regarding Mary's life and role, but excluding the overall perspectives, the controversies and the cultural aspects of Marian devotion. Mariology is both part of abstract doctrine and an important part of church life: Marian prayers, pilgrimages to Marian shrines, Marian devotions during the months of May and October, Marian apparitions, Marian titles, and Marian Feast days are detailed in Blessed Virgin Mary
Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on Holy Scripture: In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin. The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God through Mary thus signifies her honour as Mother of God...
. Therefore, this article on Roman Catholic Mariology presents an overview of the major issues, developments and controversies of the ecclesiogical
Ecclesiology
Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
movement.
History and development
Sub tuum praesidium
Beneath thy protection is the oldest extant hymn to the Theotokos .-History:The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Coptic Orthodox Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250. It is used in the Coptic liturgy to this day, as well as in the...
, is dated in its earliest form to around the year 250.
In the 5th century, the Third Ecumenical Council declared Mary as Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
(God-bearer). Churches dedicated to Mary were constructed across the Christian world, among the most famous being Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Teaching of the Assumption of Mary
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
became widespread across the Christian world. The Middle Ages saw growth and development for Mariology and brought major champions of Marian devotion to the fore, including Ephraim the Syrian, John Damascene and Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
. Prayers to Mary included the Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Ave Maria may refer to:*Ave Maria , the "Hail Mary", a traditional Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus-Music:...
, and chants such as Ave Maris Stella
Ave Maris Stella
Ave Maris Stella is a plainsong Vespers hymn to Mary. It is of uncertain origin and can be dated back at least as far as the eighth century. It was especially popular in the Middle Ages and has been used by many composers as the basis of other compositions...
and the Salve Regina
Salve Regina
The "Salve Regina", also known as the Hail Holy Queen, is a Marian hymn and one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The Salve Regina is traditionally sung at Compline in the time from the Saturday before Trinity...
emerged and became staples of monastic plainsong. Devotional practices grew in number.
The Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
period witnessed a dramatic growth in Marian art
Roman Catholic Marian art
The Blessed Virgin Mary has been one of the major subjects of Christian Art, Catholic Art and Western Art for many centuries. Literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of...
and masterpieces by Boticelli, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
and Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
were produced. In the 16th century, the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
confirmed the Catholic tradition of paintings and artworks in churches. This resulted in a great development of Marian art and Mariology during the Baroque Period. During the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, the Catholic Church defended its Mariology against Protestant views. With the victory at Battle of Lepanto (1571)
Battle of Lepanto (1571)
The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic maritime states, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Patras, off western Greece...
accredited to her, it "signified the beginning of a strong resurgence of Marian devotions." The baroque literature on Mary experienced unforeseen growth. More than 500 pages of Mariological writings were published during the 17th century alone.
Mariology in the 19th century was dominated by discussions about the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
and in 1854, Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
proclaimed it a dogma. Mariology in the 20th century was dominated by a genuine Marian enthusiasm. Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
issued the Dogma of the Assumption and the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church.
Papal teachings on the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lumen Gentium
Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council. This dogmatic constitution was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 21, 1964, following approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,151 to 5...
and Redemptoris Mater
Redemptoris Mater
Redemptoris Mater is the name for certain Roman Catholic seminaries which operate under the auspices of the Neocatechumenal Way and claim as their mission the formation of priests for the "New Evangelization". These seminaries are distributed worldwide, with nearly 1,500 seminarians currently in...
being examples. Furthermore, popes have fostered the veneration of the Blessed Virgin through the promotion of Marian devotions, feast days, prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
s, initiatives, the acceptance and support of Marian congregations, and, the formal recognition of Marian apparitions such as in Lourdes
Lourdes
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
and Fátima
Fatima
-People:* Fatima , a female given name of Arabic origin* Fatima bint Muhammad, daughter of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad* Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah...
.
Popes have at times followed on devotions initiated by previous popes, for instance in the 16th century, Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII , born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from 30 January 1592 to 3 March 1605.-Cardinal:...
started the venerative practice of crowning Marian images, a practice that was followed by pope Pius XII in the 20th century via the crowning of the Salus Populi Romani
Salus Populi Romani
Salus Populi Romani -Protectress translates literally as "salvation or health" -is a title given in the 19th century to the Byzantine icon of the Madonna and Child, reputed to date to the Early Christian era, in the Borghese or Pauline Chapel of the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome.It has...
icon, as he declared the Queenship of Mary. Similarly, popes Alexander VII and Clement X both promulgated the veneration of the Heart of Jesus
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
and the Heart of Mary
Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Immaculate Heart of Mary originally The Sacred Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God, her maternal love for her Son, Jesus, and her compassionate love for...
, a concept which was embraced by pope John Paul II in the 20th century as the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary refers to the historical, theological and spiritual links in Catholic devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary...
.
A number of Marian papal encyclicals and Apostolic Letters
Marian papal encyclicals and Apostolic Letters
Marian papal encyclicals and Apostolic Letters have been a major force that has shaped Roman Catholic Mariology over the centuries. Although Mariology has also grown from the bottom up via sensus fidelium, papal views have transformed Marian dogmas, doctrines and devotions within the Roman Catholic...
have been issued since the 16th century. Pope Leo XIII issued 11 encyclicals just on the Rosary. In Ecclesiam Suam
Ecclesiam Suam
Ecclesiam Suam is an encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the Catholic Church given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, August 6 , 1964, the second year of his Pontificate. It is considered an important document, which identified the Catholic Church with the Body of Christ...
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
called Mary the "ideal of Christian perfection"." These papal documents reflect the support of the popes for both Marian devotions and Marian doctrines. The two Marian dogmas of Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
and Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
were established by popes in the 20th century. In 1904 at the 50th anniversary of the Dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
, Saint Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
with the encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
Ad diem illum
Ad Diem Illum
Ad diem Illum Laetissimum is an encyclical of Saint Pope Pius X on the Immaculate Conception, Given at Rome in St. Peter's on the second day of February, 1904, in the first year of his Pontificate. It is issued in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate conception...
encouraged the entire Church to honor the Virgin Mary.
In recent years, popes have emphasized the role of Mary as the Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church is a title, officially given to Mary during the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI. The title was first used by Saint Ambrose of Milan and rediscovered by Hugo Rahner, the brother of Karl Rahner.- Ambrose and Hugo Rahner :...
and the Marian elements of Christology
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
. In his 2002 Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae
Rosarium Virginis Mariae
Rosarium Virginis Mariae is the title of an Apostolic Letter by Pope John Paul II, issued on October 16, 2002. This Apostlic Letter deals with the Holy Rosary and views it as compendium of the Gospel message:...
, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
quoted Saint Louis de Montfort
Louis de Montfort
St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort was canonized in 1947. He was a French priest and known in his time as a preacher and author, whose books, still widely read, have influenced a number of popes....
, and said:
- Since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ."
