The day Mary was born

On September 8, we celebrate the Nativity of Mary, which is one of the oldest Marian feasts. There is evidence that this celebration dates back to the 4th century in Jerusalem, and coincides with the dedication feast of the Basilica of St Anne, built on the presumed site of Joachim and Anne’s home, as indicated by the Apocryphal texts as her parents. In the West, it was celebrated from the 7th century onward, thanks to Pope Sergius I, who was Syrian.

Of course, we do not know when Mary was born. The dates of her cycle, like those of the Lord (and St John), are hypothetical and related to astral and/or agrarian cycles, appropriate transignifications of pagan festivals. We know only what the Apocryphal texts tell us about Mary, and this is not “historical” data, just as the Gospels are not.

Thus, September 8 is tied to popular piety. The people of God quickly attempted to fill the “silences” of the evangelical narratives by paying attention to imaginative yet edifying details. The celebration of the birth of the Mother of the Lord falls into this tension towards real events, about which we do not know the where, when, or how. Without her “yes”, there would have been no Incarnation. It is from her that God’s project begins, which makes her a worthy dwelling for His Word.

These heavy theological reasons increase veneration, while also noting that Mary’s presence serves as a corrective to the exclusively patriarchal reading of salvation. Through her, the people of God have reclaimed the “divine feminine” who is excluded from the religions of the Book. Hence, there is an overwhelming attachment to her, which sometimes borders on the imaginary and superstitious. When faced with a phenomenon that could be heavy and embarrassing, less than ten years after the end of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI wanted a document to recalibrate Marian devotion. It was intended to treasure the warnings already present in the final numbers of Lumen Gentium. The dogmatic constitution on the Church had included a Mariological treatment, while restoring to the Church the Lord’s Mother as her eminent and singular member, type, and model. However, in citing Pope Pius XII, who had an intense Marian devotion, he had warned of the need—ecumenical but not only—to abandon any vain and credulous exaggeration.

The growing attention to Mary has indeed mingled with the imaginary and the imagined manifestations over the centuries. The same iconography reflects the different ways of viewing the Mother of the Lord. Initially, she is depicted in the apses, emphasizing her proximity to the Church; for centuries, she is associated with the Son, highlighting her privileges; finally, in modernity, she is drawn and emphasized alone, while, in reaction to the minimalism of the Reformation, the emphasis on her role increases, along with a rise in devotional practices. Not surprisingly, Roman Catholics have been accused of replacing the Holy Spirit with her in an excess of prerogatives that, in truth, belong to the Spirit. This is compounded by the proliferation of true or presumed visions, pilgrimages, and the infinite ways various religious families associate with Mary. All this must also be read with a certain vision of women and mothers, taken as an antidote to the growing awareness of women’s rights and their emancipation.

The apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, was promulgated on February 2, 1974. In its three parts, it remains, in my view, the most beautiful document elaborated thus far to shed light on the Mother of the Lord. The Marialis Cultus breathes the conciliar enthusiasm and the anthropological shift of those years. For the first time, beyond devotional stereotypes, it made room for the theological image of Mary.

Pope Paul VI focused on “Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Liturgy”, which followed a dual approach: “The Blessed Virgin in the Revised Roman Liturgy” and Mary as “The Blessed Virgin as the Model of the Church in Divine Worship”. The sections that present Mary as the Virgin in listening, the Virgin in prayer, the Virgin Mother, and the Virgin Offering are truly suggestive. The “example for the whole Church in the exercise of divine worship... teacher of spiritual life for individual Christians... Mary... is above all the example of that worship that consists in making one's life an offering to God”

The document, which aimed to promote “The Renewal of Devotion to Mary”, is structured according to three notes and four orientations. The “Trinitarian, Christological and Ecclesial Aspects of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin” recalls the nature of Christian worship—always ad Patrem per Filium in Spiritu Sancto—with an explicit emphasis on the Spirit, who has become a key figure in both piety and theological research. Following this, and being the most original part, are the “Four Guidelines for Devotion to the Blessed Virgin: Biblical, Liturgical, Ecumenical and Anthropological”. For Paul VI, it is fundamental to relate Mary to the testimony of Scripture and to link devotion to her to the liturgical time. It is also important to avoid anything that could hinder ecumenical dialogue.

