The title Queen is among the oldest given to the Mother of God. It appears in the ancient antiphons Salve Regina, Ave Regina Caelorum, and Regina Caeli, in the coronation imagery of medieval art, and in the fifth glorious mystery of the Rosary, the crowning of the Blessed Virgin. Its foundation is not a claim of power belonging to Mary in her own right but the truth that she is the mother of the Messianic King and the first of the redeemed to share fully in his risen glory. Pope Pius XII instituted the celebration for the universal Church in the encyclical Ad caeli Reginam in 1954, at the close of a Marian Year, and assigned it to May 31. In the revision of the calendar that followed the Second Vatican Council it was moved to August 22 and ranked as a memorial. The new date is deliberate: August 22 is the octave day of the Solemnity of the Assumption, so the Church celebrates Mary's queenship as the immediate consequence of her being taken body and soul into heaven. White vestments are worn and the Missal provides proper prayers; the readings offered speak of the Lord's promise to the house of David and of the Annunciation, in which Gabriel says of her child that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. Popular piety surrounds the day with the crowning of Marian images, a custom the Directory on Popular Piety treats as fitting when it leads the faithful to honor Christ the King in his mother. The Second Vatican Council states the whole doctrine soberly in Lumen gentium: the Immaculate Virgin was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, that she might be more fully conformed to her Son.

Memorial

memorial

Ordinary time

August 22

memorial