Dogmatic teachings
Marian Roman Catholic dogmas have two functions: they present infallible Church teachings about Mary and her relation to Jesus Christ, and they praise Mary and, through Mary, God's deed on Mary. All Marian dogmas teach about her divine son and highlight the divine nature of Jesus Christ.De Fide Definita or De Fide Credenda doctrines have the highest degree of dogmatic certainty. These doctrines come in several forms, namely teachings which have been specifically defined as Revealed by an extraordinary definition by a Pope or Ecumenical council, or those teachings infallibly taught to be Revealed by the ordinary universal Magisterium. As in the case of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
or the Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
, these doctrines were held by the Church prior to the date of official definition, but open for discussion. The date of definition must be accepted by all faithful members of the Catholic Church as contained specifically in the Deposit of Faith and owed supernatural faith in itself (de fide credenda)
There are four Marian dogmas among a large number of other teachings about the Blessed Virgin
Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Roman Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary is based on Holy Scripture: In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin. The mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God through Mary thus signifies her honour as Mother of God...
:
| Name | First Magisterial Definition | Dogma content |
|---|---|---|
| Perpetual virginity | Baptismal symbols since 3rd century | 'Perpetual virginity of Mary', means that Mary was a virgin before, during and after giving birth |
| Mother of God | Council of Ephesus (431) | Mary is truly the mother of God, because of her unity with Christ, the Son of God |
| Immaculate Conception Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology... |
Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal... (1854) |
Mary, at her conception, was preserved immaculate from Original Sin Original sin Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred... |
| Assumption into heaven Assumption of Mary According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life... |
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958.... (1950) |
Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory |
For a discussion of a proposed fifth Marian dogma, see the section on Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix below.
Perpetual virginity of Mary
'Perpetual virginity of Mary, means that Mary was a virgin before, during and after giving birth. (De fide) This oldest Marian Roman Catholic, Eastern OrthodoxEastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
, and Oriental Orthodox doctrine affirms Mary's
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
"real and perpetual virginity
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made Man." Thus, by the teaching of this dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
, the faithful believe that Mary was ever-Virgin (Greek ) for the remainder of her life, making Jesus her only biological son, whose conception
Incarnation (Christianity)
The Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
and birth
Nativity of Jesus
The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....
are miraculous.
In the year 107, Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius of Antioch
Ignatius of Antioch was among the Apostolic Fathers, was the third Bishop of Antioch, and was a student of John the Apostle. En route to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which have been preserved as an example of very early Christian theology...
described the virginity of Mary as "hidden from the prince of this world ... loudly proclaimed, but wrought in the silence of God." The affirmation of the doctrine of Mary's virginity before, during and after the birth of Jesus was the principal aim of the early 2nd century work, the Protoevangelium
Gospel of James
The Gospel of James, also known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protoevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel probably written about AD 145, which expands backward in time the infancy stories contained the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and presents a narrative concerning the birth and...
of James (c. 120-150). The work, concerned with the character and purity of Mary, claims that Joseph had children from a marriage previous to Mary. However, the text does not explicitly assert the doctrine of perpetual virginity. The earliest such surviving reference is Origen's Commentary on Matthew, where he cites the Protoevangelium in support.
By the 4th century, the doctrine was generally accepted. Athanasius described Mary as "Ever-Virgin", Orations against the Arians, as did Epiphanius
Epiphanius of Salamis
Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
in his Medicine Chest Against All Heresies. Hilary
Hilary of Poitiers
Hilary of Poitiers was Bishop of Poitiers and is a Doctor of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the "Hammer of the Arians" and the "Athanasius of the West." His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. His optional memorial in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints is 13...
argued in favor of the doctrine in his Commentary on Matthew and to this may be added Didymus
Didymus the Blind
Didymus the Blind was a Coptic Church theologian of Alexandria, whose famous Catechetical School he led for about half a century. He became blind at a very young age, and therefore ignorant of the rudiments of learning...
(The Trinity) Ambrose
Ambrose
Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose , was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was one of the four original doctors of the Church.-Political career:Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family between about...
of Milan, Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
, in Against Helvetius, Siricius
Pope Siricius
Pope Saint Siricius, Bishop of Rome from December 384 until his death on 26 November 399, was successor to Damasus I and was himself succeeded by Anastasius I....
' and others.
Further important statements of the belief include the Lateran Synod of 649, Thomas Aquinas's
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
teaching (Summa Theologiae III.28.2) that Mary gave birth painlessly in miraculous fashion without opening of the womb and without injury to the hymen
Hymen
The hymen is a membrane that surrounds or partially covers the external vaginal opening. It forms part of the vulva, or external genitalia. The size of the hymenal opening increases with age. Although an often practiced method, it is not possible to confirm with certainty that a girl or woman is a...
, and Pope Paul IV
Pope Paul IV
Pope Paul IV, C.R. , né Giovanni Pietro Carafa, was Pope from 23 May 1555 until his death.-Early life:Giovanni Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino, into a prominent noble family of Naples...
's Cum quorundam of 7 August 1555 at the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
. Before this last extraordinary papal/concilliar definition, really an afterthought, the teaching can be considered to have been always taught infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium as a truth contained in the deposit of faith, as opposed to by any specific extraordinary definition.
Virginity before birth
Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
without participation of any man. (De fide). Non-Christians questioned this belief of the early Church Jews and Christians differed on the prediction in Isaiah 7,14 Along with other Christian groups the Catholic Church continues to teach today, that Mary bore her son Jesus while still a virgin. From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived "by the Holy Spirit without human seed". The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own. Catechism of the Catholic Church
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official text of the teachings of the Catholic Church. A provisional, "reference text" was issued by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1992 — "the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council" — with his apostolic...
,
Virginity during birth
Mary gave birth without losing her corporal virginity (De fide). Her corporal integrity was not affected by giving birth. The Church does not teach how this occurred physically, but insists that virginity during child birth is different from virginity of conception. Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
in Mystici Corporis "Within her virginal womb she brought into life Christ our Lord in a marvellous birth." indicating the miraculous nature of the Virgin birth. Numerous early Church writers used analogies to explain this mystery, like Christ leaving the sealed tomb on Easter Sunday, or, Christ walking through closed doors, or, light and sun penetrating through glass windows.
Virginity after birth
Mary remained a virgin after giving birth (De fide). This belief of the Church was questioned in its early years Today most Protestants disagree with this teaching, although Martin Luther and his contemporaries believed in the ever Virgin Mary The scriptures say little about this, mentioning the brothers of Jesus, but never "sons of Mary," suggesting to the patristical writers a broader family relationship.
Mother of God
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
) was formally affirmed at the Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
in 431
431
Year 431 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Bassus and Antiochus...
. The competing view, advocated by Patriarch
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
Nestorius
Nestorius
Nestorius was Archbishop of Constantinople from 10 April 428 to 22 June 431.Drawing on his studies at the School of Antioch, his teachings, which included a rejection of the long-used title of Theotokos for the Virgin Mary, brought him into conflict with other prominent churchmen of the time,...
of Constantinople, was that Mary should be called Christotokos, meaning "Birth-giver of Christ," to restrict her role to the mother of Christ's humanity only and not his divine nature.
Nestorius' opponents, led by Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He came to power when the city was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the later 4th and 5th centuries...
