Roman Catholic Marian architecture

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Throughout history, Roman Catholics have continued to build churches to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, a large number of Roman Catholic churches dedicated to the Blessed Virgin exist on all continents, and in a sense, the progress of Roman Catholic Marian architecture tells the unfolding story of the development of Roman Catholic Mariology.

Contents 1 The beginnings 2 Progression of architecture and belief 3 Apparition based Marian churches 4 Gallery of Roman Catholic Marian churches 5 References 6 Notes

[edit] The beginnings

The New Testament suggests that the practice of meeting together had been an important part of the Christian faith from the very early days: "let us not give up the habit of meeting together… instead, let us encourage one another all the more” (Heb. 10:25). Prior to the fourth century, Christians worshiped in private due to persecutions. After the edict of Milan was issued in 313, Christian were permitted to worship openly and the veneration of Mary became public. In the following decades Cathedrals and churches were built for public worship. The first Marian churches in Rome date from the first part of the fifth century, Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Maria Antiqua and Santa Maria Maggiore.

Some of these early Marian churches now have the status of a papal basilica. For instance, the church of Santa Maria Maggiore is often personally used by the pope and the pope presides over the annual Feast of the Assumption of Mary, celebrated each August 15 at the basilica. Thus these Marian churches are part and parcel of the Roman Catholic traditions for the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

By modern standards, some of the early Roman churches, were quite modest. An example that still stands in Rome today is the church of Santa Maria Antiqua (i.e. ancient St. Mary) built in the 5th century in the Forum Romanum. Pope John VII used (the now seemingly modest) Santa Maria Antiqua in the early 8th century as see of the bishop of Rome. Other churches such as Santa Maria Maggiore have seen signiificant enhancement to their architecture over the centuries.

[edit] Progression of architecture and belief

Through the centuries, the progression of Medieval, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and eventually modern Marian church architectures may be viewed as a manifestation of the growth of Marian belief - just as the development of Marian art and music were a reflection of the growing trends in the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic tradition.

The construction and dedication of Marian churches also symbolize the general trend of a papal reign. For instance, the 1955 rededication of the church of Saint James the Great in Montreal with the new title Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral by Pope Pius XII was a reflection of the fact that he was called the most Marian pope. Indeed, just a year earlier, Pope Pius XII had proclaimed that title for the Virgin Mary in his 1954 encyclical Ad caeli reginam.^[1]

[edit] Apparition based Marian churches

Some of the very largest Roman Catholic Marian churches in the world did not start based on a decisions made by informed theologians in Rome but based on the statements of young and less than sophisticated young people about their religious experiences on remote (and often unheard of) hilltops. And there are remarkable similarities in the stories of these children.

Two cases in point are the largest Marian churches in Mexico and France, based on the reported Marian apparitions to a young Saint Juan Diego in Guadalupe Mexico in 1531 and Saint Bernadette Soubirous as a child in Lourdes in 1858. Both saints reported visions in which a miraculous lady on a hill asked them to request that the local priests build a chapel at that site of the vision. Both visions had a reference to roses and led to very large churches being built at the sites. Like Our Lady of Lourdes in France, Our Lady of Guadalupe is a major Catholic symbol in Mexico. And like the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe complex is one of the largest and most visited Catholic churches in the Americas.

Three Portuguese children, Lucia dos Santos, Jacinta Marto and Francisco Marto were equally young and without much education when they reported the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. The local administrator initially jailed the children and threatened that he would boil them one by one in a pot of oil. Yet, eventually with millions of followers and Roman Catholic believers, the reported visions at Fatima gathered respect and Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II voiced their acceptance of the supernatural origin of the Fatima events. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima is now a major Marian church in Europe.

And the trend has continued. The only approval for a Marian apparition in the 21st century was granted to the reported visions of Jesus and Mary by Benoite Rencurel in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus in France from 1664 to 1718. The approval was granted by the Holy See in May 2008. Again, in this case, a young Benoite Rencurel (who could not read or write) reported that a lady in white appeared to her on a remote mountain top in Saint-Étienne-le-Laus and asked her for a church to be built there.^[2][3][4][5]

[edit] Gallery of Roman Catholic Marian churches

Dates indicate the (often likely) first year of construction.

Speyer Cathedral Mariendom 1030, UNESCO Heritage	Bayeux Cathedral Notre-Dame de Bayeux, 1077	Cathedral of Chartres Notre-Dame de Chartres, 1145	Façade of Notre-Dame de Reims
Siena Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta 1215	Florence Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore 1296 UNESCO Heritage	Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Luxembourg 1613	Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral 1647
Basilica della Casa Santa, Loreto, Italy	Ettal Abbey Church of the Assumption (1330) 1776.	Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, 1864	Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica (1863).
Rosary Basilica in Lourdes, 1902	Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC, 1920	Frauenfriedenskirche Frankfurt 1927	Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 1974

[edit] References

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Ecclesiastical Architecture [1]

[edit] Notes