Holiness and Marian Devotion

«Cheia de graça» (Lc 1,28): the sanctity of Mary as the Panagia in biblical and patristic traditionMary was called by the Angel to be «full of grace» (Lc 1,28). The full of grace is the Mother of Jesus, the Holy Son of God. As Immaculate and Mother of the incarnate Son of God, Mary is all holy, the Panagia. From the biblical pages, through the writings of the Fathers of the Church, to the majestic and splendid medieval cathedrals and the paintings of the most celebrated artists of the world, as well as in the pages of the most distinguished theologians and spiritual masters, Mary is celebrated as the woman whom the Holy Trinity raised to the highest peaks of evangelical perfection, through her humility and modesty.Mary is a wholly holy creature, being the beloved daughter of the heavenly Father, mother of the Son, and tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, faithful Christians look to Saint Mary as the Queen of all Saints. Saints such as Saint John Bosco found in her inspiration and aid for a heroic testimony of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. The saints placed themselves, as diligent disciples, in Mary’s school in order to become exemplary brothers of Jesus and credible witnesses to the Gospel beatitudes.Marian devotion is part of the treasure of Catholic piety. In every Catholic church or oratory, alongside the tabernacle, there is always, without fail, an image of Mary, the mother who leads her children to communion with Jesus and to his adoration in the tabernacle. In the constitutions, rules of religious families, and various forms of present-day consecrated life, there is never lacking the essential reference to devotion to Mary, the one most perfectly consecrated and model of all consecrated life.When the storm of persecutions blows, the invocation and prayer to the Virgin become anchors of perseverance in faith and hope. History testifies that Christian faith remained alive even under the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, because mothers and grandmothers prayed secretly, at night, the Virgin Mary’s prayers, imploring help and liberation from the Mother of the Lord. And Mary, through Saint John Paul II, a totally Marian pope, was the liberator of peoples from the oppression of tyrants. The Marian rosary is the crown that passes daily through the fingers of millions upon millions of baptized people throughout the world.

Mary, the Formator of Saints According to Augustine (†430) and Louis de Montfort (†1716): Faith, Humility, and Obedience as the Marian Itinerary

Through her virtues, Mary becomes the formator of the faithful and the saints, who, by imitating her, bear witness with greater constancy to the following of Jesus. The saints see in her, above all, the teacher, the educator, who teaches more with concrete attitudes of faith, humility, and obedience than with words.The saints find in Mary the guide to follow the straight path. Therefore, especially in Spain, the Blessed Virgin is often called the Good Shepherd, who accompanies the saints to sing the praises of God and to live, with joy and sacrifice, their baptismal or religious consecration.For the consecrated, Mary is an experienced guide, for she knows the way to climb the mountain and reach the top of Tabor and Calvary, where she meets with the Lord Christ. She is the model of holiness. Saint Teresa of the Cross saw Mary not only as a model before us, but as someone who is by our side, holding our hand and accompanying us, day after day and step by step, to the goal of holiness.The saints undoubtedly reflect on Jesus, the supreme model of our Christian life. Jesus is, in fact, the prototype of holiness: “Give you example, so that as I did, so you also do” (Jo 13,15). He is the Holy One of God (Acts 3,14) and the Master of Truth (Mt 22,16). All Christian life is a “mimicry of Christ.” Consecrated life is founded on the words and examples of the Lord.Mary was the most faithful disciple of Christ. Therefore, she becomes the model of a holy life for all disciples. Saint Ambrose of Milan said that the life of the Blessed Virgin is in itself a lesson for all. Contemporary spirituality continues to highlight Mary’s exemplarity, the mother who shines as a model of virtue before the community of the baptized.