, viewed this as dividing Jesus into two distinct persons, the human who was Son of Mary, and the divine who was not. To them, this was unacceptable since by destroying the perfect union of the divine and human natures in Christ, it sabotaged the fullness of the Incarnation and, by extension, the salvation of humanity. The council accepted Cyril's reasoning, affirmed the title Theotokos for Mary, and anathema
Anathema
Anathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean:...
tised Nestorius' view as heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
. (See Nestorianism
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus...
)
In letters to Nestorius which were afterwards included among the council documents, Cyril explained his doctrine. He noted that "the holy fathers... have ventured to call the holy Virgin [T]heotokos, not as though the nature of the [W]ord or his divinity received the beginning of their existence from the holy Virgin, but because from her was born his holy body, rationally endowed with a soul, with which [body] the [W]ord was united according to the hypostasis
Hypostasis (religion)
In Christian theology, a hypostasis or person is one of the three elements of the Holy Trinity.In Christian usage, the Greek word hypostasis means beneath-standing or underpinning and, by extension, the existence of some thing...
, and is said to have been begotten according to the flesh" (Cyril's second letter to Nestorius).
Explaining his rejection of Nestorius' preferred title for Mary (Christotokos, Mother of Christ), Cyril wrote: "Confessing the Word to be united with the flesh according to the hypostasis, we worship one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ. We do not divide him into parts and separate man and God as though they were united with each other [only] through a unity of dignity and authority... nor do we name separately Christ the Word from God, and in similar fashion, separately, another Christ from the woman, but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own flesh... But we do not say that the Word from God dwelt as in an ordinary human born of the holy virgin... we understand that, when he became flesh, not in the same way as he is said to dwell among the saints do we distinguish the manner of the indwelling; but he was united by nature and not turned into flesh... There is, then, one Christ and Son and Lord, not with the sort of conjunction that a human being might have with God as in a unity of dignity or authority; for equality of honor does not unite natures. For Peter and John were equal to each other in honor, both of them being apostles and holy disciples, but the two were not one. Nor do we understand the manner of conjunction to be one of juxtaposition, for this is insufficient in regard to natural union.... Rather we reject the term 'conjunction' as being inadequate to express the union... [T]he holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to hypostasis, for that reason we call her Theotokos... If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is Theotokos (for she bore in a fleshly manner the Word from God become flesh), let him be anathema
Anathema
Anathema originally meant something lifted up as an offering to the gods; it later evolved to mean:...
." (Cyril's third letter to Nestorius)
Immaculate Conception of Mary
Mary was conceived without original sin (De fideDe fide
De fide is a "theological note" or "theological qualification" that indicates that some religious doctrine is an essential part of Catholic faith and that denial of it is heresy....
). The Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
is, according to Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
, the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus without any stain of original sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
, in her mother's womb: the dogma thus says that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divine grace
Divine grace
In Christian theology, grace is God’s gift of God’s self to humankind. It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to man - "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" - that takes the form of divine favour, love and clemency. It is an attribute of God that is most...
. It is further believed that she lived a life completely free from sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
. Her immaculate conception in the womb of her mother, by normal sexual intercourse (Christian tradition identifies her parents as Sts. Joachim and Anne
Saint Anne
Saint Hanna of David's house and line, was the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ according to Christian and Islamic tradition. English Anne is derived from Greek rendering of her Hebrew name Hannah...
), should not be confused with the doctrine of the virginal conception of her son Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is celebrated on 8 December, nine months before the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on 8 September. It is the patronal feast day of the United States and the Republic of the...
, celebrated on December 8, was established in 1476 by Pope Sixtus IV. He did not extraordinarily define it as a dogma at this time, but this does not mean Catholics were free to believe in it or not. The Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined as a dogma
Dogmatic definition
In Catholicism, a dogmatic definition is an extraordinary infallible statement published by a pope or an ecumenical council concerning a matter of faith or morals, the belief in which the Catholic Church requires of all Christians .The term most often refers to the infallible...
by Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus
Ineffabilis Deus
Ineffabilis Deus is the name of a Papal bull by Pope Pius IX. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary...
, on December 8, 1854 as a truth not merely implied by the deposit of faith and discerned by the Church under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit (de fide tenenda), but as specifically and explicitly contained as an object of supernatural faith in the Public Revelation of the Deposit of Faith (de fide credenda).
The Catholic Church believes the dogma is supported by Scripture (e.g. Mary's being greeted by Angel Gabriel as "full of grace" or "highly favoured"), as well as either directly or indirectly by the writings of many of the Church Fathers
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
, and often calls Mary the Blessed Virgin (Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
1:48). Catholic theology maintains that, since Jesus became incarnate
Incarnation (Christianity)
The Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
of the Virgin Mary, it was fitting that she be completely free of sin for expressing her fiat. (Ott, Fund., Bk 3, Pt. 3, Ch. 2, §3.1.e).
It seemed to Pius XII that the Blessed Virgin Mary herself wished to confirm by some special sign the definition, because, less than four years later, in a French town
- The Virgin Mother, youthful and benign in appearance, clothed in a shining white garment, covered with a white mantle and girded with a hanging blue cord, showed herself to a simple and innocent girl at the grotto of Massabielle. And to this same girl, who earnestly inquired the name of her, with whose vision she was favoured, she replied with her eyes raised to heaven and sweetly: "I am the Immaculate Conception."
For the whole Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from these apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
in 1858. In Lourdes
Lourdes
Lourdes is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France.Lourdes is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees, famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes occurred in 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous...
a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous
Bernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Holy Day of Obligation
Holy Day of Obligation
In the Catholic Church, Holy Days of Obligation or Holidays of Obligation, less commonly called Feasts of Precept, are the days on which, as of the Code of Canon Law states,-Eastern Catholic Churches:...
, except where conferences of bishops have decided, with the approval of the Holy See, not to maintain it as such. It is a public holiday in some countries where Roman Catholicism is predominant e.g. Italy. In the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, although this is not a public holiday, the predominance of Catholic Schools make it almost a holiday.
Assumption of Mary
Mary was assumed into heaven with body and soul (de fide). Mary, the ever virgin, mother of God was free of original sin. The Immaculate ConceptionImmaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
is one basis for the 1950 dogma. Another was the century old Church-wide veneration of the Virgin Mary as being assumed into heaven, which Pope Pius XII referred to in Deiparae Virginis Mariae
Deiparae Virginis Mariae
Deiparae Virginis Mariae , is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII to all Catholic bishops on the possibility of defining the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma of faith....
and reported in Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus is the name of an Apostolic constitution written by Pope Pius XII. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the first ex-cathedra infallible statement since the official ruling on papal infallibility was made at the First Vatican...
. Although the Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
was only recently defined as dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
, accounts of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven have circulated since at least the 5th century. The Catholic Church itself interprets chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
as referring to it.