For my generation, the Marialis Cultus is closely tied to the anthropological orientation. This apostolic exhortation specifies that Mary was not proposed for imitation based on the type of life she led or the environment in which it took place, now largely surpassed in the world, but because “in her own particular life, she fully and responsibly accepted the will of God (cf. Lk. 1:38), because she heard the word of God and acted on it, and because charity and a spirit of service were the driving force of her actions. She is worthy of imitation because she was the first and the most perfect of Christ's disciples”.

The pope is aware of the difficulties and reservations that emerging feminist theology has towards the image of Mary, and for this reason, he distinguishes the evangelical image of Mary from cultural representations of her as virgin, spouse, and mother. “The Church”, he states, “does not bind herself to any particular expression of an individual cultural epoch or to the particular anthropological ideas underlying such expressions. The Church understands that certain outward religious expressions, while perfectly valid in themselves, may be less suitable to men and women of different ages and cultures” (n.36).

 “Our own time…is called upon to verify its knowledge of reality with the word of God, and… to compare its anthropological ideas and the problems springing therefrom with the figure of the Virgin Mary as presented by the Gospel. The reading of the divine Scriptures…with the discoveries of the human sciences and the different situations in the world today being taken into account, will help us to see how Mary can be considered a mirror of the expectations of the men and women of our time”. 

This leads women today, who are eager to participate with decision-making power in community choices, to discover Mary as a woman who gave God her active and responsible consent; whose virginal choice did not signify a rejection of the values of marital status. A woman who is neither submissive nor alienated; a strong woman who has experienced suffering, poverty, and exile.  In short, a Mary who embodies the values of the contemporary liberation theology.

The examples offered in light of Scripture show, “the figure of the Blessed Virgin does not disillusion any of the profound expectations of the men and women of our time but offers them the perfect model of the disciple of the Lord: the disciple who builds up the earthly and temporal city while being a diligent pilgrim towards the heavenly and eternal city; the disciple who works for that justice which sets free the oppressed and for that charity which assists the needy; but above all, the disciple who is the active witness of that love which builds up Christ in people’s hearts”.

The final part offers “Observations on Two Exercises of Piety: The Angelus and the Rosary” (III).

The exhortation concludes by recalling that devotion to the Virgin Mary is an intrinsic element of Christian worship. Devotion to her is “a powerful aid for man as he strives for fulfillment. Mary, the New Woman, stands at the side of Christ, the New Man, within whose mystery the mystery of man alone finds true light”.

It is not difficult to see an echo of Gaudium et Spes in these expressions. This constitution also evokes the following expressions: “Contemplated in the episodes of the Gospels and in the reality which she already possesses in the City of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary offers a calm vision and a reassuring word to modern man, torn as he often is between anguish and hope, defeated by the sense of his own limitations and assailed by limitless aspirations, troubled in his mind and divided in his heart, uncertain before the riddle of death, oppressed by loneliness while yearning for fellowship, a prey to boredom and disgust. She shows forth the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship over solitude, of peace over anxiety, of joy and beauty over boredom and disgust, of eternal visions over earthly ones, of life over death”.

As strange as it may seem, Marialis Cultus was not embraced by women for its innovative value. On the other hand, the International Women’s Year, although celebrated in 1975, had in 1974 the precursor of the admission to “lay” ministries of only viri probati. In 1976, Inter Insigniores was published, which is the document that, while leaving the issue open, invoked the perpetually held tradition to deny women admission to the ordained ministry.

Once again, therefore, the emphasis on Mary, although expressed in ways consonant with the conciliar shift, left women on the margins of ecclesial subjectivity, as if one woman were enough. The subversive strength of the Magnificat, although recognized and emphasized, was not enough to change their ecclesial position.

By Cettina Militello
Theologian, and Vice-President of the Fondazione Accademia Via Pulchritudinis ETS.