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'Queen of Heaven' is a Roman title of the Ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis in antiquity, and in Roman Catholicism one of many titles given to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It may also refer to a Christian hymn.

Contents

Antiquity

Christianity

Christian hymn

See also

References

Antiquity

The Roman writer Apuleius' "Transformations of Lucius" gives us an understanding of Isis in the first century. The following paragraph is particularly significant.
"You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea breezes. though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names. . . some know me as Juno, some as Bellona . . . the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true name..Queen Isis."
Queen of Heaven is a natural title for goddesses central to many religions of antiquity. In Sumer Inanna was hailed as "Queen of Heaven" in the 3rd millennium BCE. In Akkad to the north, she was worshipped later as Ishtar. In the Sumerian Descent of Inanna, when Inanna is challenged at the outermost gates of the underworld, she replies
'I am Inanna, Queen of Heaven,
On my way to the East.'
Her cult was deeply embedded in Mesopotamia and among the Canaanites to the west.
In the early 6th Century BCE, some of the Israelites worshipped the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:16-30).

Christianity

Queen of Heaven (Latin ''Regina Caeli'') is one of a number of titles used particularly in the Roman Catholic Church for Mary, the mother of Jesus. The title is with reference to the Catholic dogma that at the end of her earthly life, Mary was bodily assumed into heaven, and is there honoured as Queen, for the sake of her Son. This follows the biblical precedent of ancient Israel, whose crown, it is held in Christianity, has passed to Jesus.
Luke 1:32
''He 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 father David.''
In the Old Testament kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the King might, like David or Solomon, have many wives. The title of Queen, therefore went not to any wife of the king, but to the mother of the king. 1 Kings 2 17-21, 1 Kings 15:13, Jeremiah 13:18. The Queen Mother was known in Hebrew as the ''gebirah''. Since Jesus is heavenly king, of the lineage of David and Solomon, Mary becomes Queen Mother.

The Roman Catholic Church also sees Mary crowned as queen in heaven in the Revelation 12, verses 1-5.
May crowning is a traditional Roman Catholic ritual that occurs in the month of May of every year. An image or likeness of the Blessed Virgin Mary is ceremonially crowned to signify her as Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God.

Christian hymn

Main articles: Regina Coeli

The ''Regina Caeli'' (''Queen of Heaven'') is an anthem of the Roman Catholic Church which replaces the Angelus at Eastertide (from Holy Saturday until the Saturday after Pentecost); it is named for its opening words in Latin.
Of unknown authorship, the anthem was in Franciscan use in the first half of the 13th century. Together with three other Marian anthems, it was incorporated in the Minorite Roman Curia Office, which the Franciscans soon popularized everywhere, and which by order of Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280) replaced all the older breviaries in the churches of Rome.

See also

Asherah

References

★ ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', 1912.