The earliest assumption narrative is the so-called Liber Requiei Mariae (The Book of Mary's Repose), a narrative which survives intact only in an Ethiopic
Ge'ez language
Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the northern region of Ethiopia and southern Eritrea in the Horn of Africa...
translation. (Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary's Dormition and Assumption] Oxford University Press, 2002, 2006). Probably composed by the 4th century, this early Christian apocryphal narrative may be as early as the 3rd century. Also quite early are the very different traditions of the "Six Books" Dormition narratives. The earliest versions of this apocryphon are preserved by several Syriac
Syriac language
Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
manuscripts of the 5th and 6th centuries, although the text itself probably belongs to the 4th century.
Later apocrypha based on these earlier texts include the De Obitu S. Dominae, attributed to St. John, a work probably from around the turn of the 6th century that is a summary of the "Six Books" narrative. The story also appears in De Transitu Virginis, a late 5th century work ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis
Melito of Sardis
Melito of Sardis was the bishop of Sardis near Smyrna in western Anatolia, and a great authority in Early Christianity: Jerome, speaking of the Old Testament canon established by Melito, quotes Tertullian to the effect that he was esteemed a prophet by many of the faithful...
that presents a theologically redacted summary of the traditions in the Liber Requiei Mariae. The Transitus Mariae tells the story of the apostles being transported by white clouds to the death-bed of Mary, each from the town where he was preaching at the hour.
The Decretum Gelasianum
Decretum Gelasianum
The so-called Decretum Gelasianum or Gelasian Decree was traditionally attributed to the prolific Pope Gelasius I, bishop of Rome 492–496. In surviving manuscripts the Decretal exists on its own and also appended to a list of books of Scripture titled as attested as canonical by a Council of...
in the 490s declared some transitus Mariae literature as apocryphal.
An Armenian letter attributed to Dionysus the Areopagite also mentions the event, although this is a much later work, written sometime after the 6th century. Other saints also describe it, notably St Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
, St John Damascene, and St Modestus of Jerusalem
Modestus of Jerusalem
Modestus of Jerusalem was a Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, who is commemorated as a saint by the Orthodox church, on May 17, March 29 or December 17 in the Palestinian-Georgian calendar venerates him or December 16 and October 19 in the Acta Sanctorum.He was born in Cappadocian Sebasteia...
.
Theological debate about the Assumption continued until 1950 when, in the Apostolic Constitution
Apostolic constitution
An apostolic constitution is the highest level of decree issued by the Pope. The use of the term constitution comes from Latin constitutio, which referred to any important law issued by the Roman emperor, and is retained in church documents because of the inheritance that the canon law of the...
Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus is the name of an Apostolic constitution written by Pope Pius XII. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the first ex-cathedra infallible statement since the official ruling on papal infallibility was made at the First Vatican...
, it was defined as definitive doctrine by Pope Pius XII:
- We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."
Since the 1870 solemn declaration of Papal Infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
by Vatican I in 1870, this declaration by Pius XII has been the only ex cathedra
Ex Cathedra
Ex Cathedra is a British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works....
use of Papal Infallibility. While Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption, the more common teaching of the early Fathers is that she did.
Other Marian doctrines
The Catholic Church holds many other teachings about the Virgin Mary, many of which are just as relevant as the defined teachings above. Some flow logically from the formal dogmas of virginity, sinlessness, and immaculate conception. Others are century old teachings, cults and celebrations, which, in the Catholic view, under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, are an integral part of the deposit of Faith handed down by the Church.Mary is Mother of all Christians
- "The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honoured as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer.... She is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ' . . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head." "Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church."
In addition, Mary is seen as mother of Christians because Christians are said in scripture to become spiritually part of the body of Christ. Christians are adopted by Jesus as his "brothers". They therefore share with Him the Fatherhood of God and also the motherhood of Mary. Again, in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
book of John Jesus, from the cross gives the Apostle John
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
to Mary as her son, and gives Mary to John as his mother. John here, as the sole remaining Apostle remaining steadfast with Jesus is taken to represent all loyal followers of Jesus from that time on.
The devotion to the Virgin Mary thus continues to be emphasized in Roman Catholic teachings. For instance, in his encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
discussed how his own motto "Totus Tuus" was inspired by the writings of Saint Louis de Montfort
Louis de Montfort
St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort was canonized in 1947. He was a French priest and known in his time as a preacher and author, whose books, still widely read, have influenced a number of popes....
on total consecration to the Virgin Mary, which he quoted:.
- Now, since Mary is of all creatures the one most conformed to Jesus Christ, it follows that among all devotions that which most consecrates and conforms a soul to our Lord is devotion to Mary, his Holy Mother, and that the more a soul is consecrated to her the more will it be consecrated to Jesus Christ."
In a separate address to the Montfortian Fathers, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
stated that reading Saint Louis de Montfort
Louis de Montfort
St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort was canonized in 1947. He was a French priest and known in his time as a preacher and author, whose books, still widely read, have influenced a number of popes....
's work on Devotion to Mary had been a "decisive turning point" in his life
Mary as Mediatrix
In Catholic teachings, Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. He alone reconciled through his death on the Cross creator and creation. But this does not exclude a secondary mediating role for Mary, preparatory, supportive, in the view of several prominent, but not all Catholics. The teaching that Mary intercedes for all believers and especially those who request her intercession through prayer has been held in the Church since early times, for example by Ephraim, the Syrian “after the mediater a mediatrix for the whole world Intercession is something that may be done by all the heavenly saintSaint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s, but Mary is seen as having the greatest intercessionary power. The earliest surviving recorded prayer to Mary is the Sub tuum praesidium
Sub tuum praesidium
Beneath thy protection is the oldest extant hymn to the Theotokos .-History:The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Coptic Orthodox Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250. It is used in the Coptic liturgy to this day, as well as in the...
, written in Greek.
Mary has increasingly been seen as a principal dispenser of God's graces and Advocate for the people of God and is mentioned as such in several official Church documents. Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
used the title in Ineffabilis Deus
Ineffabilis Deus
Ineffabilis Deus is the name of a Papal bull by Pope Pius IX. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary...
. In the first of his so called Rosary encyclicals, Supremi Apostolatus (1883), Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
calls Our Lady the guardian of our peace and the dispensatrix of heavenly graces. The following year, 1884, his encyclical Superiore Anno speaks of the prayers presented to God through her whom He has chosen to be the dispenser of all heavenly graces. Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
employed this title in Ad Diem Illud in 1904, Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...
introduced it into the Marian liturgy when he created the Marian feast of The Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces in 1921, In his 1954 encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
Ad caeli reginam
Ad Caeli Reginam
Ad caeli reginam is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII, given at Rome, from St. Peter's, on the feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the eleventh day of October, 1954, in the sixteenth year of his Pontificate. The encyclical is an important element of the Mariology of Pope Pius XII...
, Pope Pius XII calls Mary the Mediatrix of peace. The theological discussion ongoing, neither Pius XII nor his successors moved to a closure of this issue.
