Holy Name of the blessed Virgin Mary
We learn about the name of Our Lady from the Gospel of St. Luke in his account of the Annunciation: “the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk 1: 26-27). St. Luke mentions this name several more times in his Gospel. The name of the Mother of God is also given by St. Matthew in the Gospel he wrote.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, an eighteenth-century mystic and stigmatic, who was able to describe the history of salvation, I found a description of the ceremony of naming Mary. According to the customs of the time, it took place on the fourth day after the birth of the child. Let us hear what rituals were provided for this Jewish ceremony:
“Enue, Elisabeth’s sister, brought out the child Mary, wrapped to the arms in red swaddling-clothes covered with transparent white stuff, and laid her in Joachim’s arms. The priests approached the altar where the scrolls lay
and prayed aloud. Two of them held up the train of the principal one. Joachim then laid the child in the hands of the high priest, who, lifting her up in offering as he prayed, laid her in the cradle on the altar. He then took a pair of scissors which, like our snuffers, had a little box at the end to hold what was cut off. With this he cut off three little tufts of hair from the child’s head (one from each side and one from the top) and burnt them in a brazier. Then he took a vase of oil and anointed the child’s five senses, touching with his thumb her ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and breast. He also wrote the name Mary on a parchment and laid it on the child’s breast. She was then returned to Joachim, who gave her to Enue
to be taken back to Anna. Hymns were sung and after that the meal began, but I saw no more.” (The Life of The Blessed Virgin Mary, page 54)
What does this name mean?
The etymology of the name "Mary" is not fully recognized. The meaning of the name Mary is commonly translated as Lady. This is what St. Jerome wrote: "One should know that Mary in the Syrian language means Lady"
The Aramaic MARIAM and the Hebrew MIRIAM are difficult to translate literally, but the meaning is emphasized: "Beloved of Yahweh" or "Lady". There are also those who translate our Lady's name as: "beautiful", "intercessor" or "joyful". All these translations fit the mission of our Lady. She is God's most beloved creature, she is the most beautiful, she is our Advocate and the cause of our joy!
However, whatever philologists might say, the name Mary, from the time it was given to the child of Joachim and Anna, evokes and will always make an extraordinary impression - it is a name so sweet, pure, graceful and holy; the most common name and at the same time; a name that, although given to those who wear it, never sticks to them, never actually belongs to them, so far it is the exclusive property of the Mother of Christ.
But what is the value of a person's name?
"Everyone's name is holy," I read in the Catechism of Our Faith. A NAME IS AN ICON OF A PERSON. It demands respect for the dignity of those who wear them." So, with what respect should we pronounce the name of this one whose dignity derives from the fact that she is the Mother of God? Our Lord, Jesus Christ ... “Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary " (Mt 13:55) - people asked in his hometown.
Many saints of the Church testify that this name comes from heaven (for example, Saint Jerome, Saint Epiphanius, Saint Antoninus). One of them exclaims: "Your sublime and admirable name, Mary, has been taken from the treasury of God!" (St. Peter Damiani).
Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort after St. Anthony explains her name as the ICON OF HER PERSON: “God the Father gathered up all the waters and called them maria, which [in Latin] means seas. He also created a reservoir of all His graces and called it MARIA.
"And the Virgin's name was Mary ... Mary, FULL OF GRACE!
That is why Thomas à Kempis wrote that "the devils are afraid of the Queen of Heaven and as soon as they hear her name, they immediately run away, as if struck by fire."
Maybe that's why St. Maximilian Kolbe said that if Satan had called on the name of Mary at least once, so straight from his heart, he would immediately be in heaven! We read in one of the Preface from the form dedicated to her holy name: "You, in your goodness, decided that the name of the Virgin Mary should also sound on the lips of the faithful, for they look to her with trust as a bright star, in dangers, they call upon Mary as the Mother, and in need they resort to her protection ”.
The graces announced by the Lord Jesus for the devotees of the name of Mary are very respectable, as He himself deigned to reveal to Saint Brigid, when she heard him speaking to His Holy Mother in these words:" The inhabitants of this land need three things: repentance for sins, compensation for the committed sins, and a special grace to achieve perfection. Well, whoever calls on Your name, my Mother, and trusts in You with a desire to improve, will receive these three things and the Kingdom of Heaven. For your every word is so sweet to me that it is impossible for me to deny what you ask for”
Thomas à Kempis in his sermon to the young religious whom he was guiding, said: “If you want consolation, go to Mary in all your sorrows; Invoke Mary, worship Mary, commend yourselves to Mary, rejoice with Mary, sorrow with Mary, pray with Mary, come with Mary, seek Jesus with Mary, finally live and die with Mary and Jesus”. And finally adds: “Beloved, if you keep this, you will persevere on the way of the Lord and you will make progress on it, because Mary will willingly pray for you, and Jesus will willingly and surely hear His Mother's requests”.
"This short prayer: “Jesus! Mary!”, says Thomas a Kempis, it is short to read, easy to remember, sweet, to meditate, mighty to defend”.
In the account of the French theologian André Frossard, after the attempted assassination, "while driving to the Policlinico Gemelli, John Paul II repeated only the name of Mary, and not any other, sentences attributed to him by the newspapers."
Because whoever truly worships her can say her name many times ... On the rosary, during work ... and does not feel weary ... Whoever loves her, feels safe with her company. Like the words "I love you" when spoken authentically from the heart - they never sound the same! "Happy is who loves your name, Mary!" (St. Bonaventure).
St. Alphonsus Liguori, who in his work “The Glories Of Mary " wrote: "So let us, dear and devout reader, ask God to grant us this grace, that the last word that is to come out of our mouths at the time of death would be the name of Mary, as wished, and that is what Saint Germanus prayed for, saying: Our Lady's Name, let it be the last move that my tongue speak when stops. O! as a death full of consolation, a death safe from everything, is death, accompanied and protected by this name of salvation, it is the name that God only gives to those who are called at the hour of death, whom he wants to save ”.
History of the Feast
For the first time in the liturgy, the name of Mary began to be worshiped in Spain, in the Diocese of Cuenca, which received permission from the Holy See in 1513 to celebrate the feast dedicated to the Name of the Mother of the Savior. However, the most popular holiday was in Poland, Austria and Germany. It was connected with a great historical event, namely the victory of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski over the Turks at Vienna in 1683. King Jan Sobieski was a great worshiper of Mary. On his way to the relief of Vienna, he stopped to pray at the Marian shrine in Piekary Śląskie. On the day of the Nativity of Mary, Polish troops arrived at Vienna. On September 12, the king and the Polish army attended Mass in Kahlenberg, served at the Mass, received Holy Communion and ordered the name of Mary to be inscribed on kings’ banners. It was with this cry that the Polish army went to battle with the Turks. After the victorious battle, the king wrote to Pope Innocent XI: “We have come, we have seen. God has conquered. Innocent XI, grateful to God for the Viennese victory through the cause of Our Lady, proclaimed September 12 as the feast of the Name of Mary in the entire Church to celebrate the victorious battle of Christians over the followers of Islam. Initially, this holiday was celebrated on the Sunday after the Birth of Our Lady, in 1911 Pope Pius X moved it to September 12. Currently (since 1960), the celebration of the Holy Name of Mary has the rank of Memorial.
In conclusion, therefore, I bring you this heartfelt prayer of Saint Bonaventure:
“For the glory of Your name, when my soul leaves this world, come out to meet her,
O! Blessed Virgin, receive her into your hands.”
Until Tomorrow
fr. george