 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(April 2015) |
Mark Miravalle (born 1959) is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, specializing in Mariology. He is president of Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici, a Catholic movement promoting the concepts of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix.
Mark Miravalle was born in 1959 in San Francisco, where he attended Catholic schools. [1] He made his undergraduate studies in theology as a student in the St. Ignatius Institute (Catholic Great Books program) of the University of San Francisco. Miravalle was married in 1981. He continued his studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum in Rome where he earned a Licentiate of Sacred Theology and a Doctor of Sacred Theology. In 1984 he and his wife made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. The following year, Miravalle wrote his doctoral dissertation on The message of Medjugorje : a post conciliar formulation of Lourdes and Fatima on the message of the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje.
As of 2009, Miravalle holds the rank of Professor of Theology at Franciscan University, where he has taught since 1986, and where he has received several teaching awards. His areas of specialization are Mariology and spiritual theology. In 2018, Miravalle was named St. John Paul II Chair of Mariology at Franciscan University. [2]
Miravalle is a member of the Mariological Society of America and the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, U.S.A. In the preface to Miravalle's book Introduction Mary Cardinal Edouard Gagnon stated that Mark Miravalle is "internationally renowned for his unquestioned fidelity to the Church's Magisterium and for his outstanding scholarship". [3]
Miravalle is president of Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici, a Roman Catholic movement which seeks the solemn papal definition of the Spiritual Maternity of the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces, and Advocate for the People of God. [4]
Miravalle has given numerous international lectures in Mariology, has addressed several Catholic bishops' conferences, and has served members of the episcopal hierarchy with preliminary investigations for reported apparitions.
Miravalle publishes a bi-monthly Marian e-zine, Mother of All Peoples.
Miravalle has made numerous appearances on Catholic television and radio for EWTN, the Apostolate for Family Consecration, National Family Catholic Radio, and Air Maria, the media project of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.
He has been interviewed for CNN Latin America, BBC, Fox News, and the NBC series Dateline.
Mark Miravalle has written and edited numerous books and articles in the areas of Mariology and Marian private revelation. He is also a contributor to National Catholic Register and Inside the Vatican.
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Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Virgin Mary, by Christians mainly of the Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. The title has long been a tradition, included in prayers and devotional literature and seen in Western art in the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin from the High Middle Ages, long before it was given a formal definition status by the Church.
Catholic Mariology is Mariology in Catholic theology. According to the Immaculate Conception taught by the Catholic Church, she was conceived and born without sin, hence Mary is seen as having a singular dignity above the saints, receiving a higher level of veneration than all angelic spirits and blessed souls in heaven. Catholic Mariology thus studies not only her life but also the veneration of her in daily life, prayer, hymns, art, music, and architecture in modern and ancient Christianity throughout the ages.
Co-Redemptrix is a title used by some Catholics for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and refers to Mary's role in the redemption of all peoples.
Anglican Marian theology is the summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning Mary, mother of Jesus. As Anglicans believe that Jesus was both human and God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, within the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglican movement, Mary is accorded honour as the theotokos, a Koiné Greek term that means "God-bearer" or "one who gives birth to God".
Father René Laurentin was a French theologian. He is widely recognized as "one of the world’s foremost students" of Mariology and is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles on topics including Marian apparitions such as Lourdes and Medjugorje; visionaries and mystics including Bernadette Soubirous, Thérèse de Lisieux, Catherine Labouré, and Yvonne Aimée de Malestroit; as well as biblical exegesis, theology, and Vatican II.
Mary, the mother of Jesus in Christianity, is known by many different titles, epithets, invocations, and several names associated with places.
Mediatrix is a title given to Mary, mother of Jesus in Christianity. It refers to the intercessory role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a mediator in the salvific redemption by her son Jesus Christ and that he bestows graces through her. Mediatrix is an ancient title that has been used by many saints since at least the 5th century. Its use grew during the Middle Ages and reached its height in the writings of saints Louis de Montfort and Alphonsus Liguori in the 18th century.
Deiparae Virginis Mariae, is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII released in 1946 addressed to all Catholic bishops on the possibility of defining the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma of faith.
Ad Caeli Reginam is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII, given at Rome, from St. Peter's Basilica, on the feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the eleventh day of October, 1954, towards the end of the Marian year, in the sixteenth year of his Pontificate. The encyclical is an important element of the Mariology of Pope Pius XII. It established the feast Queenship of Mary.