Co-Redemptrix
Co-Redemptrix
Co-Redemptrix, a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, refers to her role in the Redemption process.The concept of Co-redemptrix refers to an indirect or unequal but important participation by the Blessed Virgin Mary in redemption, notably: that she gave free consent to give life to the Redeemer, to...
refers to the participation of Mary in the salvation process. Already, Irenaeus
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
, the Church Father (Died 200), referred to Mary as "causa salutis" [cause of our salvation] given her "fiat
It is teaching, which has been considered since the 15th century but never declared a dogma. The Roman Catholic view of Co-Redemptrix does not imply that Mary participates as equal part in the redemption of the human race, since Christ is the only redeemer. Mary herself needed redemption and was redeemed by Jesus Christ her son. Being redeemed by Christ, implies that she cannot be his equal part in the redemption process.
Co-redemptrix refers to an indirect or unequal but important participation by Mary in the redemption process. She gave free consent to give life to the redeemer, to share his life, to suffer with him under the cross and to sacrifice him for the sake of the redemption of mankind. Co-redemption is not something new.
Papal teaching begin to mention this aspect in official Church documents during the pontificate of Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
Pius X referred to it in his encyclical Ad Diem Illum
Ad Diem Illum
Ad diem Illum Laetissimum is an encyclical of Saint Pope Pius X on the Immaculate Conception, Given at Rome in St. Peter's on the second day of February, 1904, in the first year of his Pontificate. It is issued in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate conception...
. Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...
first described the term in his own right in his Apostolic Letter, Inter Soldalica, issued March 22, 1918. Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
repeated this argument with slightly different accents in his encyclical Mystici Corporis. In the Papal bull Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus is the name of an Apostolic constitution written by Pope Pius XII. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the first ex-cathedra infallible statement since the official ruling on papal infallibility was made at the First Vatican...
on dogma of the assumption, Pope Pius declares that “the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, as the noble associate of the divine Redeemer
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches, to whom the title is a consequence of the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, where the Virgin...
goes back to the early patristic writers of the Church such as] St. Gregory Nazianzen "the Mother of the King of the universe," and the "Virgin Mother who brought forth the King of the whole world," Prudentius
Prudentius
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was a Roman Christian poet, born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis in 348. He probably died in Spain, as well, some time after 405, possibly around 413...
, the Mother marvels "that she has brought forth God as man, and even as Supreme King." and, St. Ephrem
Ephrem
Ephrem is a given name that may also be spelled Efrem or Ephraem. Ephrem may refer to:-First name:*Ephrem the Syrian , Syrian saint*Efrem Emerson, American writer*Efrem Forni , Italian priest...
, "Let Heaven sustain me in its embrace, because I am honored above it. For heaven was not Thy mother, but Thou hast made it Thy throne. How much more honorable and venerable than the throne of a king is her mother." The Catholic Church often sees Mary as queen in heaven, bearing a crown of twelve stars in Revelation
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
Many Popes have given tribute to it. Mary is the Queen of Heaven and Earth, (Pius IX), Queen and Ruler of the Universe (Leo XIII) and Queen of the World (Pius XII) The theological and logical foundation of these titles rests in the dogma of Mary as the Mother of God. As mother of God, she participates in his salvation plan. The Catholic faith teaches that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen:
- Certainly, in the full and strict meaning of the term, only Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is King; but Mary, too, as Mother of the divine Christ, as His associate in the redemption, in his struggle with His enemies and His final victory over them, has a share, though in a limited and analogous way, in His royal dignity. For from her union with Christ she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father.
Reparations to the Virgin Mary
Roman Catholic teachings and traditions includes specific devotions as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin MaryActs of Reparation to the Virgin Mary
Roman Catholic tradition and Mariology include specific prayers and devotions as acts of reparation for insults and blasphemies against the Blessed Virgin Mary...
for insults that she suffers. The Raccolta
Raccolta
The Raccolta is a book, published from 1807 to 1950, that listed Roman Catholic prayers and other acts of piety, such as novenas, for which specific indulgences were granted by Popes...
Catholic prayer book (approved by a Decree of 1854, and published by the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in 1898) includes a number of such prayers.
These devotions and prayers do not involve a petition for a living or deceased beneficiary, but aim to repair the sins
Acts of reparation
In the Roman Catholic tradition, an Act of Reparation is a prayer or devotion with the intent to repair the "sins of others", e.g. for the repair of the sin of blasphemy, the sufferings of Jesus Christ or as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary...
of others against the Virgin Mary.
Mariology as theology of the people
Unlike Roman Catholic theology which originates from the upper levels of the Church in the writings of scholars and theologians, Mariology has often developed from the ground up by the tens of millions of Catholics with a special devotion to the Blessed VirginMarian devotions
A Marian devotion is a gift of oneself, or one's activities to the Virgin Mary. It is a willingness and desire to dedicate oneself to, or venerate her; either in terms of prayers or in terms of a set of pious acts...
. In several crucial cases, these devotions have not been started with decrees issued in Rome, but by religious experiences (and visions) of simple and modest individuals (in many cases children). Their recounting of their experiences in time created strong emotions among numerous Roman Catholics, who independently adopted practices and devotions. Their faith and beliefs influenced priests and the higher levels of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.
A good example is the case of Saint Juan Diego. In 1531, he reported an early morning vision of the Virgin Mary in which he was instructed to build an abbey on the Hill of Tepeyac
Tepeyac
Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names "Tepeyacac" and "Tepeaquilla", is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost delegación or borough of the Mexican Federal District. It is the site where Saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe in December of 1531, and...
in Mexico. The local prelate did not believe his account and asked for a miraculous sign. This was provided by an icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
permanently imprinted on the saint's cloak where he had gathered roses.
By all accounts, Juan Diego did not receive a lot of attention in Rome during the 1530s, since the Church was busy with the challenges of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
of 1521 to 1579. Yet, Juan Diego's reported vision of the Virgin Mary was considered instrumental in the attraction of almost 8 million people to the ranks of Catholics in the Americas between 1532 and 1538. With tens of millions of followers, Juan Diego impacted Mariology in the Americas and beyond, and was eventually declared venerable
Venerable
The Venerable is used as a style or epithet in several Christian churches. It is also the common English-language translation of a number of Buddhist titles.-Roman Catholic:...
in 1987, beatified in 1990, and canonized in 2002.
The spread of Marian devotions, such as the Holy Rosary
Holy Rosary
Holy Rosary may refer to:*Rosary, a set of prayer beads used in a traditional Roman Catholic devotion*The Holy Rosary, a prayer based on the rosary-See also:*Holy Rosary Academy , one of several Roman Catholic schools with this name...
via lay Catholic organizations, has also influenced Mariology. The 20th century witnessed significant growth in the number of volunteer-based lay Marian devotional organizations, such as free rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
distribution groups. An example is Our Lady's Rosary Makers
Our Lady's Rosary Makers
Our Lady's Rosary Makers is a non-profit apostolate in Louisville, Kentucky, dedicated to spreading devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Rosary. Its 17,000 members, in the U.S. and other countries, make and distribute roughly 7 million cord and chain rosaries annually for missions around the...
, which was formed with a $25 donation for a typewriter in 1949. It now has thousands of volunteers who have distributed hundreds of millions of free rosaries to Catholic missions worldwide. The growth of Marian devotions builds sensus fidelium
Sensus fidelium
The concept of sensus fidelium in Roman Catholic teachings can be implicitly traced back to the early Fathers of the Church...
