The Queenship of Mary

Established by Pope Pius XII in 1954 to be kept on the octave day of the Assumption, the memorial proclaims Mary as queen — not by power but by motherhood, drawn into her Son's royal reign. Her crown, the litany sings, is the crown of the kingdom of heaven.

The queenship of Mary was a conviction of the early Church: the Fathers saw her as the new Eve reigning beside the new Adam, and medieval art crowned her in gold alongside her Son. Pius XII's encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam grounded the title in her unique share in the work of redemption. After the calendar reform of 1969, the feast was moved to August 22, a week after the Assumption, to underscore that her queenship flows from her glorification in heaven.