Regina apostolorum is among the queenly invocations of the Litany of Loreto. Its scriptural ground is Acts 1:14, where the apostles devote themselves to prayer together with Mary the mother of Jesus in the days between the Ascension and Pentecost. Modern apostolic religious families took the title as their own: the Society of the Catholic Apostolate founded by St. Vincent Pallotti and the Pauline family founded by Blessed James Alberione both placed their mission under Mary Queen of the Apostles. Pius XII set the whole family of queenly titles on a firm footing in the 1954 encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam.

Mary's queenship, as Ad Caeli Reginam sets out, is participated and maternal: she reigns because she is the mother of the King and because she was perfectly obedient, not by any authority of her own. Applied to the apostles, the title says that the Church's mission begins in prayer and in the receptivity Mary showed at the Annunciation. Apostolic work is fruitful in the measure that it is born of the Spirit, and Mary is the one who shows the apostles how the Spirit is received.

Universal Church

The standard image is Pentecost: Mary seated or standing at the centre of the apostles, hands raised or joined, with flames above each head. She is often given no attribute of rule at all except her place among them, which is the point of the title.

• Regina Apostolorum
• Queen of Apostles

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• litany-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary

• veni-creator-spiritus

• prayer-to-the-holy-spirit

• magnificat