A Marian year is a designation given by the Catholic Church to calendar years in which Mary the mother of Jesus is to be particularly reverenced and celebrated. Marian years do not follow a set pattern; they may be declared by a bishop for his diocese, or a national conference of bishops for a country.
In Church history, only two international Marian years have been pronounced, by Pope Pius XII in 1954, and Pope John Paul II in 1987.[1] In both years, Marian devotion, Marian pilgrimages, and Marian meetings were promulgated.
In 1953, with the encyclical Fulgens corona, Pope Pius ordered a Marian year for 1954, the first in Church history. It was called to commemorate the centenary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The Marian year, which ran from December 1953 to December 1954,[2] was filled with Marian initiatives, in the areas of Mariology, cultural events, and charity and social gatherings.[3]
The Pope promoted appropriate sermons and discourses to explain Marian beliefs. The purpose was to increase the Faith of the people and their devotion to the Virgin Mother. Marian churches and Marian shrines all over the world, "or at least an altar, in which the sacred image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is enshrined" should invite to public services for the devotion of the Christian people.[5] The Pope invites especially to celebrations at the Grotto of Lourdes, "where there is such ardent devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived without stain of sin".[6]
On October 11, 1954, the feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pius XII issued the encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam establishing the feast of the Queenship of Mary.[7]
On New Year's Day 1987, Pope John Paul II initiated an international Marian year, from June 7, 1987 (Pentecost) to August 15, 1988 (the Feast of the Assumption),[8] in preparation of the forthcoming millennium.[1] According to Diarmuid Martin, of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, "The church has become extremely intellectual after the Second Vatican Council, and the Holy Father wants to bring back some of the traditional warmth that has gone out of fashion."[2]
The Pope published Redemptoris Mater, the longest Marian encyclical ever written by a Pontiff. Addressing Marian belief and Mariology for the beginning of the 21st century, the encyclical served as the "main teaching resource for our spiritual life and pastoral action during the Marian Year."[8] Bishop Gérard Dionne of the Edmundston said, "At a time when there are so many different forms of devotion and theological reflection about Mary that have not been officially approved by the Church, it is important to rely with confidence on the Pope's authoritative teaching."[8]
For the beginning of the Marian year, a large copy of the Madonna della Colonna was completed for outside Saint Peter's Square. Pope John Paul II had been approached by a student who told him that Saint Peter's Square was cold and incomplete without the portrait of the Blessed Virgin.[9]
