Marian Dogma & Devotion

The first Marian Dogma that Mary is the Mother of God (theotokos) was declared by the Church at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431. Lk 1:31-35, Lk 1:43, Mt 1:21.

The second Marian Dogma proclaimed by the Church is her Perpetual Virginity, defined under anathema in the third canon of the Lateran Council held in the time of Pope Martin I, A.D. 649. Cf. DS 503.

499 The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary's real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man. In fact, Christ's birth "did not diminish his mother's virginal integrity but sanctified it." LG 57. And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the "Ever-virgin". Cf. LG 52. Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary is the third Marian Dogma declared in the bull Ineffabilis deus by Pope Pius IX, issued on December 8, 1854.

The Assumption of Mary, taken up by God body and soul into Heaven, is the forth Dogma on Virgin Mary, proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in his Munificentissimus deus in 1950:

44 ... "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.

45 Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith."

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

971 "All generations will call me blessed": "The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship." Lk 1:48; Paul VI, MC 56. The Church rightly honors "the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of 'Mother of God,' to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. ... This very special devotion ... differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration."LG 66. The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. Cf. Paul VI, MC 42; SC 103. Catechism of the Catholic Church

Mary—Eschatological Icon of the Church

972 After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, and destiny, we can find no better way to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church already is in her mystery on her own "pilgrimage of faith," and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity," "in the communion of all the saints," LG 69. the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.

In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God. LG 68; cf. 2 Pet 3:10. Catechism of the Catholic Church

In Brief

973 By pronouncing her "fiat" at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish. She is mother wherever he is Savior and head of the Mystical Body. Catechism of the Catholic Church

974 The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son's Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body. Catechism of the Catholic Church

975 "We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ." Paul VI, CPG 15. Catechism of the Catholic Church

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