The Coronation of Mary

The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth is the fifth and final of the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It commemorates Mary's reception in heaven as Queen of all creation, by virtue of her unique role in salvation history as the Mother of the King of Kings. The Catholic doctrine of Mary's queenship was formally articulated in the encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam of Pope Pius XII (1954), which also established the liturgical Memorial of the Queenship of Mary on May 31 (later moved to August 22 in the 1969 calendar reform).¹

The mystery

The Coronation of Mary is, in the strictest theological sense, the recognition in heaven of what was already true on earth: Mary, the Mother of Christ the King, is by that maternal relation the Mother of the Kingdom and the Queen of all that her Son rules. The mystery is not a discrete event in time additional to the Assumption; rather, the Assumption and the Coronation are two aspects of the one glorification of Mary at the end of her earthly life. The Catholic tradition has always read the woman crowned with twelve stars in Revelation 12:1 as one of the foundational scriptural images of this glorification.

The encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam sets forth the four chief grounds for the doctrine of Mary's queenship:

1. Her divine maternity: as Mother of Christ the King, Mary is the Mother of the King by nature, and therefore Queen by participation.
2. Her singular cooperation in the redemption: as the New Eve, she stood with Christ at the Cross (John 19:25-27) and contributed uniquely to the work of redemption.
3. Her surpassing excellence: of all created beings, she is closest to Christ in grace and holiness.
4. Her queenly intercession: she exercises in heaven a maternal solicitude for the Church on earth.²

Meditation on trust in Mary's intercession

The traditional spiritual fruit of the Coronation of Mary is trust in her intercession. The mystery presents Mary not as one figure among many in the heavenly court, but as the Queen Mother (the Gebirah of the Old Testament Davidic dynasty), to whom the King grants special access and whose petitions on behalf of the people are received with maternal solicitude.

The royal protocol of the ancient Davidic kingdom underwrites this Catholic understanding: the queen mother (not the wife) sat at the right hand of the king and could intercede for the people. The first such intercession recorded in Scripture is that of Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, in 1 Kings 2:19-20. The same protocol, the Catholic tradition has held, is realized in the heavenly court: Mary, as Queen Mother of the eternal Davidic kingdom, intercedes for the Church before her Son.³

The Catholic prayers that flow from this mystery include the Hail Holy Queen (the Salve Regina) and the Regina Coeli (the Easter Marian antiphon, which addresses Mary as "Queen of Heaven"). The closing prayer of the rosary itself includes the petition "let us, who meditate upon these mysteries in the most holy rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, both imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise" — a request placed under Mary's queenly intercession.

Praying the Coronation of Mary

To pray the fifth Glorious Mystery: announce "The fifth Glorious Mystery, the Coronation of Mary," pray an Our Father, ten Hail Marys while meditating on Mary's reception as Queen of heaven and earth, and conclude with a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer.

After the fifth Glorious Mystery, the rosary concludes with the Hail Holy Queen and the closing prayer of the Rosary. For the previous mystery, see the Assumption.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Pope Pius XII, encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (October 11, 1954), on the queenship of Mary. ↩

2. Ad Caeli Reginam, paragraphs 34 to 38, on the four grounds for the doctrine. ↩

3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 966, on the queenship of Mary as the consequence of her Assumption. See also CCC 2675. ↩