The Cult of the Blessed Virgin

Section 2: The Cult of the Blessed Virgin

1. Definition of Terms

Worship or devotion (cultus) to some person, idea or thing¹ may be religious or profane, absolute or relative. It always comprises three separate and distinct acts:

a) An act of intellectual assent to the venerability of the person, idea or object which is the object of worship;

b) An act of the will by which the theoretical judgment becomes practical;

c) An external act giving expression to the internal sentiment.²

The formal object of every act of religious worship is the supernatural dignity, excellence or perfection of the person, idea or thing worshipped. Hence we may distinguish different kinds of worship according to the various species or degrees of perfection inherent in the persons, ideas or things themselves.

The absolute worship we owe to the increate majesty of God and to the Godman Jesus Christ, and which is called latreutic or divine worship (adoration), differs essentially from that due to any creature. When directed to a creature, latreutic adoration (cultus latriae) is called idolatry (idololatria).

The worship which we owe to specially endowed creatures, such as the angels and saints, is technically termed dulia. The highest form of dulia is due to the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she transcends all other creatures by her unique dignity as Mother of God. Theologians are wont to call this special worship hyperdulia. Some even hold that there is a specific difference between it and the ordinary worship paid to the saints. In making this distinction they do not, of course, lose sight of the essential difference between the hyperdulic devotion rendered to our Lady and the latreutic adoration due to God alone.³

2. The Blessed Virgin Mary is Entitled to a Special Kind of Worship Superior to that Paid to the Other Saints

In demonstrating this proposition we must distinguish between the quaestio iuris and the quaestio facti.

a) First as to the quaestio iuris. The higher the dignity and holiness of a person, the greater is his or her claim to our respect and veneration. Now, the dignity of the Blessed Virgin, morally considered, is immeasurably high⁴ and her sanctity commensurate with the fulness of grace with which God has endowed her.⁵ Consequently, she is entitled to a worship which, while essentially below that due to God, exceeds the ordinary dulia exhibited to the Saints in precisely the same measure in which, as θεοτόκος, Mary outranks the angels and saints. This is precisely what is called hyperdulia.

From the fact that Mary deserves such a high degree of veneration, it may be inferred that devotion to her is a religious duty. It is difficult to conceive how a Catholic could really love Jesus without honoring His mother.⁶ By a kind of psychological necessity habitual neglect of Mary leads to contempt of her Divine Son. This truth is clearly exemplified in the history of Protestantism. The Church had good reasons for linking the “Hail Mary” with the “Our Father,” for enriching the ecclesiastical calendar with numerous beautiful festivals in honor of Our Lady, and for exhorting the faithful to pray to her often and fervently by reciting the Rosary and other special devotions.⁷

b) The quaestio facti offers no greater difficulties than the quaestio iuris. Christians have at all times since the institution of the Church rendered to Mary that peculiar kind of worship which is now technically known as hyperdulia.

During the first three centuries, it is true, Mary did not occupy such a prominent place in the thoughts and prayers of the faithful. Her glory was overshadowed by that of her Divine Son. We need not wonder at this; for the Godman Himself had first to be generally acknowledged and adored before Mary could come into the worship due to her as His mother.⁸

Towards the end of the sixth century a sect of Arabian women went so far astray as to adore Mary and to offer her cakes, which were consumed at feasts similar to the thesmophoria held in honor of the pagan goddess Demeter.⁹ This aberration was condemned by St. Epiphanius, who declared that Mary, though “a select vessel” exalted above all the Saints, is not entitled to divine honors.

Soon after Constantine the Great had led forth the infant Church from the catacombs, devotion to our Lady began to spread. The cities of Nicaea (where the first general council was held) and Byzantium (Constantinople), the new capital of the empire, were officially dedicated to the Blessed Virgin by the Emperor Constantine. His mother St. Helena erected the first churches in honor of Our Lady at Bethlehem and Nazareth. In Rome, Pope Liberius (352–366) built the famous basilica known as Santa Maria Maggiore. The Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431) held its sessions in a temple dedicated to the θεοτόκος. Recent discoveries in the catacombs show that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is as old as the Church. Her image appears at the beginning of the second century in the catacombs of St. Priscilla, where she is represented in a sitting posture with the Divine Infant in her arms, facing the prophet Isaias who carries a manuscript roll in his left hand and points to a star with his right.¹⁰

Readings: St. Thomas, S. Theol., 3a, qu. 25, art. 5.— *Suarez, De Incarnatione, disp. 22, sect. 3.— Petavius, De Incarnatione, XIV, 8 sqq.— B. Piazza, Christianorum in Sanctos Sanctorumque Reginam Propensa Devotio, Palermo 1547.— Abelly, Sentiments des SS. Pères touchant les Excellences et les Prérogatives de la Très-Sainte Vierge, Paris 1674.— *Trombelli, Mariae Sanctissimae Vita ac Gesta Cultusque illi Adhibitus, 6 vols., Bologna 1761.— *Haine, De Hyperdulia, Louvain 1864.— F. A. von Lehner, Die Marienverehrung in den ersten Jahrhunderten, 2nd ed., Stuttgart 1886.— *H. F. J. Liell, Die Darstellungen der allerseligsten Jungfrau und Gottesgebärerin Maria auf den Kunstdenkmälern in den Katakomben, Freiburg 1887.— Jos. Wilpert, Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms, 2 vols., Freiburg 1903.— S. Beissel, S.J., Die Verehrung unserer lieben Frau in Deutschland während des Mittelalters, Freiburg 1896.— IDEM, Geschichte der Verehrung Mariens in Deutschland bis zum Ende des Mittelalters, Freiburg 1909.— IDEM, Geschichte der Verehrung Mariens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, Freiburg 1910.— *B. Bartmann, Christus ein Gegner des Marienkultus?, Freiburg 1909.— Hergenröther-Phelan, A History of the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in the First Ten Centuries, St. Louis 1880.— J. H. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 12th ed., pp. 135 sqq., 410 sqq., London 1903.— IDEM, “A Letter Addressed to the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D., on Occasion of His Eirenicon of 1864,” in Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans Considered, Vol. II, pp. 1–170, new ed., London 1907.— H. G. Ganss, Mariolatry: New Phases of an Old Fallacy, Notre Dame, Ind., 1897.— Chs. F. McGinnis, The Communion of Saints, pp. 1 sqq., 154 sqq., St. Louis 1912.— H. J. Coleridge, S.J., “English Devotion to Our Blessed Lady in the Olden Time,” in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. IV, No. 15 (July 1879).— Th. E. Bridgett, C.SS.R., Our Lady’s Dowry, London 1875.— B. Rohner, O.S.B., Veneration of the Blessed Virgin. Her Feasts, Prayers, Religious Orders, and Sodalities. Adapted by Rev. Richard Brennan, New York 1898, new impression, ibid., 1913.— S. Beissel, S.J., Wallfahrten zu Unserer Lieben Frau in Legende und Geschichte, Freiburg 1913.— On representations of Our Lady in the Catacombs, see A. S. Barnes, The Early Church in the Light of the Monuments, pp. 176–178, London 1913.

Ultima in mortis hora Filium pro nobis ora, Bonam mortem impetra, Virgo, Mater, Domina.