The Saints: Mary

First Century

May is the month the Church has dedicated to Mary. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the council fathers said of Mary: “As the most holy mother of God she was, after her son, exalted by divine grace above all angels and men.” From apostolic times, this Jewish woman has been called “Theotokos,” or “God-bearer.” Her beautiful response to her cousin Elizabeth in Luke’s Gospel is the popular Catholic prayer known as the Magnificat.