The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This feast is, naturally, a parallel to the solemnity of Christ the King, just as the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary mirrors that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The latter was instituted by Pius XII in 1944 and, until the reform of the calendar, was celebrated on August 22, the octave day of the Assumption.

The feast of Mary as Queen was established later, in 1955, and originally kept on May 31. In the current calendar it has been moved to August 22, to place her queenship in closer relation to her Assumption and Glorification.