The Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1962 Roman Calendar)

Q: When is the feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal it is kept on 11 October as a Second Class feast. In the modern calendar the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, is observed on 1 January.

This feast celebrates the highest of all the dignities of the Blessed Virgin Mary: her divine Maternity, by which she is truly the Mother of God. For the Son whom she conceived and bore is not a mere man, but the eternal Word of the Father, who took flesh of her in the womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary did not give being to the divinity, which is from all eternity; but she gave to the one divine Person of the Son the human nature in which he was born of her, and so she is, in all truth, the Mother of God made man.

The faith of Ephesus

This truth, contained in the Gospel and held by the Church from the beginning, was solemnly proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431, when the Fathers, defending the unity of the person of Christ, confessed the Blessed Virgin to be Theotókos, the God-bearer, the Mother of God. For to deny her this title would be to divide Christ, as though the man born of Mary were other than the eternal Son; whereas he who was born of her is one and the same, true God and true man. Thus the honour of the Mother safeguards the faith concerning her Son, and the title “Mother of God” stands as a bulwark of the mystery of the Incarnation.

In more recent times, to commemorate the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus, the Sovereign Pontiff established a feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and extended it to the whole Church, that the faithful might honour with a special solemnity this fountainhead of all Mary’s greatness. For it is from her divine Maternity that all her other privileges flow — her fulness of grace, her perpetual virginity, her glorious Assumption — and it is as Mother of God that she is also, by the gift of her Son, the Mother of all who are members of his Body.

The meaning of the feast

In keeping this feast the Church bows before the unfathomable mystery that the Maker of all things willed to be born of his own creature, and that a daughter of our race became the Mother of her God. She honours the Blessed Virgin in the very title that is the ground of all devotion to her, and she gives thanks for the Incarnation by which the Son of God became our brother. To Mary, Mother of God, the faithful turn with confidence, knowing that he who would not be born without her will not refuse the prayers she offers for her children.

The collect of the feast recalls that God willed that his Word should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the message of an angel, and asks that we who believe her to be truly the Mother of God may be helped by her intercession. The feast is kept on the eleventh of October. In it the Church proclaims again, with the Fathers of Ephesus and with all generations, that the Virgin Mary is blessed among women, and that she is in truth the Mother of God.

The Collect

O God, who didst will that thy Word should take flesh, at the message of an angel, in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary: grant unto us thy suppliants; that we who believe her to be truly the Mother of God may be helped by her intercession with thee.

Deus, qui de beátæ Maríæ Vírginis útero Verbum tuum, Angelo nuntiánte, carnem suscípere voluísti: præsta supplicíbus tuis; ut, qui vere eam Genitrícem Dei crédimus, eius apud te intercessiónibus adiuvémur.

Patronage

Under the title of the Mother of God the Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured by the whole Church as the highest of creatures and the Mother of all the faithful; this dignity is the foundation of all Christian devotion to her.

In the Modern Calendar

In the modern calendar the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, is observed on 1 January, the octave day of Christmas.

Common Questions

When is the feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal it is kept on 11 October as a Second Class feast. In the modern calendar the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, is observed on 1 January.

What does it mean to call Mary the Mother of God?

It means that the Son whom she conceived and bore is the eternal Word of God, true God and true man in one person. Mary did not give origin to his divinity, which is eternal, but gave him the human nature in which he was born; and because he is one divine Person, she who is mother of that Person is rightly called the Mother of God.

What was the Council of Ephesus?

The Council of Ephesus, held in 431, solemnly proclaimed that the Blessed Virgin Mary is Theotókos — the God-bearer, the Mother of God — in defence of the unity of the person of Christ. This feast was established to commemorate that council and to honour the divine Maternity from which all Mary’s other privileges flow.

See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.

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