Queen of Heaven
The Roman Catholic teaching that Mary is far above all other creatures in dignity, and after Jesus Christ possesses primacy over all goes back to the early church. Saint Sophronius said: "You have surpassed every creature" and Saint Germain of Paris (469–576) stated: "Your honor and dignity surpass the whole of creation; your greatness places you above the angels." Saint John of Damascus went further: "Limitless is the difference between God's servants and His Mother."
The feast of the Queenship of Mary was only formally established in 1954 by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam. Pius XII also declare the first Marian year and a number of Roman Catholic Church rededications took place, e.g. the 1955 rededication of the church of Saint James the Great in Montreal with the new title Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral a title proclaimed by Pius XII.
Yet, long before 1954 the Coronation of the Virgin had been the subject of a good number of artistic works. Some of these paintings built on the third phase of the Assumption of Mary in which following her Assumption, she is crowned as the Queen of Heaven.
Read more about this topic: Marian Art In The Catholic Church
Famous quotes containing the words queen of, queen and/or heaven:
“What a mysterious faculty is that queen of the faculties!”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, began screaming “Off with her head! Off with—”
“Nonsense!” said Alice loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“If Heaven decides to rain or your mother to remarry, there is no way to stop either.”
—Chinese proverb.