HOLY NAME OF MARY

Day 125: September 12

Holy Name of Mary

On this day, the ineffable love of the Mother of God toward her most holy Son is commemorated, and the figure of the Mother of the Redeemer is proposed to the faithful to be devoutly invoked.

The feast of the holy name of Mary was granted by Rome in 1513 to a diocese in Spain, Cuenca. Suppressed by St. Pius V, it was restored by Sixtus V and extended in 1671 to the Kingdom of Naples and Milan. On Sept. 12, 1683, John III Sobieski and his Polish army defeated the Turks besieging Vienna and threatening Christendom. Blessed Innocent XI, in thanksgiving, extended the feast to the universal Church and fixed it on the Sunday between the Octave of the Nativity. St. Pius X restored it to September 12.

In the history of exegesis, there have been different interpretations of the meaning of Mary’s name:

1) “BITTERNESS” – MIRYAM

Some rabbis have given this meaning: they derive the name MIRYAM from the root MRR = in Hebrew “to be bitter.” These rabbis claim that Mary, sister of Moses, was named so because, when she was born, Pharaoh began to make the lives of the Israelites bitter and made the decision to kill the Hebrew children.

Christians can accept this interpretation by considering how much pain and bitterness Mary endured in cooperating in our redemption: [Lam. 1:12] You all who pass by the way, consider and observe whether there is any sorrow like my sorrow…

Moreover, the devil, of whom Pharaoh is a figure, makes war on the woman’s lineage, making life bitter for Mary’s true devotees, who, for that matter, fear nothing, protected by their Queen.

2) “MISTRESS AND LADY OF THE SEA” – MOREH-YAM

According to this interpretation, Mary’s name would derive from MOREH (Heb. Mistress-Mistress) + YAM (= sea): as Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron, was a teacher of the Hebrew women in the Red Sea passage and a Teacher in the song of Victory.

Then Mary, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a kettledrum in her hand: behind her came out the women with kettledrums, forming choruses of dances. Mary made them sing the refrain, “Sing to the Lord, for he has marvelously triumphed: he has thrown horse and rider into the sea!” (cf. Ex 15:20-21).

Thus, “Mary is the Teacher and the Lady of the sea of this century, which she makes us cross leading us to heaven” (St. Ambrose, Exhort. ad Virgines)

Other ancient authors who suggest this interpretation are Philo, St. Jerome, and St. Epiphanius. This typological parallel between Mary, sister of Moses, and Mary, mother of God, is taken up by Pseudo Augustine, who calls Mary “tympanistria nostra” (Mary, sister of Moses and the kettledrum player of the Hebrews, Mary Most Holy is the tympanistria nostra, that is, of the Christians: the N.T. canticle of Moses would be the Magnificat, sung precisely by Mary).

This interpretation is supported today by Fr. Le Deaut, one of the greatest connoisseurs of the Tergumic and Hebrew literature. According to this author, St. Luke would have voluntarily made this parallelism.

3) “ILLUMINATRIX, STAR OF THE SEA” – M’OR-YAM.

According to this interpretation, Mary’s name would be derived from the nominal (or participial) prefix M + ‘OR (Hebr.= light) + YAM (= sea): Thus, St. Gregory the Wonderworker, St. Isidore and St. Jerome (along with the former).

Some authors believe that St. Jerome did not interpret the name as “star of the sea” but as “still maris,” a drop of the sea.

The presence of the root of “sea” in Mary’s name has suggested various interpretations and comparisons of Mary with the “sea”: Peter of Celles (+1183) Mary = “sea of graces”: hence Montfort takes up: “God the Father gathered all the waters and called them sea, He gathered all graces and called them Mary” (True Devotion, 23).

Qohelet 1:7: “all rivers enter the sea”; St. Bonaventure argues that all the graces (= all the rivers) that the angels, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins had, “flowed” into Mary, the sea of graces. St. Bridget says, “This is why Mary’s name is sweet to angels and terrible to demons.”

