Priests of Mary: Saints Who Loved the Blessed Mother

by Fr. John Granato  |  08/17/2025  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends,

August has two of the most beautiful feast days in honor of our Blessed Mother; the Assumption and the Queenship of Mary. Besides these two important feast days, the Catholic Church calendar in August also celebrates the Dedication of the Basilica of Mary Major on August 5th. We also have memorials of seven saints that have a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother, beginning with St. Alphonsus Liguori (August 1st), St. Peter Julian Eymard (August 2nd), St. John Mary Vianney (August 4th), St. Dominic (August 8th), St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (August 14th), St. John Eudes (August 19th), and St. Bernard (August 20th).

These seven men have one other thing in common; they are all priests (St. Alphonsus is also a bishop and St. Bernard is an abbot). The Assumption, which is a Holy Day of Obligation, and which we celebrated last week, is the solemnity of our Blessed Mother being assumed into Heaven body and soul. As most solemnities or important saints traditionally and octave associated with them, the Queenship is the octave day of the Assumption, for it is the day we truly honor our Blessed Mother as Queen of Heaven and earth.

She is the new Ark of the Covenant for she is the tabernacle of our Lord who was nourished in her womb for nine months. And she would be the new Ark precisely because Jesus is the new covenant, in which the sign of the new covenant is Jesus’ paschal mystery, the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord, in which we participate by entering into Holy Communion as we consume his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we consume, was created by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spouse of the Blessed Mother, who conceived in her womb the Son of God.

The miracle of this life, which differs from the miracle of every other life created, is that this life was created with only one human person (Blessed Mary) who gives flesh to her child as she nourishes him in her womb, while every other life is given f lesh through the union of a man and a woman, a life that begins at the moment of conception for it is at conception that your unique DNA is created. As is the case in our Catholic faith, let us always turn to our Blessed Mother, Mary ever-Virgin, and honor her and love her, always aware that we could never honor her or love her as much as her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ does.

God bless!