The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary – 22^nd of August 2026 – Isaiah 9:2-7/ Luke 1:26-38

The Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated annually on August 22, serves as a profound liturgical culmination of Mary’s journey, coming exactly one week (the octave day) after the Solemnity of the Assumption on August 15. This sacred relationship is permanently preserved in Catholic prayer, reflected beautifully in the fifth decade of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, which meditates on the Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

The theological concept of Mary as Queen has deep ancient roots, dating back to 4th-century. There are writings by Saint Ephrem and old Davidic traditions of the Gebirah (Queen Mother). The universal liturgical feast itself is relatively modern. It was officially instituted in 1954 by Pope Pius XII through his papal encyclical Ad caeli reginam (“To the Queen of Heaven”).

Proclaimed during a special Marian Year celebrating the centenary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception (defined in 1854), the encyclical emphasized that Mary shares in Christ’s kingship through her divine motherhood and her parallel role as the “New Eve” in the work of human redemption.

Originally, Pope Pius XII decreed that the feast be celebrated on May 31, positioning it as a glorious “crowning” to the traditional Marian month of May. This history explains why classic Marian hymns sung throughout May, such as Regina Caeli or Bring Flowers of the Rarest, prominently feature themes of her coronation.

However, in 1969, Pope Paul VI issued calendar reforms via the apostolic letter Mysterii Paschalis (effective in 1970). He transferred the Queenship of Mary to August 22 to link it intrinsically to her Assumption, demonstrating that her heavenly coronation is the immediate sequence to being assumed body and soul into glory. To ensure nothing was lost, the Feast of the Visitation was moved into the vacant May 31 slot, perfectly aligning Mary’s scriptural journey to Elizabeth between the Annunciation and the birth of John the Baptist.

The Queenship of Mary bridges the Old Testament prophecy of our first reading from Isaiah 9:2–7 with its New Testament fulfillment in the Gospel from Luke 1:26–38. Isaiah foretells a “Prince of Peace” who will rule eternally on David’s throne, a promise the Angel Gabriel directly echoes at the Annunciation when he tells Mary that her son will inherit that very same everlasting kingdom.

By giving her faithful “Fiat” to Gabriel, Mary consents to become the mother of this Messianic King. In the ancient Davidic tradition, the king’s mother held the official royal title of Gebirah, or Queen Mother, serving as a powerful advocate for the people. Therefore, Mary’s heavenly coronation is entirely dependent on the kingship of Jesus; she reigns not by her own power, but as our loving Queen Mother who continuously brings our prayers before the throne of her Son.

The crowning of Mary as Queen of all creation is the culmination of all the privileges granted to our Lady; the Mother of God, assumed body and soul into heaven. Our Lady’s role in the history of salvation is unique. The same is true, however, for each one of us in a smaller scale. The Lord is with each of us and we have found favour with God and he has a mission for us to fulfil.

There is much to learn from Our Blessed Mother

We all reach a crossroads where God hands us an invitation that looks a whole lot like an interruption. We want to discard the disruption, but God is saying, “No, embrace it, because what is wrecking your original blueprint is actually building my ultimate breakthrough.” We get so protective of our personal scripts, the perfect timeline, the unbroken dream for our lives, the neat little future we planned out for our kids, that when a plot twist hits, we think it’s a tragedy.

God will often allow a situation to break your heart just to shatter your comfort zone. He doesn’t ruin your plans to punish you; He reroutes them to position you. When you stop fighting the friction and finally utter that Mary-style, unqualified “Yes,” you aren’t settling for less; you are stepping into more. Your “Let it be” is the exact moment you trade your fragile control for His indestructible covenant.

The moment you stop auditioning to be the director of your own life and volunteer to be a handmaid of the Most High, the weight lifts. Suddenly, you realize you don’t have to carry the outcome because you’re serving the One who commands the universe. Stop viewing the difficult season as a burial, and start seeing it as a seed. When you surrender your dream, you aren’t losing your future—you are just letting God fund it with His favor.

This call to saying yes requires a predisposition to being in tune with the many invitations of God, if not we would find ourselves fighting the will of God in our lives. The angel said to Mary, ‘You will conceive and bear a son,’ not ‘Are you willing to conceive and bear a son?’ That is how God’s will comes to us; in the things that happen to us; more than in the things we choose!

We know that God does not have favourites and Mary was not the ‘favourite one’ but the ‘favoured one’ of God, which means in reality that her disposition to God found favour with him. He knew that she would never turn him down. She found favour with God because of who she chose to be, a hand maid of the Lord.

Finally, Mary was not ‘blessed’ in the sense as we understand it today as one of having received comforts and privileges. This perhaps is how we use the word blessed when we exclaim, “how blessed am I”. Mary is just the opposite; her blessedness did not come with a list of privileges but with a role of responsibility. She is not blessed because she is going to be the Mother of God, or the Queen of Heaven, she is blessed because she believed and accepted THE word of God even though that call would have a sword pierce her heart.

Today she is crowned Queen of Heaven and we willingly accept her as our Queen