The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Memorial, August 22
The Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated on August 22nd, one week after the Solemnity of the Assumption, honours Mary as Queen of heaven and earth, of angels and saints. This title, one of the most ancient in Christian devotion, is rooted in the Scriptures, in the tradition of the Church, and in the definitive doctrinal statement of Pope Pius XII, who instituted this feast in 1954 to mark the centenary of the definition of the Immaculate Conception.
The scriptural roots of Mary's queenship lie in the role of the queen mother in the Davidic kingdom. In the royal tradition of ancient Israel, the mother of the king held a position of great honour and authority, interceding with her royal son on behalf of supplicants. When Gabriel announced to Mary that her son would be given the throne of his father David and would reign over the house of Jacob forever, he was announcing not only Christ's kingship but implicitly Mary's queenship as mother of the eternal king.
The Book of Revelation depicts a great sign in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. The Church has always seen in this image a reference to Mary, crowned and exalted in heaven as the Queen of the People of God. The ancient prayer Sub Tuum Praesidium, which may date from the third century, addresses Mary as Holy Mother of God and asks for her protection, already implying her mediating role and her queenly authority.
Mary's queenship is not a dignity she possesses independently of her Son. She is Queen because He is King, and she exercises her queenly intercession entirely in dependence on His one mediation. The Church honours her as Queen not to give her a glory that is not hers but to acknowledge the glory with which God has in fact crowned her, and to invoke her maternal intercession with greater confidence. The Litany of Loreto, one of the most ancient Marian prayers approved by the Church, concludes with a series of invocations of Mary as Queen, honouring her under this title in its many dimensions.