The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrated Aug. 22 perfectly completes the octave of the Assumption. But it was not until 70 years ago that Pope Pius XII officially added this feast to the liturgical calendar, even though Mary’s queenship was hailed from the early years of the Church.

For many years we have prayed “Hail, Holy Queen” after the five decades of the Rosary. We sing the hymn “Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above” in church. We petition Mary as “Queen” 13 times in the Litany of Loreto. We pray the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) throughout Eastertide. We specifically recall and honor the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth as we pray the fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.

Then came the big day for this feast when Pius XII, who had already proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption four years earlier, wrote his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (On Proclaiming the Queenship of Mary) in the Marian Year of 1954, releasing it Oct. 11, the feast of the Divine Maternity of Mary.

He instituted this liturgical feast and placed it to end the month of Mary on May 31. Then in 1969, when St. Paul VI rearranged the liturgical calendar, he moved the feast to Aug. 22 to suggest an octave with her Assumption and connect the two.

Need for Her Queenship

Pius XII beautifully explained with examples how the Blessed Virgin Mary was considered to have the title of Queen of Heaven and Earth, since “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.”

He began his reasons with what we can consider prophetic vision with something that applied not only to his own time but would multiply to the devastating proportions we see in today’s world. It’s worth quoting in full:

Following upon the frightful calamities which before Our very eyes have reduced flourishing cities, towns, and villages to ruins, We see to Our sorrow that many great moral evils are being spread abroad in what may be described as a violent flood. Occasionally We behold justice giving way; and, on the one hand and the other, the victory of the powers of corruption. The threat of this fearful crisis fills Us with a great anguish, and so with confidence We have recourse to Mary Our Queen, making known to her those sentiments of filial reverence which are not Ours alone, but which belong to all those who glory in the name of Christian.

Hence, he wanted with this new feast to “renew the praises of Our heavenly Mother, and enkindle a more fervent devotion towards her, to the spiritual benefit of all mankind.”

Queen in Every Way

Pius XII stretched the unshakable foundation for Mary’s Queenship back to the early Church:

Christians reflected upon the intimate connection that obtains between a mother and a son, they readily acknowledged the supreme royal dignity of the Mother of God. Hence it is not surprising that the early writers of the Church called Mary ‘the Mother of the King’ and ‘the Mother of the Lord,’ basing their stand on the words of St. Gabriel the archangel, who foretold that the Son of Mary would reign forever, and on the words of Elizabeth who greeted her with reverence and called her ‘the Mother of my Lord.’ Thereby they clearly signified that she derived a certain eminence and exalted station from the royal dignity of her Son.

Among saints praising her queenship, he listed St. Gregory Nazianzen, who calls Mary “the Mother of the King of the universe,” and the “Virgin Mother who brought forth the King of the whole world.”

St. Andrew of Crete wrote, “Today He transports from her earthly dwelling, as Queen of the human race, His ever-Virgin Mother, from whose womb He, the living God, took on human form.” And in another place, he speaks of “the Queen of the entire human race faithful to the exact meaning of her name, who is exalted above all things save only God himself.”

St. Germanus calls Mary “Queen of all of those who dwell on earth.”

In the 8th century, Gregory II’s letter read at “the Seventh Ecumenical Council with all the Fathers concurring, called the Mother of God: ‘The Queen of all, the true Mother of God,’ and also ‘the Queen of all Christians.’”

In an apostolic letter, Benedict XIV called Mary “Queen of heaven and earth.”

These are the tip of many testimonies that St. Alphonsus Ligouri assembled, before writing:

Because the Virgin Mary was raised to such a lofty dignity as to be the mother of the King of kings, it is deservedly and by every right that the Church has honored her with the title of 'Queen.’

Then, of course, there is Psalm 45 with verses used for Marian celebrations: “The Queen stood at Thy right hand in golden vesture surrounded with beauty.”

