page_title: Catholic Marian church buildings
section_title: Churches, icons and devotions
hierarchical_section_title: Catholic Marian church buildings / Churches, icons and devotions
caption_attribution_description: Description: Basilika of Our Lady of Guadalupe (new), Mexico City Source: Picture taken by Jan Zatko, March the 16th, 2005
context_page_description: Roman Marian churches are religious buildings dedicated to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These churches were built throughout the history of the Catholic Church, and today they can be found on every continent including Antarctica. The history of Marian church architecture tells the unfolding story of the development of Roman Catholic Mariology.
  The construction and dedication of Marian churches is often indicative of the Mariological trends within a period, such as a papal reign. For instance, the 1955 rededication by Pope Pius XII of the church of Saint James the Great in Montreal, with the new title Mary, Queen of the World, Cathedral, was a reflection of his being called "the most Marian pope". A year earlier, Pope Pius XII had proclaimed that title for the Virgin Mary in his 1954 encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam. This encyclical on the Queen of Heaven is an example of how the interplay between churches and Marian art reinforces the effect of Marian devotions.
context_section_description: Major Marian churches at times house major Marian symbols or icons and the interplay between churches and these symbols can reinforce the effect of Marian devotions. For instance, the Borghese or Pauline Chapel of the Santa Maria Maggiore church houses Salus Populi Romani, which has historically been the most important Roman Catholic Marian art icon in Rome. On 1 April  1899, Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) celebrated his first Holy Mass there. Almost 50 years later, in 1953, Pius XII had Salus Populi Romani carried from Santa Maria Maggiore through Rome to initiate the first Marian year in Church history. In 1954, the icon was crowned by Pius XII as he introduced a new Marian feast Queenship of Mary  with the encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam.
  Perhaps the ultimate example of this interplay is on Tepeyac hill, in Mexico, the site of the reported apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill houses the tilma (cloak) of Saint Juan Diego on which the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is said to have been miraculously imprinted, where he had gathered roses. Saint Juan Diego's tilma is a key national and religious icon in Mexico. The series of Marian churches on Tepeyac hill that have housed the tilma since 1531 have received an ever-increasing number of pilgrims and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe (one of the largest churches in the world) was constructed in 1974 to accommodate the over 5 million pilgrims that arrive there every year.
caption: Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe
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