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Pope Francis celebrated the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception with the news cardinals in St. Peter's Basilica, calling Christians to imitate Mary.
"The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin."
The Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated annually on November 21st, commemorates the presentation of the Blessed Virgin as a child by her parents in the Temple in Jerusalem.
On October 7, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the yearly feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Known for several centuries by the alternate title of “Our Lady of Victory,” the feast day takes place in honor of a 16th century naval victory which secured Europe against Turkish invasion.
Each year white rose petals fall from the ceiling of the papal Marian basilica in commemoration of a miraculous snowfall in Rome on Aug. 5 in 358 A.D.
Assuming that the Annunciation and the Incarnation took place around the time of the vernal equinox, Mary left Nazareth at the end of March and went over the mountains to Hebron, south of Jerusalem, to wait upon her cousin Elizabeth.
On Feb. 11, the Catholic Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, recalling a series of 18 appearances that the Blessed Virgin Mary made to a 14-year-old French peasant girl, Saint Bernadette Soubirous.
Just days after Christmas, Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime abducted four priests, whose whereabouts are still unknown.
Jan. 1 marks more than the start of a new year — it is also the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the World Day of Peace.
Pope Francis implores the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede for an end to human conflicts in a new video released on Jan. 1 for the World Day of Peace.
The title “Mother of God” goes back to the third or fourth century, but the Greek term Theotokos (“The God-bearer”) was officially consecrated as Catholic doctrine at the Council of Ephesus in 431, thus becoming the first Marian dogma. At the end of the Council of Ephesus, crowds of people marched through the streets shouting: “Praised be the Theotokos!”
In 1531 a "Lady from Heaven" appeared to Saint Juan Diego, a poor Indian from Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City. She identified herself as the Mother of the True God and instructed him to have the bishop build a church on the site. As a sign for the bishop, she left an image of herself imprinted miraculously on his tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth. The tilma should have deteriorated within 20 years but shows no sign of decay after over 470 years. To this day it defies all scientific explanations of its origin.
The banner’s declaration recalls the Marian spirituality of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who had a special devotion to the Immaculate Conception.
Pope Francis prayed in front of a statue of the Immaculate Conception near Rome’s Spanish Steps, which sits atop a nearly 40-foot-high column.
Our Lady of Guadalupe proclaimed the Gospel in “mother tongue,” Pope Francis said Wednesday in a message that highlighted the important role mothers play in passing on the faith to the next generation.
The Catholic Church annually celebrates the feast of the Queenship of Mary on Aug. 22. I would imagine that most people, upon hearing of this celebration, would think of it as something rather sweet and sentimental, a quaint devotion for grandmothers with a taste for saccharine spirituality.
Pope Francis said Wednesday he likes to invoke the Virgin Mary under the title of “Our Lady ‘in haste’” because she is always ready to swiftly intercede for her children’s requests.
On Mother’s Day, Pope Francis entrusted all mothers, including those in heaven, to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Only a few hours after Bassel Habkouk, a young Lebanese Catholic and father of two, arrived for a visit in Turkey on Feb. 6, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country and nearby Syria.
On Dec. 8, the day the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, thousands of women in different countries around the world gathered to pray the holy rosary for peace and for the defense of life.