Blest are those who have believed: The Visitation and the encounter of hopes

**Beata Quae Credidisti:** The Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, celebrated on June 1st, when May 31st coincides with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, is one of the richest feasts in the Marian calendar. Luke 1:39-56 recounts with extraordinary theological and literary density the encounter between two pregnant women: Mary, who has just received the announcement of the Incarnation, and Elizabeth, already in her sixth month of pregnancy with John the Baptist. This meeting, which the Fathers called the “encounter of the Messiahs,” is the moment when the grace of the Incarnation flows for the first time beyond Mary, the moment when the incarnate Word, still within Mary’s womb, makes himself known to the precursor John, still in Elizabeth’s womb. The Visitation is, in a deep sense, Mary’s first “mission”: she who received God’s gift goes to meet those in need, becoming the first missionary of the incarnate Gospel.

**I. The Narrative of the Visitation: Exegesis of the Encounter:**

The title **Beata Quae Credidisti** (Luke 1:45) encapsulates the entire Lucan narrative: Mary’s faith becomes the principle of evangelical beatitude.

The narrative in Luke 1:39-45 begins with a precise geographical indication: “Mary went quickly to a town in the hill country of Judah” (Luke 1:39). The detail of the “quickness” (meta spoudes) has been interpreted by tradition as an expression of Mary’s eagerness to serve, she who has just received the greatest gift ever bestowed on a creature does not keep it for herself but immediately sets out to share it with her needy kinswoman. “The hill country of Judah” points to Ein Karem (in tradition), about 150 km from Nazareth, a journey of several days’ duration on foot, which Mary undertakes “quickly.”

Upon Mary’s arrival and greeting by Elizabeth, an event unfolds that Luke describes with precision: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41). The sequence is significant: first, Mary’s greeting. Then, John Baptist’s leap in Elizabeth’s womb. Finally, Elizabeth’s filling by the Holy Spirit. John’s “leap” (eskirtesen) of joy in his mother’s womb is a form of prophetic exultation that Luke links to the Holy Spirit. John, who will be the “precursor” who prepares the way for the Lord, recognizes the Messiah before he is born, using the only organ at his disposal: his body that “leaps” with joy.

## I. The Formula *Beata Quae Credidisti*

The formula *Beata Quae Credidisti*, Elizabeth’s exclamation (Luke 1:42-45), possesses the structure of a Jewish *berakah*, a blessing that proclaims God’s greatness through the greatness of the person blessed: “*Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! How fortunate for me that the mother of my Lord should come to me.*” (Luke 1:42-43). The title *”mother of my Lord”* (hê mêtêr tou Kyriou mou) holds theological significance. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognizes in Mary not merely the mother of a human son but the *”Mother of the Lord”*, implying recognition of the divinity of the Son carried by Mary. This inspired, pre-natal recognition, preceding Jesus’ public ministry and any proof or miracle, forms the biblical basis for the title *Theotokos* (Mãe de Deus), which the Council of Ephesus (431) would define as dogma.

Verse 45, *”Blessed are you who believed, because what was spoken to you by the Lord will be fulfilled”* serves as the hermeneutical key to the Visitation. Elizabeth proclaims Mary’s blessedness not for her biological motherhood but for her *faith*: *”quoniam credidisti”*. This distinction is crucial: Mary’s greatness does not primarily reside in the biological fact of bearing Jesus, but in the disposition of faith with which she received the announcement and said *”fiat”*. As Augustine would later emphasize: *”Maria concebeu in faith before conceiving in flesh.”* The Visitation confirms this priority of faith over biology in Mary’s greatness.

## II. *Exsultavit Infans*: John the Baptist and Pre-Natal Recognition

The blessing *Beata Quae Credidisti* also sheds light on this dimension of Marian contemplation.

John the Baptist’s “*leap for joy*” in Elizabeth’s womb (Luke 1:41, 44) is one of the most striking gestures in Luke’s Gospel of Infancy. Luke uses the verb *skirtaô* (to leap, to jump with joy), the same used in the LXX for bulls that leap (Psalm 29:6) and lambs playing (Malachi 3:20). This leap is not a mere physiological reflex but, in Luke’s reading, an act of prophetic recognition: John leaps because he recognizes the presence of the Messiah announced by Mary’s voice. Mary’s first “*salutation*” provokes John’s first “*response*”, his prophetic leap.

In the light of *Beata Quae Credidisti*, the theology of John’s pre-natal recognition has profound implications developed in tradition. First, it implies that John was sanctified even within Elizabeth’s womb, a tradition identifies this episode as the *”sanctification”* of John prior to his birth, explaining why John can be celebrated as a saint on his own birthday (June 24th) and not merely on his martyrdom. Second, it implies that Mary is the instrument of this sanctification: she who carries the Son of God becomes, simply by her presence and greeting, the channel of grace that sanctifies the Precursor.

