“Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy….”  So begins one of the prayers from our Catholic treasury.  Have you ever wondered why we use the title “Queen” for Mary?

The beginning of the concept that Mary is a Queen is found in the annunciation narrative.  For the angel tells her that her Son will be King over the house of Jacob forever.  So she, His Mother, would be a Queen.  While in our age we are quick to think that “queen” means wife of the king, the meaning in ancient Israel also included the mother of the king, the “Queen Mother.”  The first formal definition and basis for the later title “Mary Queen of Heaven” developed at the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was proclaimed as “theotokos” (lit. “God bearer”) or in English, the Mother of God.  The Council fathers specifically approved this version against the opinion that Mary is “only” the mother of Jesus.  Nobody had participated in the life of her son more than Mary, who gave birth to the Son of God. Continue reading →