''Fulgens corona'' ("Radiant Crown") is an

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

, given at St. Peter's, Rome, on 8 September 1953, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the fifteenth year of his Pontificate. The encyclical proclaims a Marian year for 1954, to commemorate the centenary of the definition of the dogma of the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Mariology, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not def ...

of the Virgin Mary. ''Fulgens corona'' is significant as it contained the mariological

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

and his views on limits and challenges of mariology.

First Marian year

In September 1953,

inaugurated the Roman Catholic Church's First Marian Year, or "Little Holy Year," devoted to the Virgin Mary who had always been the object of his special veneration. He announced the Marian Year in his encyclical letter ''Fulgens corona''. The Marian year, the first in Church history, ran from December 1953 to December 1954,Koo, Samuel. "Marian Year Called Return to Tradition", ''The Washington Post'', February 21, 1987
/ref> Hundreds of thousands of Romans lined the route of the papal cortege when Pius XII, in one of his rare appearances in the streets of Rome, went to the Basilica of St. Mary Major to open the Marian Year on 8 December 1953, the 99th anniversary of the proclaiming of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary by Pope Pius IX. Pius XII begins by recalling his predecessor,

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

, who with "apostolic authority defined, pronounced and solemnly sanctioned "that the doctrine, which holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary at the first moment of her conception was, by singular grace and privilege of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the Human race, preserved from all stains of original sin, is revealed by God, and therefore to be firmly and resolutely believed by all the faithful." (Dogmatic bull '' Ineffabilis Deus'', of Dec. 8, 1854.)" The celebration also acknowledged the 1950 declaration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.

links the solemn definition of the

with the dogma of the Assumption Mary, promulgated in Pius's '' apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus'' of November 1, 1950. To Pius, the two doctrines are complementary.

Basic teachings

The Pope stated that the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

, herself seemingly wished to confirm the definition, since less than four years after, in the French town of Lourdes, she appeared at the grotto of Massabielle.“Fulgens Corona". ''The Furrow'', vol. 4, no. 11, 1953, pp. 662–664. JSTOR
/ref> Pius XII traced the doctrine of the

through Sacred Scripture and the early fathers. " is clearly apparent that there is only one among all holy men and women about whom it can be said that the question of sin does not even arise, and also that she obtained this singular privilege, never granted to anyone else, because she was raised to the dignity of Mother of God". " y honor and veneration which we may give to our Heavenly Mother undoubtedly redounds to the glory of her Divine Son, not only because all graces and all gifts, even the highest, flow from Him as from their primary source".

invited all Catholics to celebrate the Marian Year to be held the whole world over from the month of December 1953 until the same month of the coming year, and urged them to be mindful "that she repeats to each of us those words, with which she addressed the servers at the wedding feast of Cana, pointing as it were to Jesus Christ: "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye" (John. 2. 5) He further noted that in many places, Catholic clergy are "banished, or thrown into prison without just cause, or else are so harassed that they are unable to carry out their duties properly... in those same places they are not allowed to have their own schools and training colleges, that they cannot publicly teach, defend or propagate Christian doctrine in periodicals or commentaries, and cannot properly train the youth in accordance with the same doctrine." He asks for worldwide special prayers, that the sacred rights which are proper to the Church, and which the very exercise of human and civil liberty demands, may be openly and sincerely recognized by all.

Quote

"And so these two very singular privileges, bestowed upon the Virgin Mother of God, stand out in most splendid light as the beginning and as the end of her earthly journey; for the greatest possible glorification of her virgin body is the complement, at once appropriate and marvelous, of the absolute innocence of her soul, which was free from all stain; and just as she took part in the struggle of her only-begotten Son with the wicked serpent of Hell, so also she shared in His glorious triumph over sin and its sad consequences."

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
, Mariological encyclicals and bulls

Encyclical ''Deiparae Virginis Mariae'' on the Vatican website
*

**[https://web.archive.org/web/20090317235459/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_29061943_mystici-corporis-christi_en.html Encyclical ''Mystici Corporis Christi'' on the Vatican website] *
Apostolic Constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' on the Vatican website
*

Acta Apostolicae Sedis ''Acta Apostolicae Sedis'' (Latin for 'Acts of the Apostolic See'), often cited as ''AAS'', is the official gazette of the Holy See, appearing about twelve times a year.Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ), a ...

. (AAS), Vatican City 1939-1958. Official documents of the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII, ''Fulgens corona'' 1953, 577

References

Bibliography

* {{Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII Mariology Encyclicals of Pope Pius XII 1953 in Christianity 1953 documents September 1953