The history of Catholic Mariology traces theological developments and views regarding Mary from the early Church to the 21st century. Mariology is a mainly Catholic ecclesiological study within theology, which centers on the relation of Mary, the Mother of God, and the Church. Theologically, it not only deals with her life but with her veneration in life and prayer, in art, music, and architecture, from ancient Christianity to modern times.
Throughout history, Catholic Mariology has been influenced by a number of saints who have attested to the central role of Mary in God's plan of salvation. The analysis of Early Church Fathers continues to be reflected in modern encyclicals. Irenaeus vigorously defended the title of "Theotokos" or Mother of God. The views of Anthony of Padua, Robert Bellarmine and others supported the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which was declared a dogma in 1850.
The Mariology of the popes is the theological study of the influence that the popes have had on the development, formulation and transformation of the Roman Catholic Church's doctrines and devotions relating to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Lutheran Mariology or Lutheran Marian theology is derived from Martin Luther's views of Mary, the mother of Jesus and these positions have influenced those taught by the Lutheran Churches. Lutheran Mariology developed out of the deep Christian Marian devotion on which Luther was reared, and it was subsequently clarified as part of his mature Christocentric theology and piety. Lutherans hold Mary in high esteem, universally teaching the dogmas of the Theotokos and the Virgin Birth. Luther dogmatically asserted what he considered firmly established biblical doctrines such as the divine motherhood of Mary while adhering to pious opinions of the Immaculate Conception and the perpetual virginity of Mary, along with the caveat that all doctrine and piety should exalt and not diminish the person and work of Jesus Christ. By the end of Luther's theological development, his emphasis was always placed on Mary as merely a receiver of God's love and favour. His opposition to regarding Mary as a mediatrix of intercession or redemption was part of his greater and more extensive opposition to the belief that the merits of the saints could be added to those of Jesus Christ to save humanity. Lutheran denominations may differ in their teaching with respect to various Marian doctrines and have contributed to producing ecumenical meetings and documents on Mary.
The veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church encompasses various devotions which include prayer, pious acts, visual arts, poetry, and music devoted to her. Popes have encouraged it, while also taking steps to reform some manifestations of it. The Holy See has insisted on the importance of distinguishing "true from false devotion, and authentic doctrine from its deformations by excess or defect". There are significantly more titles, feasts, and venerative Marian practices among Roman Catholics than in other Western Christian traditions. The term hyperdulia indicates the special veneration due to Mary, greater than the ordinary dulia for other saints, but utterly unlike the latria due only to God.
Ecumenical meetings and documents on Mary, involving ecumenical commissions and working groups, have reviewed the status of Mariology in the Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, and Roman Catholic Churches.
Mediatrix of all graces is a title that some in the Catholic Church give to the Blessed Virgin Mary; as the Mother of God, it includes the understanding that she mediates the Divine Grace. In addition to Mediatrix, other titles are given to her in the Church: Advocate, Helper, Benefactress. In a papal encyclical of 8 September 1894, Pope Leo XIII said: "The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace."
Mariological papal documents have been a major force that has shaped Roman Catholic Mariology over the centuries. Mariology is developed by theologians on the basis not only of Scripture and Tradition but also of the sensus fidei of the faithful as a whole, "from the bishops to the last of the faithful", and papal documents have recorded those developments, defining Marian dogmas, spreading doctrines and encouraging devotions within the Catholic Church.
Catholic Marian movements and societies have developed from the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary by members of the Catholic Church. These societies form part of the fabric of Mariology in the Catholic Church. Popular membership in Marian organizations grew significantly in the 20th century, as apparitions such as Our Lady of Fátima gave rise to societies with millions of members, and today many Marian societies exist around the world. This article reviews the major Marian movements and organizations.
The Lady of All Nations is a Catholic Marian title sometimes associated with apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Ida Peerdeman of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Peerdeman claimed to have received 56 visions of the Lady from 1945 to 1959.
Peter Fehlner, also known as Peter Damian Mary Fehlner, was a Catholic priest, theologian, and Mariologist. He was a member of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor Conventual. After his Franciscan and theological formation and several decades of ministry in this Order, he joined the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in 1996, but in 2016 he professed again the Rule and the Constitutions of ancient Franciscan Conventual Order. From 2008-2014, he served as rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was also a professor of theology in the Franciscans' Institute of Ecclesiastical Studies, the Immaculatum (STIM) in Frigento, Italy. A scholar in the Franciscan tradition of theology, he focused primarily on the philosophical and theological traditions of St. Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus and St. Maximilian Kolbe.
