THE QUEENSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY is celebrated on August 22, the Octave of the Assumption.
In his 1954 encyclical
Ad caeli reginam ("To the Queen of Heaven"), Pius XII asserts that Mary deserves the title
Queen of Heaven because she is the Mother of God; because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus' redemptive work; because of her preeminent perfection; and because of her intercessory power. That is why St. John Damascene wrote: "When she became Mother of the
Creator, she truly became Queen of every
creature.”
In the New Testament, the title
Queen of Heaven has several biblical sources. At the Annunciation, the archangel Gabriel announces that [Jesus] "... will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end" (Luke 1:32).
The biblical precedent in the Old Testament times is that in ancient Israel
the mother of the king becomes the queen mother. Mary's Queenship is therefore a share in Jesus’ Kingship.
Pius XII stated, “Jesus is King throughout all eternity by nature and by right of conquest: through Him, with Him, and
subordinate to Him, Mary is Queen by grace, by divine relationship, by right of conquest, and by singular choice [of the Father].”