Mary, spiritual mother of all redeemed: Testimony of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (1887-1968)

Why is the Blessed Virgin Mary the master, educator, guide, and model of Christian and consecrated life? She is because she is the mother of Jesus and the spiritual mother of all redeemed in Christ.Saint Pius of Pietrelcina felt particularly close to his heart the Blessed Virgin Mary. Expressing the experience and feelings of many faithful and consecrated, Father Pius writes in one of his letters: “This dear Mother continues to offer me with maternal care her attentions […]. Her care for me is full of tenderness […]. What have I done to deserve such delicacy? My conduct has not been a continuous denial, not even of her Son, but of the very name of Christian? Yet this most tender Mother, in her great mercy, wisdom, and goodness, wished to punish me in an excellent way by pouring into my heart so many graces that when I find myself in her presence and that of Jesus, I am forced to exclaim: ‘Where am I? Where am I? Who is beside me?’ I feel myself completely on fire without fire. I feel united and linked to the Son through this Mother.”He further describes the concrete aid of this heavenly Mother, who alleviates both physical illnesses and spiritual distress. For the feast of the Assumption, Father Pius wrote: “We Catholics, who venerate in the Most Holy Mary the most tender and affectionate Mother that one can imagine, cannot fail to rejoice with joy on this sacred day in memory of her greatest triumph, I mean, her Assumption into heaven and her coronation as Queen of angels and of all the saints. Let us therefore take time to contemplate the power and glory of the Most Holy Virgin assumed into heaven, so that we may be even more inflamed in devotion and trust in her.”

The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the Martyric Saint Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941)

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception highlights the fullness of grace granted to the Blessed Virgin. The saints deeply meditated on this truth of faith, drawing inspiration for sanctification and apostolate from it. A notable example is Saint Maximilian Kolbe, whose mission and martyric sanctity are keyed to his Marian devotion and filial piety towards the Immaculate. His soul enthusiastically and deeply participates in singing the glories of the Blessed Virgin. For him, the Immaculate is “the apex of the love of creation returning to God.” In the Immaculate, the faithful can overcome the barriers of their own limitations and attain holiness. The Immaculate is necessary, not only as a model to be followed, but chiefly as an effective and powerful maternal mediator. Only in the Immaculate can the faithful break through limitations and reach “the apex of perfection.”In celebrating the dogma of the Immaculate fifty years after its proclamation, Pope Saint Pius X, in his 1904 encyclical *Ad diem illum*, affirmed that Mary is the best guide to coming to know Jesus. She is also the mother of all the faithful and mediator and consolator of all humanity. Marian devotion thus becomes an incentive to fulfill the will of her Divine Son. Being Immaculate, Mary is the second model to be imitated, after Jesus Christ. Her theological virtues, in particular, are examples to follow.Saint Pius X emphasizes: “Although it is desirable that children imitate all the virtues of their Most Holy Mother, we wish the faithful to practice those that are principal and like the nerves and joints of Christian life: faith, hope, and charity, both towards God and towards their neighbor. And while no period of the Virgin’s life was lacking in the splendor of these virtues, they shone particularly when Mary was present at the birth and death of her Son” (*Ad diem illum*).

Marian Devotion and Christian Sanctity According to Vatican II (LG 66-67): Mary as the Archetype of the Human Response to the Divine Mystery

In Mary, we find the archetype of the human response to the divine mystery, a creature fully receptive to God’s action and, at the same time, active in the consent that transforms history. Her holiness, marked by the absolute purity of the Immaculate Conception, is not an end in itself but the peak of love that redeems, a total donation to the divine will that makes her the mother of all redeemed. Mary lives in perfect harmony with the Trinitarian Love, being thus the human figure that best reveals and reflects the glory of God.Christian spirituality recognizes that, in contemplating Mary, we look at the transfigured humanity through grace. For the saints, she is the «gate of heaven», the threshold where the human and the divine meet in profound harmony. In her humility, Mary does not point to herself but to the Mystery that dwells within her, becoming the model of the spiritual exodus by which each disciple is called to pass to enter into communion with the Son. Devotion to Mary, far from being a simple act of veneration, is an introduction to the mystery of obedience and love, a call to live faith in its entirety, under the gaze of the Mother who guides us to the mystery of Christ.Mary, therefore, is the «all-holy» who remains as an intercessor and spiritual educator. It is by her side that the faithful are invited to follow the path of the cross that leads to resurrection. She is the icon of the redeemed humanity, one who, in the presence of the Trinity, fully dwells in the promised beatitude. By following her footsteps, we contemplate, in her glory and humility, the ultimate destiny to which we are called: full life in God.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and a Postgraduate degree in Mariology.To deepen the connection between holiness and Marian devotion, consult the Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus by Pope Paul VI.