MARIOL'ATRY (Gr. Maria, and latreia, adoration), a name given by polemical writers to the -worship paid by Roman Catholics to the Virgin Mary. This name is intended to imply that the Catholic worship of the Virgin is the supreme worship of latreia or adora tion, which Catholics earnestly disclahn, although, from her relation to our Lord, they hold her worship, which they style hyperdulia, to be higher than that of all other saints. See INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 3fany examples of prayers addressed to Mary, of ficts of worship done in her honor, and of expressions employed regarding her are alleged by controversialists, for the purpose of showing that the worship of 3Iary in the Roman church is in effect " adoration." Such are (see Farrar's Ecclesiastic& Dictionary, p. 372) the " Litany of the Sacred Heart of Mary ;" the adaptation of the Athanasian creed as a profession of faith regarding her; addresses to her as the "hope of the desponding, and refuge of the destitute;" professions that " her son has given her such power that what ever she wills is immediately done;" kneeling and prostrations before her irnage; pil grimages in her honor. To these and similar allegations, Roman Catholics reply that many of the objected prayers and devotional practices are entirely unauthorized by the church, and that some of them are undoubtedly liable to misinterpretation; but they fur ther insist that all such prayers, however worded, are to be understood, and are, in fact, understood by all Roman Catholics, even ordinarily acquainted with the principles of. their faith, solely as petitions for the intercession of 3fary, and as expressions of reli ance, not on ber own power, but on the efficacy- of her prayers to her son. It would ba out of place in this work to enter into such controversies, and we shall content ourselves with a brief account of the origin and nature of the `worship Of the Virgin 3fary in the church, and of its present condition, as it is professed by those religious bodies among which the practice now prevails.
Although no trace is found in the New Testament of any actual worship of the Vir gin 3Iary, yet Roman Catholic interpreters regard the language of the angel Gabriel, who saluted her as "full of grace," or highly " favored," and as blessed " among women," and her own prediction in the canticle of the inagnificat, that " all nations should call her blessed" (Luke i. 48), as a foreshadowing of the practice of their church; and they rely equally on the language employed by the early fathers, as, for instance, Irenxus, regarding the Virgin, although Protestants consider it as having. reference to the incar nation. But it seems quite certain that, during the first ages, the invocation of the Virgin and the other saints must have held a subordinate place in Christian worship; the reason for which, according to Roman Catholics, was probably the fear which was entertained of reintroducing among the recent converts from paganism the polytheistic notions of their former creed. But from the dine of the triumph of Christianity in the 4th c., the
traces of it become more apparent. St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his panegyric of the virgin martyr Justina, tells, that in her of peril she " implored Mary the Virgin to come to the aid of a virgin 'in her danger " (Opp. tome i. pp. 278, 279). St. Ephraim, the Syrian, in the same age, uses language which is held by Roman Catholics to be equally favorable to their view; and the fact that about this time there arose'a sect, the Colly ridians, who were condemned for the actual adoration of the Virgin, seems to them to prove that some worship of her must have existed in the church, out of which this .excessive worship of the Collyridians grew. But it was only after the heresy of Nes torius that the worship of Mary seems to have obtained its full development. His denial to her of the character of mother of God, and the solemn affirmation of that character by the ecumenical council of Ephesus (430 A.o.), had the effect at once of quickening the devotion of the people, and drawing forth a more marked manifestion on the part of the church of the belief which had been called into 'question. The 5th and 6th centuries, both in the east and in the west, exhibit clear evidence of the practice; and the writers of each succeeding age till the reformation speak with gradually increasing enthusitism cf the privileges of the Virgin Mary, and of the efficacy of her functions as a mediator with her son. St. Bernard, and, still more, St. Bonaventura, carried this devotional -enthusiasm to its greatest height; and the popular feeling found a stronger and still more strong manifestation in the public worship of the church. From a very early period, we find several festivals of the " blessed Virgin ;" but iu the centuries to which we refer, the number received large additions. The institution of the " Rosary of the Virgin Mary," the appointment of a special office in her honor, and more than all, the fame of many of the sanctuaries which were held to be especially sacred to her wor .ship, gave a prominence to the devotion which Protestants find it difficult to reconcile with the honor which they hold due to God alone.
The chief festivals of the Virgin, common to the western and eastern churches, are the conception, the nativity, the purification, the annunciation, the visitation, and the assumption. All these festivals are retained in the English calendar. The Roman church has several special festivals, with appropriate offices--all, however, of minor solemnity.