Ave maris stella, Dei Mater alma, atque semper virgo, Felix coeli porta…” -This hymn seems to be a meditation on Mary’s name, in relation to Mary, sister of Moses: “Ave maris stella” (cf. meaning 3); “Dei Mater ALMA atque semper virgo”: Mary, sister of Moses, is called in Ex 2:8, `ALMAH = “virgin” and, etymologically “hidden”; “Felix coeli porta,” i.e., “mistress of the sea” of this century that she makes us cross (cf. meaning 2)

4) SEASONAL RAIN – MOREH

According to this interpretation, Mary’s name would be derived from MOREH (Heb. FIRST SEASONAL RAIN). Mary is regarded as She who sends a rain of grace from heaven” and ‘rain of grace herself.’

This interpretation, which C. A Lapide attributes to Pagninus, is taken up in part by St. Louis de Montfort in the Burning Prayer:” commenting on Ps. 67:10 “pluviam voluntariam elevasti Deus, hereditatem tuam laborantem tu confortasti” (A plentiful rain O God you set aside for your inheritance), Montfort says: “What is it, Lord, this abundant rain that you have set apart and chosen to invigorate your exhausted inheritance? Are not these holy missionaries, children of Mary your bride, whom you must choose and gather for the good of your Church so weakened and stained by the sins of her children?” Mary, a shower of graces, will form and send a shower of missionaries to earth.

5) HEIGHT – MAROM

According to this interpretation, Mary’s name would be derived from MAROM (Hebr. HIGHNESS, EXCELSIS): Caninius supported this hypothesis among the ancients and Vogt among the moderns, especially on the basis of recent discoveries of Ugaritic texts, which have enabled the understanding of many Hebrew roots.

Luke 1:78 per viscera misericordiae Dei nostri in quibus visitavit nos oriens EX ALTO - this verse, based on the Greek text and the retroversion into Hebrew, can be translated: visited us from above a rising sun: Christ is the rising sun that comes from above (the Father) or visited us a rising sun “from above” = from Mary.

Which of these hypotheses is the right one? Perhaps Providence has left us in doubt because in Mary’s name we can find at the same time all the meanings that the analogy of faith suggests.

Let Us Pray with St Justin Russolillo

O most holy Mary, virgin Mother of God and also our mother through Jesus! We call upon you night and day, we call upon you morning and evening, blessed be the Lord, God-Trinity that has so much magnified your name, that your praise resounds in all the world from human lips, in every circumstance of life.

In the words of your praise, O most holy Mary, and in every invocation of your name it is not absent the heart of your children, because you are loved, O Mary! You are the first lover of the Lord, and you are the first beloved by the Lord, and also the first lover and the first beloved of the Christians.

Hail Mary...

For this your name resounds in all the world by divine will, since it expresses your love to God, which was essentially all your life, O lover of God! Now the Lord wants that every soul may be all loving and all love, may be worthy to call itself Mary!

O Mary, O Mary! That also our names may be pleasing to the Lord. May my name be in his heart as sign of his faithful servant and of an affectionate friend, as the name of a dear daughter and of a soul-spouse! O Mary, may in our names in heaven resound your name and the name of Jesus.

Hail Mary...

O most holy Mary, virgin mother of God! In your name resounds the name of Jesus and the very name of God, and at your name, as at name of Jesus and of God, hell trembles, the enemy runs away, the tempest calms down, the heaven opens and your angels come to our aid, O Mary!

If at the name of Jesus every knee must bend in heaven, on earth and under the earth, at your name every soul in exile feels lifted, every heart feels consoled and every elect in the heavenly home exults in the joy of glory! O Mary, free us from the abyss where everything and everyone trembles at the sound of your holy name!

Hail Mary...

O most holy Mary! All the great and sweet things that the saints say about you in heaven are epitomized and recalled by your name; but it tells us, above all, what you are, the most holy virgin mother of God! Blessed be the name of Mary virgin and mother! Blessed are you among women, for the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus!

Mary, grant us to call upon you with increasing faith and confidence, love and gratitude, and not only with the tone of fear that calls for liberation, of sorrow that calls for consolation, of death that calls for life! We want to call you with the voice of the heart of Jesus, the holy child, the divine adolescent, your Son-God!

Hail Mary...

(Devotional, Vocationist Fathers Edition, 2009, Thrissur, India, pp. 370-371)