Queen of Heaven

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for its sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. The rosary slips through fingers. Mary. Queen of Heaven, stands radiant, "clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, on her head a crown of twelve stars." Ora pro nobis goes the cry, through centuries. Grateful millions venerate the Blessed Virgin, this year especially, for they celebrate the 1,500th anniversary of the dogmatic, final declaration, by the Church, that Mary was the veritable Mother of God.

Ephesus, a city in Asia Minor which today lies ruined in a low, unhealthy marsh, was the traditional home of the Virgin Mary after she left Jerusalem. To Ephesus, in 431, went papal legates, Eastern patriarchs, bishops, to meet in judgment of a grievous heresy. Nestorius, new Patriarch of Constantinople, had declared that Mary could not be truly called "Mother of God." Mary, said he, was Mother of Christ in His human nature only. This view, in spite of protests from Rome. Nestorius defended. St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, was appointed to inform Nestorius he must recant or be deposed and excommunicated; but in the meantime Theodosius II, Emperor of the East, called a conference at Ephesus to discuss the matter. For the orthodox Catholics, for the Nestorians, it was a long, tedious struggle. In the very first session Nestorius was anathematized, deposed, excommunicated. But Emperor Theodosius declared the session invalid, since Nestorius had been deposed unheard. At length Emperor Theodosius gave in, and in the summer of 431 the council, satisfied that Nestorius was a rank heretic, went home. Heretic Nestorius died in misery in Egypt, "his tongue devoured by worms" (presumably cancer of the tongue); his adherents dwindled to a few thousand in Turkey and Persia. Outcome of Ephesus was an explicit statement of an old belief. Mary was, and is, the Mother of God, because she is Mother of Christ, who combines two natures, one Human, one Divine. In Ephesus that day the mob shouted for joy.

With the Mass Salve Sancta Parens (the special mass of the Blessed Virgin) the anniversary of Ephesus was widely celebrated last month. This week His Holiness Pope Pius XI will issue the year's fourth encyclical, lauding the Blessed Virgin and urging the Nestorian Church to abjure its heresies and to return, after 1,500 years, to the fold.

The decisions of the Council of Ephesus, remote as they seem today, were timely. Already the cult of the Virgin--Mariolatry it has been called by dissidents, although the Church uses the word hyperdulia, the special veneration distinguished from latria, worship due to God alone--already Mary's veneration was widespread. St. Epiphanius had denounced an obscure sect, the Collyridians, for making sacrificial offerings of cake to the Virgin. Some people believed that St. Trophimus at Aries had dedicated a chapel to Mary while she was still living. Emperors of Constantinople offered her gold crowns, wore little images of her. Tradition tells that in Phoenicia St. Peter built a chapel to Mary, and that St. Luke painted her portrait which may now be seen, along with pieces of the original manger, in Santa Maria Maggiore, largest of the 80 Mary-churches in Rome. The early Christians could say, in the words of Angel Gabriel's Nunciation, "Blessed art tho among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," and after Ephesus they could stress the Virgin's newly vindicated title by adding: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. . . ."

The subsequent rise of the Blessed Virgin has been explained on the ground that Scripture, blank as to much of Mary's life, leaves much room for interpretation. Many critics have cried against pagan interpolations, against idolatry, polytheism, iconolatry. But, however that may be, the Queen of Heaven was the veritable light of the Middle Ages.

Today, throughout the church year, there are countless reminders of the rich story that is Mary. Follows Advent, when every year Calabrian pifferari (pipers) enter Rome, play bagpipes before shrines of the Holy Mother, just as the shepherds are supposed to have piped before the Holy Infant.

To that great Poverello St. Francis, came inspiration, in 1223, to popularize a new kind of Christmas worship. In Assisi, with consent of Pope Hononus III, the Little Poor Man erected a representation of the Holy Crib, with Mary, Joseph and the Infant Jesus. St. Francis was deacon at the Christmas mass. Famed Giotto painted the medievally pious scene. More dramatic, more consciously artistic, is the great Piet`a of Michelangelo in St. Peter's. Gazed at by tourists, genuflected at by the Italian faithful, the Piet`a--representative of a later Mariology than that of gentle Giotto--is the greatest single ornament to the colorful annual Christmas mass and procession, headed by the Pope, in baroque St. Peter's.

On Dec. 8 is celebrated the great Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which originated in the East about the 8th Century. The dogma of Immaculate Conception caused very little controversy after an indirect pronouncement of the Council of Trent (1545-63), but it was not formally promulgated until 1854, by Pope Pius IX.

The Assumption of the Virgin--her bodily ascent into Heaven--is a pia sententia ("pious opinion"), not yet explicitly defined as a dogma, which the faithful may (like Gregory of Tours) believe.

One of the latest of Mary's feasts is the Holy Rosary, instituted in 1883 by Pope Leo XIII. In the Middle Ages, when Mary-churches (Chartres, Rheims, Rouen, Paris, Amiens) were built throughout Europe, when monks and nuns were transcribing Mary-legends, when warriors carried banners of the Blessed Virgin, the Rosary--"Our Lady's Psalter"-- made its appearance. Simple folk, illiterates or busy ones could substitute 150 Ave Marias or Pater Nosters for the customary recitation of 150 psalms.

Loreto is the spot in central Italy whither, according to the story, the Casa Santa (Holy House of Mary and Joseph) was transported from Nazareth in 1295 by angels. Around it was built a great basilica. In the Litany which is sung there every Saturday, the Blessed Virgin is urged to pray for the faithful by her "Divine Maternity and Immaculate Virginity"; then as "Mirror of Justice, Mystical Rose, Tower of David, House of Gold, Ark of the Covenant, Morning Star. Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, Help of Christians, Queen of All Saints. . . ."

So has Mary risen in the hearts of the faithful. The angelus sounds, the Queen of Heaven shines in every church, the Pope pontificates her praise. The poor man can feel as did the poor man who willed his soul to "his mooste blessed moder, Saint Mary Virgyn, Quene of Heven Lady of the Worlde and Emporesse of Helle." The great man, too, can cry, with the great Vincent de Beauvais: "O Lady, Lady, if thou fail thy servants, who will succor them?"

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