page_title: Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church
section_title: Feast days
hierarchical_section_title: Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church / Feast days
caption_attribution_description: English: Azzano San Paolo, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy - procession on the Feast of the Holy Rosary Italiano: Azzano San Paolo, Bergamo - processione per la festa del santo rosario
context_page_description: In the Catholic Church, the veneration of Mary, mother of Jesus, encompasses various Marian devotions which include prayer, pious acts, visual arts, poetry, and music devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Popes have encouraged it, while also taking steps to reform some manifestations of it. The Holy See has insisted on the importance of distinguishing "true from false devotion, and authentic doctrine from its deformations by excess or defect". There are significantly more titles, feasts, and venerative Marian practices among Roman Catholics than in other Western Christian traditions. The term hyperdulia indicates the special veneration due to Mary, greater than the ordinary dulia for other saints, but utterly unlike the latria due only to God.
  Belief in the incarnation of God the Son through Mary is the basis for calling her the Mother of God, which was declared a dogma at the Council of Ephesus in 431. At the Second Vatican Council and in Pope John Paul II's encyclical Redemptoris mater, she is spoken of also as Mother of the Church.
context_section_description: The earliest Christian feasts that relate to Mary grew out of the cycle of feasts that celebrated the Nativity of Jesus. By the 7th century a feast dedicated to Mary was celebrated just before Christmas in the churches of Milan and Ravenna in Italy. Over time, the number of feasts (and the associated titles of Mary) and the venerative practices that accompany them increased and today the Catholic Church has more Marian feasts, titles, and venerative practices than any other Christian body. Marian feasts have continued to be developed in the Catholic Church, e.g. the feast of the Queenship of Mary was declared in the 1954 in the papal encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam by pope Pius XII.
  Catherine of Siena, adopted the custom of dedicating Saturday to Mary. The month of October was established as the "month of the Rosary" by Pope Leo XIII, who recommended daily Rosary devotions in October.
  During the month of May, May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary take place in many Catholic regions. These may include the singing of Marian anthems, crowning of statues of Mary with floral wreaths, readings from scriptures, a sermon, and or presentation by local choirs. The month is also associated with reflection on the Virgin Mary's role as the ideal disciple who sheds light on the Christian way of life, and theologian Karl Rahner stated: "When we are involved in our May Devotions, we are engaged in a Christian understanding of the human situation."
  The Roman Catholic Church celebrates three Marian solemnities which are also holy days of obligation in many countries during the liturgical year (in liturgical order):
  December 8 Feast of the Immaculate Conception
  January 1 Mary, Mother of God
  August 15 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  Among the other prominent Marian feast days and memorials in the General Roman Calendar of the Catholic Church are:
  December 12 Our Lady of Guadalupe
  February 11 Our Lady of Lourdes
  May 13 Our Lady of Fátima
  May 31 Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  Immaculate Heart of Mary (Saturday after Sacred Heart of Jesus)
  August 22 Queenship of Mary
  September 8 Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
caption: A Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary procession during October in Bergamo, Italy
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