Mother of the church

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Depiction of the Mother of God at the Apostolic Palace with the inscription Mater Ecclesiae

Mother of the Church ( Latin Mater Ecclesiae ) is a Marian title with which Mary is venerated as Mother of the Church , the mystical body of Christ . He has been known since the 4th century by the church father Ambrosius , who linked the image of the mother church with Mary as the “personified 'archetype of the church'”. In the High Middle Ages, the Marian title was widely used.

Pope Francis added the Remembrance Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church (Memoria B. Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris) to the General Roman Calendar on February 11, 2018, the Remembrance Day of Our Lady of Lourdes . In future it will be celebrated throughout the Church on Whit Monday , as the Holy See announced in Rome in March of the same year. So far the festival has only been celebrated in individual dioceses and religious orders, where it can continue to be celebrated on the previous day.

The Constitution of the Second Vatican Council on the Church Lumen Gentium describes Mary as part of the Church and as "beloved mother". As such, she is venerated by the Church.

The title was used repeatedly by the Popes, including Benedict XIV. 1748, Leo XIII. 1885, John XXIII. and Paul VI. and John Paul II. Only Hugo Rahner discovered in 1944 that already Ambrose had used in the 4th century the title. Hugo Rahner's Mariology, which is based on Ambrosius and the other church fathers , had a great influence on Paul VI. and the council. Paul VI proclaimed the title at the end of the third session on November 21, 1964 ( Remembrance Day of Our Lady in Jerusalem ) out of his own efforts and added it to the invocations of the Litany of Loreto in second place after Mother Christ .

The Catechism of the Catholic Church attributes the title to the fact that Mary is not only the Mother of God but also the mother of all believers, as Augustine writes in De sancta virginitate : The main links are “. According to Pope Saint John Paul II, Mary, because of her devotion as the mother of salvation, mother of life and graces, and mother of the redeemed and the living, can truly be considered the mother of the whole Church. Benedict XVI. points out that at first glance it may seem coincidental that the Council understood Mariology as part of ecclesiology, but that this actually expresses an inner characteristic of the Church, the identification with Mary. Rahner showed that this understanding already existed among the Church Fathers.

The invocation of Mary as Mother of the Church is inwardly related to the ancient name of the Church itself as Mother ( Mater Ecclesia ).

Patronage

The Marian title is the patronage of many churches , the Carmelite monastery Maria, mother of the church in Speyer and the Benedictine abbey Mater Ecclesiae on Isola San Giulio in Piedmont and the monastery Mater Ecclesiae in the Vatican Gardens, including the residence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He is named for the Congregation of the Hijas de María Madre de la Iglesia founded by Matilde Téllez Robles (1841-1902) in 1884 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hugo Rahner : Mater Ecclesia - praise of the church from the first millennium . Einsiedeln, Cologne 1944
  2. ^ A b International Theological Commission, Vol II: 1986-2007 edited by Michael Sharkey and Thomas Weinandy (August 21, 2009) ISBN 1-58617-226-3 page 208
  3. ^ Medard Kehl: Mother Church . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 7 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1998, Sp. 561-562 . , 561.
  4. ^ Decreto della Congregazione per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti sulla celebrazione della beata Vergine Maria Madre della Chiesa nel Calendario Romano Generale. In: Holy See Press Bulletin. Press room of the Holy See, March 3, 2018, accessed on March 3, 2018 (German).
  5. ↑ a b Lumen gentium 53, in: Karl Rahner , Herbert Vorgrimler : Small Council Compendium, Complete Texts of the Second Vatican Council , Freiburg i. B., 35th edition, 2008. ( Online document on the Vatican website )
  6. ↑ Bullarium Romanum, series 2, t. 2, n.61, p. 428
  7. ^ Acta Leonis XIII, 15, 302
  8. ↑ Redemptoris Mater . Point 47. ( online document )
  9. ^ Closing address by Paul VI. , No. 30 (Italian)
  10. ↑ stpauls.it (Italian)
  11. ↑ Catechism of the Catholic Church 963 ( online document )
  12. ^ Augustine of Hippo : De sancta virginitate . 6: PL 40, 399
  13. ^ John Paul II: General Audience. Wednesday September 17, 1997
  14. ^ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger: Community of Faith. Church as communion. Celebration for the 75th birthday . published by the Joseph Ratzinger student group. Augsburg 2002
  15. ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church 757 ( online document ); 2. Preface of consecration: “You sanctify them day by day until you, our mother, receive them into glory with the innumerable multitudes of their children”; see. Praise to God 479.2.

Web links

Commons : Mater Ecclesiae  - collection of images, videos and audio files