The Feast of the
Queenship of Mary

Mary Immaculate Scott 1209 (2002) On August 15, we celebrated the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, on the octave of that feast, falls the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. In an issue of Vatican Notes from 1958 (which can be accessed by clicking on the link in the References below), there is a comprehensive article on the Marian Year of 1954, documenting a number of events that occurred during the year to honor the Blessed Mother. On October 11, 1954, Pope Pius XII issued the encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (To the Queen of Heaven), which proclaimed the Queenship of Mary and created this new feast day. In issuing this proclamation, Pope Pius fulfilled: "the last of the requests made by Our Lady to Lucy at Fatima...[confirming] the ancient Catholic tradition of the universal Queenship of Mary". As early as the fourth century, Mary has been referred to as both 'Lady' and 'Queen', and Church fathers and doctors continued to use the title from that point forward. Numerous hymns honor Mary as queen, including "Hail, Holy Queen", "Hail, Queen of Heaven" and "Queen of Heaven". There are no Vatican City stamps which specifically honor the Queenship of Mary, although we know She has been depicted on many Vatican issues. One beautiful stamp issue is the definitive mail set from 2002 entitled Our Lady in the Vatican Basilica (Scott 1204-1213), which includes ten images from the Basilica, where Mary is "abundantly represented in the art and sculpture" of that site. As a note, this was the first Vatican set denominated in Euros. One of the stamps from that issue is shown above, the mosaic "Immacolata" (Mary Immaculate). REFERENCES: Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day, Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Author Unknown, Vatican Notes, Volume VII, Number 2, pp. 9-12, 1958, The Marian Year UPN, March 12, 2002, Definitive Mail, Our Lady in the Vatican Basilica Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search