Queenship of Mary

"So Bathsheeba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king's mother; and she sat on his right."  -- 1 Kings 2:19

In ancient Israel, each king had many wives, however he had only one mother.  Thus, the mother of the king was referred to as the queen and she could intercede with her son for petitioners, as seen in the above quote from 1 Kings.

This tradition reaches its ultimate fulfillment in the Kingship of Jesus, who had no wife but did have a mother.  So, just as Jesus is the triumphant King of Heaven, so His mother is the Queen of Heaven.  We remember Mary's coronation in Heaven by the Trinity in the last Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.

The devotion of remembering Mary as the Queen of Heaven has been practiced since the late 1700s, when Jesuit Fr. Latomia recommended it to help resist immorality among students in the spring.  This devotion spread throughout the Latin Church and was formally recognized by Pope Pius VII in 1815.  In 1945, Pope Pius XII solidified May as a Marian month after establishing the feast of the Queenship of Mary on May 31st.  For this reason, many Catholic parishes have a long tradition of crowning statues of Mary with a flowery crown in May.  In the revision of the Church calendar after Vatican II, this feast day was moved to August 22 and May 31st became the feast of the Visitation of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56).

For us, May remains a month in which we remember Mary's unique role in our redemption, by praying the Rosary and Memorare.