Since the earliest times, including the Council of Ephesus in 431, Christian art has portrayed Mary “as Queen and Empress seated upon a royal throne adorned with royal insignia, crowned with the royal diadem and surrounded by the host of angels and saints in heaven, and ruling not only over nature and its powers but also over the machinations of Satan. Iconography, in representing the royal dignity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has ever been enriched with works of highest artistic value and greatest beauty; it has even taken the form of representing colorfully the divine Redeemer crowning His mother with a resplendent diadem.”

Not only has it been a popular subject through the centuries, but popes have often crowned “images of the Virgin Mother of God which were already outstanding by reason of public veneration.” Pius XII himself addressed the Portugal people when “the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary which is venerated at Fatima was being crowned with a golden diadem. We Ourselves called this the heralding of the ‘sovereignty’ of Mary.”

Biblical Basis

Since Jesus is King, Mary is Queen. Pius XII explained, “The main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is without doubt her Divine Motherhood.” Mary is called “Mother of the Lord” (Luke 1:43). He wrote:

From this it is easily concluded that she is a Queen, since she bore a son who, at the very moment of His conception, because of the hypostatic union of the human nature with the Word, was also as man King and Lord of all things. So with complete justice, St. John Damascene could write: ‘When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.’ Likewise, it can be said that the heavenly voice of the Archangel Gabriel was the first to proclaim Mary's royal office (Luke 1:33-34).

This Marian pope added that “the Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation.

Although the Holy Father did not mention this, an EWTN posting clarifies:

Christ succeeded on earth to the throne of King David. However, unlike David, Christ’s kingdom is not an earthly one, but a spiritual and eternal kingdom of truth, righteousness, and peace (Revelation 19:6). In that Kingdom Mary sits as Queen, as queen mothers (gebirah) did in ancient Israel before her (1 Kings 2: 13-21).

Queen for Everyone

Again Pius XII turned to his predecessor Pius IX, who had written that the Blessed Virgin Mary was “made Queen of heaven and earth by the Lord, exalted above all choirs of angels and saints, and standing at the right hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, [where] she intercedes powerfully for us with a mother's prayers, obtains what she seeks, and cannot be refused.”

Naturally, then, Pius XII explained that he instituted the feast so everyone would recognize “more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God. We are convinced that this feast will help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises.”

With the crises ever growing and obvious throughout the world today, his words and reasons are more relevant than ever since he also mentioned the people throughout the world persecuted for professing their Christian faith — something that has escalated tremendously since he wrote those words.

That is why in all these situations he strongly counseled, “Let all, therefore, try to approach with greater trust the throne of grace and mercy of our Queen and Mother, and beg for strength in adversity, light in darkness, consolation in sorrow” and “strive to free themselves from the slavery of sin and offer an unceasing homage, filled with filial loyalty, to their Queenly Mother.” Also:

Let her churches be thronged by the faithful, her feast days honored; may the beads of the Rosary be in the hands of all; may Christians gather, in small numbers and large, to sing her praises in churches, in homes, in hospitals, in prisons. May Mary's name be held in highest reverence, a name sweeter than honey and more precious than jewels; may none utter blasphemous words, the sign of a defiled soul, against that name graced with such dignity and revered for its motherly goodness; let no one be so bold as to speak a syllable which lacks the respect due to her name.

Again, he urged:

All, according to their state, should strive to bring alive the wondrous virtues of our heavenly Queen and most loving Mother through constant effort of mind and manner. Thus will it come about that all Christians, in honoring and imitating their sublime Queen and Mother, will realize they are truly brothers, and with all envy and avarice thrust aside, will promote love among classes, respect the rights of the weak, cherish peace.

He prayed:

May the powerful Queen of creation, whose radiant glance banishes storms and tempests and brings back cloudless skies, look upon these her innocent and tormented children with eyes of mercy.

“Earnestly desiring that the Queen and Mother of Christendom may hear these Our prayers,” he also ordained the feast day of the Queenship of Mary should include that “the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary be renewed, cherishing the hope that through such consecration a new era may begin, joyous in Christian peace and in the triumph of religion.”

Make the celebration of this feast on its 70th anniversary an exceptional time to honor, love and celebrate, as he loyal chidden and servants, our one and only true Queen of Heaven and Earth — Mary, Mother of God.