, which in time influences the direction of Mariology as a whole.
Influence of visions
Saint Juan Diego was not the only young person to report an early morning vision on a hilltop where a Lady appears and asks for a Church to be built on that hill. In 1858, Saint Bernadette SoubirousBernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
's reported vision of Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
was similar. Both saints reported a miraculous Lady on a hill who asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at the site of the vision. Both visions included a reference to roses. Large churches were built at the sites: Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe , also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe is a celebrated Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary.According to tradition, on December 9, 1531 Juan Diego, a simple indigenous peasant, had a vision of a young woman while he was on a hill in the Tepeyac desert, near Mexico City. The lady...
in Mexico, and Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
in France.
A simple, 14 year old peasant girl of no significant education, Bernadette Soubirous
Bernadette Soubirous
Saint Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was a miller's daughter born in Lourdes. From 11 February to 16 July 1858, she reported 18 apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at that site at Lourdes....
reported her vision of a woman in white, who said, Que soy L’Immaculado concepciou, I am the Immaculate Conception and asked that a church be built there. At first ridiculed, questioned, and belittled by Church officials and other contemporaries, Bernadette firmly but modestly insisted on her vision. Eventually the Church believed her and she was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933. In time, many churches were built on that hilltop (one of them, the Basilica of St. Pius X
Basilica of St. Pius X
The Basilica of St. Pius X, known as the Underground Basilica, is a large Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, located in the town of Lourdes, France. It is part of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes is a major Catholic pilgrimage site and the Catholic Church endorses the belief...
can accommodate 25,000 people). Lourdes is now a major Marian pilgrimage site. Within France, only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes.
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
in 1917. The local administrator initially jailed the children and threatened that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil. The children were consoled by the other inmates in the jail, and then led the inmates in praying the Rosary.
With millions of followers and Roman Catholic believers, the reported visions at Fatima gathered respect. After a canonical enquiry, the visions of Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" in October 1930 by the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima. Popes Pius XII, John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI voiced their acceptance of the supernatural origin of the Fátima events. John Paul II credited Our Lady of Fátima with saving his life following an assassination attempt on the Feast of Our Lady of Fátima, 1981. He donated the bullet that wounded him to the Roman Catholic sanctuary at Fátima, Portugal
Fátima, Portugal
Fátima is a city in Portugal famous for the Marian apparitions, recognized by the Catholic Church, that took place there in 1917. The town itself has a population of 7,756 and is located in the municipality of Ourém, in the Centro Region and Médio Tejo Subregion...
.
Mariologists refer to Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque
Marguerite Marie Alacoque
Marguerite Marie Alacoque or Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque was a French Roman Catholic nun and mystic, who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form.-Early life:...
, as "living proof how Marian devotion is linked to 'Christology'" and the adoration of Jesus Christ. She made a vow at age 14 to dedicate her life to the Virgin Mary. As a simple Marian nun, she was subjected to many trials to prove the genuineness of her vocation and her visions of Jesus and Mary
Visions of Jesus and Mary
Since the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Calvary until today, a number of people have claimed to have had visions of Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited...
relating to the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
. She was initially rebuffed by her mother superior and was unable to convince theologians of the validity of her visions. A noted exception was Saint Claude de la Colombière
Claude de la Colombière
Saint Claude de la Colombière was a Roman Catholic priest and the confessor of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. His feast day is the day of his death, 15 February...
, who supported her. The devotion to the Sacred Heart
Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart is one of the most famous religious devotions to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of His divine love for Humanity....
was officially recognized 75 years after Alacoque's death. In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor
Miserentissimus Redemptor
Miserentissimus Redemptor is the title of an encyclical by Pope Pius XI, issued on May 8, 1928. This encyclical deals with the concepts of Acts of Reparation and atonement...
, Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
stated that Jesus Christ had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret and referred to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret several times.
Mariette Beco was twelve years old when she reported Marian apparitions in 1933 in Banneux
Banneux
Banneux is a small town, southeast of Liège in Belgium.It is known because of the reported Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Banneux, also known as Our Lady of the Poor to a young girl called Mariette Beco.-External links:*...
, Belgium. In this case, the Lady in White reportedly declared she was the Virgin of the Poor and said: "Believe in me and I will believe in you." In 1942, the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
permitted the local bishop to allow the veneration of the Virgin of the Poor.
Impact on the Catholic Church
While these and many other people all faced problems for an initial period, the Church, with some delay, listened to the Mariological faith, as an official VaticanHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
website admitted in 2004. Thus, "The dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
was defined by Pius IX not so much because of proofs in Scripture or ancient tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
, but due to a profound sensus fidelium
Sensus fidelium
The concept of sensus fidelium in Roman Catholic teachings can be implicitly traced back to the early Fathers of the Church...
, a century-old sense of the faithful, and the Magisterium".
The Vatican quotes in this context Fulgens Corona
Fulgens Corona
Fulgens corona is an encyclical by Pope Pius XII, given at St. Peter's Rome, on 8 September 1953, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the fifteenth year of his Pontificate...
, where Pius XII supported such a faith:
- If the popular praises "of the Blessed Virgin Mary be given the careful consideration they deserve, who will dare to doubt that she, who was purer than the angels and at all times pure, was at any moment, even for the briefest instant, not free from every stain of sin?"
In several Marian teachings, such as the Immaculate Conception, the "theology of the people", the profound and century-old sense of the faithful took precedence over academic theology. Identical arguments were made for the dogma of the Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
by Pope Pius XII. To some non-Catholics and even to some theologically oriented Catholics, like Karl Rahner
Karl Rahner
Karl Rahner, SJ was a German Jesuit and theologian who, alongside Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar, is considered one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century...
, this sensus fidei has some problems.
Nevertheless, popular Mariology has been a major driving force in the past 150 years. It led to the two infallible, ex cathedra
Ex Cathedra
Ex Cathedra is a British choir and early music ensemble based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. It performs choral music spanning the 15th to 21st centuries, and regularly commissions new works....
dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
s: Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
(1854) and Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
(1950). Since the 1870 solemn declaration of Papal Infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
by Vatican I, the 1950 declaration by Pius XII has been the first and only ex cathedra use of papal infallibility. Thus while the dogmatic definitions of the Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
, took place only in the 20th century, the sensus fidelium was already being shaped in the Middle Ages, and by 1530, Antonio da Correggio
Antonio da Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio , usually known as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century...
had completed his contract for the elaborate scene of the Assumption in the Cathedral of Palermo
Assumption of the Virgin (Correggio)
The Assumption of the Virgin is a fresco by the Italian Late Renaissance artist Antonio da Correggio decorating the dome of the Cathedral of Parma, Italy. Correggio signed the contract for the painting on November 3, 1522...
.