This mediating role of Mary, becoming the vehicle of Christ’s grace to others, is what contemporary Marian theology (particularly John Paul II and Benedict XVI) refers to as “maternal mediation“. Not an independent mediation from that of Christ, but a mediation that flows from Christ’s and is completely dependent on Him, just as John’s leap is not independent of Jesus’ presence, but is precisely a response to that presence that Mary bears. The Visitation thus serves as the paradigmatic example of Marian mediation: Mary brings Christ. Christ, through Mary, transforms those who receive her.

Patristic exegesis identified John’s leap as an anticipation of Baptism: just as Baptism is the sacrament by which Christ comes into contact with the soul and transforms it, the “leap” of John is the “baptism” before birth by which contact with Christ-in-Mary’s womb transforms John even before his birth. Ambrose of Milan wrote celebrated comments on this episode, emphasizing that “the Lord entered the house and John prophesied,” the presence of Christ, even hidden in Mary’s womb, is sufficient to awaken prophecy.

III. The Magnificat: Biblical Theology of Liberation

The canticle responds to the blessing Beata Quae Credidisti: Mary proclaims that faithful faith is the root of all liberation worked by God.

In light of Beata Quae Credidisti, the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55), the canticle Mary sings in response to Elizabeth’s blessing, is one of the most rich poetic and theological compositions in the New Testament. Its structure is that of an individual psalm of thanksgiving that expands into a communal and eschatological dimension: it begins with Mary’s personal joy (“My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior“, Lk 1:46-47), moves to her personal situation (“He has looked upon his handmaid’s lowly condition“, Lk 1:48), and culminates with a panoramic view of God’s action in history (“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the humble“, Lk 1:52).

The language of the Magnificat is densely Old Testament: at least 15 of its 10 phrases (the text has 80-90 words in Greek) have direct parallels in the Psalms, in Habakkuk, in Zephaniah, and especially in the canticle of Anna (1 Sam 2:1-10). This saturation with biblical language is not mere literary erudition; it expresses that Mary speaks from within the Scriptures, meditating on them in her heart (Lk 2:19.51). The Magnificat demonstrates that Mary was a woman deeply formed by God’s Word, able to articulate her personal experience with the language of Israel’s biblical tradition.

The core theological message of the Magnificat is the declaration of God’s action in favor of the poor (the *Anawim*) against the powerful: “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble rank. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed” (Lk 1:51-53). This “*eschatological inversion*,” where God acts contrary to human power dynamics, is at the heart of biblical theology that the Magnificat synthesizes. Mary is not a passive observer of this inversion; she is its first beneficiary: “humble” (without power or status), she was “exalted” by God’s creative act in choosing her.

The reception of the Magnificat throughout theological history has been and remains extraordinarily diverse. From Luther, who commented on it as the “*Evangelium within the Gospel*,” to Latin American Liberation Theology (which found in it the program for a faith committed to the poor), from monastic contemplation of the Vespers (where it is recited daily) to feminist theology that sees Mary as a woman proclaiming the subversion of oppressive structures, this diversity of readings testifies to the text’s inexhaustible richness, not its ambiguity, but its depth.

### IV. Mary and Elizabeth: Two Charisms in the Economy of Salvation

Both, though differently, echo the *Beata Quae Credidisti* as mutual recognition of divine wonders.

The Visitation is not just a meeting of two people, but of two “*charisms*,” two complementary modes of presence in the economy of salvation. Elizabeth represents the Old Testament prophecy: she is the last woman to bear miraculously by divine intervention (in the line of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah), and her son John will be the last prophet of Israel. Mary represents the New Testament novelty: she is the Virgin who conceives by the Holy Spirit, and her Son is the Messiah all the prophets pointed to.

The relationship between Elizabeth and Mary is not competitive but complementary and communal. Elizabeth, the older, recognizes the younger: “How can I be honored with a visit from the Mother of my Lord?” (Lk 1:43). The symbolic precedence does not belong to the older (Elizabeth) but to the younger (Mary), not for human reasons but because of grace: what Mary carries transcends infinitely what Elizabeth carries, though both are gifts from God. Elizabeth’s humility, recognizing Mary’s greatness that surpasses her own, is the model for the Christian attitude toward the Mother of God.

The three months Mary spends with Elizabeth (Lk 1:56) is a seemingly minor narrative detail but holds significant theological weight. Mary stays with Elizabeth “until [John] is born” (probably), she who received grace does not keep it for herself, but remains with her cousin until the moment of greatest need, childbirth. This concrete, domestic, quiet service is the style of Marian charity: not grandiose spectacular gestures, but faithful presence that endures “until the end.” It is the same style seen on the Cross: Mary stays by the Cross until the very end.

Under the sign of *Beata Quae Credidisti*, the Visitation also reveals Mary’s contemplative-active dimension, which tradition has always emphasized. Mary is not merely a contemplative of the Fiat; she is the active one who “hurries” to serve. But her activity is not disconnected from contemplation: she bears Christ with her as she serves Elizabeth. This balance between contemplation and action, not as tension but as unity, is the model of Marian spirituality that the Visitation exemplarily manifests. Mary acts because she contemplates; her action is fruitful because what she bears with her is the Son of God himself.

