Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, FEAST OF THE, second Sunday in October.—The object of this feast is to commemorate the dignity of Mary as Mother of God. Mary is truly the Mother of God, because she is the Mother of Christ, who in one person unites the human and the divine nature. This title was solemnly ratified by the Council of Ephesus, June 22, 431. The hymns used in the office of the feast also allude to Mary’s dignity as the spiritual Mother of men. The love of Mary for all mankind was that of a mother, for she shared all the feelings of her Son whose love for men led Him to die for our redemption (Hunter, Dogm. Theol. 2, 578). The feast was first granted, on the petition of King Joseph Manuel, to the dioceses of Portugal and to Brazil and Algeria, January 22, 1751, together with the feast of the Purity of Mary, and was assigned to the first Sunday in May, dupl. maj. In the following year both feasts were extended to the province of Venice, 1778 to the kingdom of Naples, and 1807 to Tuscany. At present the feast is not found in the universal calendar of the church, but nearly all diocesan calendars have adopted it. In the Roman Breviary the feast of the Maternity is commemorated on the second, and the feast of the Purity on the third, Sunday in October. In Rome, in the Church of S. Augustine, it is celebrated as a dupl. 2. classis with an octave, in honor of the miraculous statue of the Madonna del Parto by Sansovino. This feast is also the titular feast of the Trinitarians under the invocation of N. S. de los Remedios. At Mesagna in Apulia it is kept February 20 in commemoration of the earthquake, February 20 1743.
F. G. HOLWECK