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Pius IX on Mary

This Rock Volume 14, Number 1   January 2003     Frontispiece By Karl Keating   Letters   Apologist’s Eye   Are Apologetics and Evangelization at Odds? By Peter Kreeft   Are There Cults in the Catholic Church? By Jay Dunlap   How to Explain Marian Devotion to a Sola Scriptura Protestant By Dwight Longenecker   Muslims and the One True God By Fr. Brian Harrison   Sharing the Gospel with Muslims   Step by Step How Can a Priest Forgive Sin? By Kenneth J. Howell   Fathers Know Best Resurrection of the Body   Brass Tacks The Six Days of Creation By Jimmy Akin   Reviews   Classic Apologetics Nuggets of Faith By Walter Jewell and R. G. Flaxman   Quick Questions    Subscribe    Permissions

Pius IX on Mary From our earliest years nothing has ever been closer to our heart than devotion—filial, profound, and wholehearted—to the most blessed Virgin Mary. Always have we endeavored to do everything that would redound to the greater glory of the Blessed Virgin, promote her honor, and encourage devotion to her. . . . Great indeed is our trust in Mary. The resplendent glory of her merits, far exceeding all the choirs of angels, elevates her to the very steps of the throne of God. Her foot has crushed the head of Satan. Set up between Christ and his Church, Mary, ever lovable and full of grace, always has delivered the Christian people from their greatest calamities and from the snares and assaults of all their enemies, ever rescuing them from ruin. . . . The foundation of all our confidence, as you know well, venerable brethren, is found in the Blessed Virgin Mary. For God has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation. For this is his will, that we obtain everything through Mary.

—Pope Pius IX, Ubi Primum (February 2, 1849)