The Essay - Visions of Mary - John Haldane

Professor John Haldane of St Andrews University looks at the origins and meaning of the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Catholicism, considering her unique status as chief among the saints, and looking at how her elevation has been received and sometimes criticised. On the only two occasions on which papal infallibility has been invoked it was in the definition of dogmas regarding Mary: first, the Immaculate Conception (that she was conceived without the stain or wound of original sin) defined in 1854, and second the Assumption (that at the end of her life she was 'taken up' body and soul into heaven), defined in 1950. Yet Mary has humble beginnings in the gospels where she is only mentioned in a handful of passages, which makes the large, complex and ornate edifice of Catholic 'Mariology' all the more intriguing in its evolution. Professor Haldane explores the early textual sources and art history of her rise.