There were 162 statues of saints in Saint Peter’s Square but not one image of Our Lady. This was Msgr. Josemaria Escriva’s side remark to Pope John Paul II during gathering of university students from different part of the world in Rome in 1980.
Pope John Paul II answered, “Then, we should finish the square.”
Msgr. Alvaro Portillo, who succeeded Escriva, requested Javier Coleto, a Spanish architect for solutions, to the remark of Pope John Paul II.
A window of a building between Saint Peter’s Square and Cortile di San Damaso was chosen as a site of the mosaic since it could be seen as part of the square.
On December 7, 1981, the mosaic Mater Ecclesiae (Our Lady, Mother of the Church) was installed—the “last stone in Saint Peter’s open field to finish the square.”
On February 11, 2018, Pope Francis decreed that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, be inserted into the Roman Calendar and celebrated on Monday after the Pentecost every year.
Mother of God
The debate if Mary would be honored as Theotokos (God bearer), or Christokos (Mother of God), was decided during the third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431.
It was agreed that Mary would be given the title Theotokos, for to deny her this title would imply Jesus has two separate personhoods. Theotokos affirms Jesus’ undivided divinity and humanity.
To commemorate the event, Pope Sixtus III (432-440) had the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the largest church in Rome, built.
The Basilica enshrines Salus Populi Romani (Salvation of the Roman People), a famous icon of the Blessed Mother. It was painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist using a wooden table in Nazareth.
Birth of the Church
Regarded as a “perfect pattern of a church in prayer,” the church is traditionally portrayed as the apostle and disciples, members of the church who prayed together with the Blessed Mother during the Pentecost (Acts 2:1-12). They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And the apostolic mission of the church started.
They were “commissioned to preach to the people” the words of God (Acts 10:42) on the birthday of the church—that first Pentecost.
The title Mater Ecclesiae was used by Saint Ambrose of Milan as early as the fourth century, and used by many bishops and saints through the centuries. Pope Leo XIII, in encyclical Adiutricem Populi (Helper of the People) in 1895, invoked Mary as Mother of the Church.
The title Mother of the Church was, however, officially given the Mother of God during the closing of the third session of the Second Vatican Council on November 21, 1964, by Pope Paul VI.
Pope John Paul II, in summary, said Mary is the Mother of Christ whom Christ, “in the mystery of Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the apostle John.”
In his encyclical Redemptoris Mater on March 25, 1987 he said, “Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church embraces each and everyone in the church and embraces everyone through the church.”
Pope Benedict XVI elucidated that “the church is Virgin and Mother, she is Immaculate and carries the burdens of history…. Mary is her mirror and is carrying the mystery of the church.”
Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna and Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.