**V. The Visitation as a Model for Christian Mission**

Every Christian mission echoes Mary’s gesture and hears Elizabeth address herself to *Beata Quae Credidisti*.

The missionary dimension of the Visitation has been highlighted by recent Magisterium. John Paul II, in *Redemptoris Mater* (1987), developed the image of Mary as the first “missionary”: just as she brought Christ to Elizabeth and John the Baptist before their births, Christians are called to bring Christ to the world through the testimony of their lives. Mary’s “missionary journey,” her haste to meet the other, is the model for all evangelization: not waiting for others to come, but going out to meet them, bringing the gift received.

The theme of “evangelization” through presence and service, rather than verbal proclamation, is particularly relevant in a culture where the credibility of words has been eroded. Mary evangelized Elizabeth not with a theological discourse, but with her greeting, with her presence that bore Christ. The most effective “mission” is often the simple human contact that, because it is inhabited by grace, transforms those encountered. This silent, hidden, domestic mission, the style of the Visitation, is the most universally accessible form of evangelization.

From this perspective of *Beata Quae Credidisti*, the spirituality of Christian Communities of Life (CVX) and many Marian spiritual movements have found in the Visitation the model of “contemplative charity”: social and charitable action motivated and nourished by contemplation of Christ. To be a “visitator” in an evangelical sense is not to be a social worker with humanist motivations, but to be a bearer of Christ to others, conscious that what truly transforms them is not our human competence but the presence of God who dwells within us. This distinction between “evangelical charity” and “philanthropy” is not spiritual elitism, but realism about the source of lasting transformations.

The religious congregation of the “Visitandines,” founded by Francis de Sales and Jane of Chantal in the 17th century, adopted the Visitation as its foundational charism: charitable visits to the poor and sick, inspired by Mary’s model visit to Elizabeth. Over the centuries, this charism evolved into monastic contemplation, but its origin remains: the Visitation of Mary is the archetype for all Christian charity that visits, serves, and brings Christ to those in “the mountain regions” of human life.

## VI. The Feast of the Visitation: History and Liturgical Meaning

The liturgical feast perpetuates *Beata Quae Credidisti* as the Church’s faithful faith antiphona.

The Feast of the Visitation was introduced into the Latin liturgy by Saint Bonaventure, a Franciscan friar, who proposed it for the Franciscan Order in 1263. The motivation had partial ecumenical and political overtones: the feast aimed to obtain Mary’s intercession to end the Western Schism (which had persisted since 1378). Urban VI extended it to the universal Church in 1389, and Pius X established a definitive date of July 2nd, where it remained until the liturgical reforms of Paul VI in 1969, which moved it to May 31st. This change was made to conclude Mary’s Month and connect the Visitation to the cycle of Incarnation (between the Annunciation on March 25th and the Birth of John the Baptist on June 24th).

The blessing of *Beata Quae Credidisti* on May 31st has a clear liturgical logic: Mary visits Elizabeth in the “sixth month” of Elizabeth’s pregnancy (Luke 1:26), which, calculated from the conception of John the Baptist (traditionally celebrated at the autumnal equinox), coincides roughly with late March. Thus, the Visitation would occur in the weeks following, aligning reasonably with May 31st, two months after the Annunciation.

When May 31st coincides with a Solemnity (such as the Most Holy Trinity in 2026), the Visitation is transferred to June 1st, the first available day. This transfer does not diminish the feast’s importance; instead, it emphasizes that liturgical solemnities of the Lord take precedence over feasts of Mary, which is theologically correct: Mary is always in service to Christ, never competing with him. The Visitation, “waiting” to be celebrated for a day, itself expresses Mary’s style: one who serves, who waits, who places her Son above herself.

The liturgical meaning of the Visitation as the conclusion of the Incarnation cycle points to one of Luke’s theology’s deepest insights: the Incarnation is not a private event between Mary and God; it is an event that from its first moment spills over into the world, goes out to meet humanity, causing joy to burst forth in those who receive it. Mary, who departs “in haste” for the mountain, is the image of grace that does not remain confined but overflows onto others. This continued “visitation,” God’s love always going out to meet humanity, is the heart of the Gospel celebrated with joy on May 31st (or June 1st).

*Mary departing “in haste” for the mountain, carrying the Son of God in her arms and joy in her heart, is the oldest and most eloquent image of the Christian mission: grace received is not kept but flows out to meet others, becoming a source of life for those who receive it.*

References

• John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater (1987), pp. 12-19.
• Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium (1964), no. 57.
• Ambrose of Milan, Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam II, 19-26.
• R. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah (1977).
• I. de la Potterie, Maria nel mistero dell’Alleanza (1988).