Evangelization and Mary, the Mother of the First Evangelized

The relationship between Mary and evangelization is organic: Mary was the first to receive the Good News (the Annunciation is the first evangelization in history), and she was the first to pass it on, hurrying to Elizabeth with the Incarnate Word in her womb.

Mary, the First Missionary Disciple

Pope Francis, in the exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013), presents Mary as the star of evangelization and as the model of missionary discipleship. She welcomed the Word, let it grow, and shared it freely. The Visitation is the first missionary act: Mary brings Christ to Elizabeth, anticipating the mission of the Church.

Pentecost and the Mission

Mary was in the Upper Room with the Apostles on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:14). This detail is not incidental: Mary’s prayerful presence at the origin of the missionary Church indicates that evangelization is always born of an experience of contemplation and of spiritual motherhood.

Mary and the Mission ad gentes

In the history of the missions, Marian apparitions, and in particular Guadalupe (1531), played an extraordinary role in evangelization. Within a few years after the apparitions, millions of indigenous people were baptized. Mary thus becomes an “evangelizer” in the full sense of the term.

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Magisterium of the Church

Spiritu Sancto repleta, Elisabeth exclamavit voce magna dicens: Benedicta tu inter mulieres, et benedictus fructus ventris tui.

Luke 1:41-42 (Vulgate)

📚 Literal translation: Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth exclaimed with a loud voice: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Maria, priusquam ad pagos et civitates mitteretur Evangelium, iam Evangelium portaverat in visceribus suis.

S. Augustinus Hipponensis, Sermo 291, 6 (PL 38, 1318)

📚 Literal translation: Mary, before the Gospel was sent to the villages and cities, was already carrying the Gospel in her womb.

See our complete guide to Catholic Angelology.