The multitude of perspectives
Throughout the centuries, Catholics have viewed the Virgin Mary from a multitude of perspectives, at times derived from specific Marian attributes ranging from queenship to humility, and at times based on cultural preferences of events taking place at specific points in history. In parallel with the traditional approaches to Mariology, opposing views based on progressive interpretations of have been presented by feminists, psychologists and liberal Catholics.Traditional views
Traditional views on Mary have emphasized the Marian dogmas and doctrines, accompanied by devotionsMarian devotions
A Marian devotion is a gift of oneself, or one's activities to the Virgin Mary. It is a willingness and desire to dedicate oneself to, or venerate her; either in terms of prayers or in terms of a set of pious acts...
and venerations. Yet these views have changed and been transformed over time.
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches, to whom the title is a consequence of the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, where the Virgin...
to a mother of humility, and the construction of views to accommodate both perspectives. While depictions of the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven
Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in the Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox churches, to whom the title is a consequence of the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, where the Virgin...
or Coronation of the Virgin
Coronation of the Virgin
The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries, but continuing in popularity until the 18th century and beyond. Christ, sometimes accompanied by God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove,...
by artists such as Paolo Veneziano
Paolo Veneziano
Paolo Veneziano, also Veneziano Paolo or Paolo da Venezia was a medieval painter from Venice. He has been called "the most important Venetian painter of the 14thcentury"....
or Giuliano da Rimini
Giuliano da Rimini
Giuliano da Rimini was an Italian painter, circa 1307 to 1324.He is one of three painters from Rimini, namely Giuliano, Pietro and Giovanni in the early 14th century...
were common in the early part of the 14th century, they did not fit with the virtue of humility
Humility
Humility is the quality of being modest, and respectful. Humility, in various interpretations, is widely seen as a virtue in many religious and philosophical traditions, being connected with notions of transcendent unity with the universe or the divine, and of egolessness.-Term:The term "humility"...
which was a key tenet of the spirituality of Saint Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
. The concept of the Virgin of humility was developed in the 14th century in order to accommodate Franciscan piety, by depicting the Madonna
Madonna (art)
Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...
sitting on the ground, rather than a throne. It offered a view of the Virgin Mary (often barefoot) as a mother nursing a child, rather than a Queen in a coronation scene.
As the Franciscans began to preach in China, the notion of the Virgin of humility resonated well with the Chinese, partly due to the cultural acceptance of humility as a virtue in China, and partly due to its similarity to the motherly, merciful figure of Kuanyin, which was much admired in south China. However, by the middle of the 15th century, a dual view had emerged in Europe, as represented by Domenico di Bartolo
Domenico di Bartolo
Domenico di Bartolo was an Italian painter of the Sienese School.He was born in Asciano. According to Vasari, he was a nephew of Taddeo di Bartolo. He was employed by Vecchietta in the masterpiece fresco The Care of the Sick in the Pellegrinaio of the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala in Siena...
's 1433 Madonna of humility
Madonna of humility
Madonna of humility refers to artistic portrayals of the Virgin Mary which depict her as a Madonna sitting on the ground, or sitting upon a low cushion. She may be holding the Child Jesus in her lap...
which expressed the symbolic duality of her nature: an earthly barefoot woman, as well as a heavenly queen. Despite her low, sitting position, the depiction of star and the gems, as well as a halo, signify the regal status of the Virgin, as she is being attended to while she holds the Child Jesus
Child Jesus
The Child Jesus represents Jesus from his Nativity to age 12. At 13 he was considered to be adult, in accordance with the Jewish custom of his time, and that of most Christian cultures until recent centuries.The Child Jesus is frequently depicted in art, from around the third or fourth century...
.
Saint Juan Diego's account of the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to him in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico provides another example of the cultural adaptation of the view of the Virgin Mary. Juan Diego did not describe the Virgin Mary as either European or Middle Eastern, but as a tanned Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
princess who spoke in his local Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
language, and not in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe that is highly venerated in Mexico has the appearance of a South American, rather than a European woman, and the clothing of the Virgin of Guadalupe has been identified as that of an Aztec princess. The Virgin of Guadalupe was a turning point in the conversion of Latin America to Catholicism, and is the primary view of Mary among millions of Catholics in Mexico in the 21st century. Pope John Paul II reinforced the localization of this view by permitting local Aztec dances during the ceremony in which he declared Juan Diego a saint, spoke in Nahuatl as part of the ceremony, called Juan Diego "the talking eagle" and asked him to show "the way that leads to the Dark Virgin of Tepeyac".
The view of the Virgin Mary as a "miracle worker" has existed for centuries and is still held by many Catholics in the 21st century. The legends of the miracles of the Maddona of Orsanmichele
Orsanmichele
Orsanmichele is a church in the Italian city of Florence...
in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy go back to the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. The legends of miracles performed by the image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa
Black Madonna of Czestochowa
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is a revered icon of the Virgin Mary housed at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland.-The icon:The origins of the icon and the date of its composition are still hotly contested among scholars...
also go back for centuries, and it continues to be venerated today as the Patron of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Every year, millions of Catholic pilgrims visit the Basilica at Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Lourdes is the name used to refer to the Marian apparition said to have appeared before various individuals on separate occasions around Lourdes, France...
in search of miraculous cures. Although millions of Catholics hope for miracles on their pilgrimages, the Vatican has generally been reluctant to approve of modern miracles, unless they have been subject to extensive analysis.
Liberal perspectives
Some feminists contend that, as with other women saints such as Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc
Saint Joan of Arc, nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" , is a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. A peasant girl born in eastern France who claimed divine guidance, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, which paved the way for the...
, the image of Mary is a construct of the patriarchal mind. They argue that Marian dogmas and doctrines and the typical forms of Marian devotion reinforce patriarchy by offering women temporary comfort from the ongoing oppression inflicted on them by male dominated churches and societies. In the feminist view, old gender stereotypes persist within traditional Marian teachings and theological doctrines. To that end books on "feminist Mariology" have been published to present opposing interpretations and perspectives.
The psychological analysis of Marian teachings dates back to Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, who used the title of a poem by Goethe in his 1911 paper Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Freud argued that Marian venerations were a surrogate for the worship of the Goddess Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
. Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
, on the other hand, viewed the Virgin Mary as a spiritual version of the more loving Goddess Eros
Eros
Eros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....
. A large number of other psychological interpretations have been presented through the years, ranging from the study of the similarities of the Virgin Mary and the Buddhist Goddess Tara
Tara (Buddhism)
Tara or Ārya Tārā, also known as Jetsun Dolma in Tibetan Buddhism, is a female Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism who appears as a female Buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism. She is known as the "mother of liberation", and represents the virtues of success in work and achievements...
, or the humble and loving figure presented by the East Asian Goddess Kwan Yin.
Since the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
many Christians have opposed Marian venerations, and that trend has continued into the 21st century among progressive and liberal Christians, who see the high level of attention paid to the Virgin Mary both as being without sufficient grounding in Scripture and as distracting from the worship due to Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
.
Groups of liberal Catholics view the traditional image of the Virgin Mary as presented by the Catholic Church as an obstacle towards realization of the goal of womanhood, and as a symbol of the systemic patriarchal oppression of women within the Church. Moreover, some liberal Catholics view the cultivation of the traditional image of Mary as a method of manipulation of Catholics at large by the Church hierarchy. Other liberal Christians argue that the modern concepts of equal opportunity for men and women does not resonate well with the humble image of Mary, obediently and subserviently kneeling before Christ.
Eastern Catholic differences
While Eastern Catholics respect papal authority, and largely hold the same theological beliefs as Roman Catholics, Eastern theology differs on specific Marian beliefs. Furthermore, much of the literature and publications on Mariology and centers for its study have been related to the Church of Rome.Assumption of Mary
The traditional Eastern expression of this doctrine is the Dormition of the TheotokosDormition of the Theotokos
The Dormition of the Theotokos is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches which commemorates the "falling asleep" or death of the Theotokos , and her bodily resurrection before being taken up into heaven. It is celebrated on August 15 The Dormition...
which emphasises her falling asleep to be later assumed into heaven. The differences in these observances is for some Eastern Catholics superficial. However, Roman Catholics in general object to this doctrine.
Immaculate Conception
The doctrine of the Immaculate ConceptionImmaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
is a teaching of Eastern origin but expressed in the terminology of the Western Church. The Western concept of the Virgin Mary being free from original sin as defined by St. Augustine of Hippo is not accepted in the East. However, Eastern Catholics recognized from ancient times that Mary was preserved by God from sin. Eastern Catholics while not observing the Western feast, have no difficulty affirming it or even dedicating their churches to the Virgin Mary under this title.
Centers for Mariological studies
The formal study of Mariology within the circles associated with the Holy SeeHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
took a major step forward between the Holy Year 1950 and 1958 based on the actions of Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, who authorized institutions for increased academic research into the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
- Pontifical Marian International Academy The PAMI is an international pontifical organization connecting all Promoters of Mariology, Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants and Muslim. John XXIII with the Apostolic Letter Maiora in Dies defined the purpose of the PAMI: to promote and animate studies of Mariology through International Mariological Marian Congresses and other academic meetings and to see to the publication of their studies. The PAMI has the task of coordinating the other Marian Academies and Societies that exist all over the world and to exercise vigilance against any Marian excess or minimalism. For this reason the Pope determined that in the Academy there be a Council that assures the organization of Congresses and the coordination of the Mariological Societies, Promoters and Teachers of Mariology.
- Academia Mariana Salesiana - He granted the foundation of the Academia Mariana Salesiana, which is a part of a papal university. The Academy supports Salesian studies to further the veneration of the Blessed Virgin in the tradition of Saint John BoscoJohn BoscoJohn Bosco , was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer of the 19th century, who put into practice the convictions of his religion, dedicating his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth and employing teaching methods...
. - Centro Mariano Montfortano- Also in 1950, the Centro Mariano Montfortano was moved from BergamoBergamoBergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
to Rome. The Centro promulgates the teachings of Saint Louis de MontfortLouis de MontfortSt. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort was canonized in 1947. He was a French priest and known in his time as a preacher and author, whose books, still widely read, have influenced a number of popes....
, who was earlier canonized by Pius XII. It publishes the monthly Madre e Regina, which promulgates the Marian orientation of Montfort. - MarianumMarianumThe Marianum is both the name of a Pontifical institute for the study of Mariology and the name of the prestigious journal of Marian theology. The school and the journal share the same name since their formation was based on the work of Father Gabriel Roschini, who founded both the journal and the...
was created in 1950 and entrusted to the Order of Servites. It is authorized to grant all academic degrees, including a doctorate in theology. Since 1976, every two years the MarianumMarianumThe Marianum is both the name of a Pontifical institute for the study of Mariology and the name of the prestigious journal of Marian theology. The school and the journal share the same name since their formation was based on the work of Father Gabriel Roschini, who founded both the journal and the...
organizes international conferences to find modern formulations which approximate the mystery of Mary. - Collegamento Mariano Nazionale (1958)- the last Marian initiative of Pope Pius XII. It coordinates activities of Marian centres in Italy, and organizes Marian pilgrimages and Marian study weeks for priests. In addition it started Marian youth gatherings and publishes the journal Madonna.
Of these organizations, the Marianum Pontifical Theological Faculty is the most active marilogical centre in Rome (www.marianum.it). This Pontifical Catholic Faculty was founded by Father Gabriel Roschini
Gabriel Roschini
Gabriel M. Roschini, O.S.M. , was a Roman Catholic Italian priest and professor of Mariology, who published over 900 titles on Mariology. During the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, he worked closely with the Vatican on Marian publications....
(who directed it for several years) under the direction of Pope Pius XII in 1950. At the Marianum, one can get a Master's degree in Mariology (2-year academic program) and one can also get a doctorate in Mariology. This mariological facility has a library with more than 85,000 volumes on Mariology and a number of magazines and journals of theological and Mariological concern. Marianum is also the name of the prestigious journal of Marian theology, founded by Father Roschini
Gabriel Roschini
Gabriel M. Roschini, O.S.M. , was a Roman Catholic Italian priest and professor of Mariology, who published over 900 titles on Mariology. During the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, he worked closely with the Vatican on Marian publications....
in 1939.
In 1975, the University of Dayton
University of Dayton
The University of Dayton is a private Roman Catholic university operated by the Society of Mary located in Dayton, Ohio...
in Ohio formed the International Marian Research Institute in affiliation with the Marianum
Marianum
The Marianum is both the name of a Pontifical institute for the study of Mariology and the name of the prestigious journal of Marian theology. The school and the journal share the same name since their formation was based on the work of Father Gabriel Roschini, who founded both the journal and the...
to offer a doctorate in sacred theology (S.T.D.) and a licentiate in sacred theology (S.T.L.).
See also
- Acts of Reparation to the Virgin MaryActs of Reparation to the Virgin MaryRoman Catholic tradition and Mariology include specific prayers and devotions as acts of reparation for insults and blasphemies against the Blessed Virgin Mary...
- Anglican Marian theologyAnglican Marian theologyAnglican Marian theology is the summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. As Anglicans believe that Jesus was both human and God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, within the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglican churches, Mary is...
- Anglican Roman Catholic International CommissionAnglican Roman Catholic International CommissionThe Anglican—Roman Catholic International Commission is an organization which seeks to make ecumenical progress between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
- Islamic view of Virgin MaryIslamic view of Virgin MaryMary , the mother of Jesus, is considered one of the most righteous women in the Islamic tradition. She is mentioned more in the Qur'an than in the entire New Testament and is also the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an. According to the Qur'an, Jesus was born miraculously by the will of...
- JosephologyJosephologyJosephology is the theological study of Saint Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Records of devotions to Saint Joseph go back to the year 800 and Doctors of the Church since Saint Thomas Aquinas have written on the subject. With the growth of Mariology, the theological study of Saint...
- Marian devotionsMarian devotionsA Marian devotion is a gift of oneself, or one's activities to the Virgin Mary. It is a willingness and desire to dedicate oneself to, or venerate her; either in terms of prayers or in terms of a set of pious acts...
- Protestant views of MaryProtestant views of MaryProtestant views on Mary includes the theological positions of major Protestant representatives such as Martin Luther and John Calvin as well as some modern representatives...