Blessed Virgin Mary

The Blessed Virgin Mary, sometimes shortened to The Blessed Virgin, is a traditional title specifically used by Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics and others to describe Mary, the mother of Jesus. It carries with it a belief not merely in the virginity of Mary, but of her continuing role within the church and in the life of ordinary Catholics, for which Roman Catholicism in the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (21 November 1964) passed during the Second Vatican Council granted her the title Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix. Colloquially she is often referred to as Our Lady or sometimes The BVM.

External links

• The Mary Page – maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton in Ohio
• Mariology.com
• site containing long list of other Marian sites
• Catholic Apparitions of Jesus and Mary Homepage
• The Fatima Center for a detailed look at the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima
• website about the alleged Zeitun apparitions, with photographs
• Pope John Paul's Encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae
• The academic and religious investigations into the photograph of a possible apparition in Portugal during Assumption 2003
• Politicizing the Virgin Mary (Skeptical Inquirer, Nov 2002 (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal)
• Anglo-Catholic (Church of England) website for the "Society of Mary"
• Apologetics Index research resources on Mariology
• Page on Pareidolia (the illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct.)
• Website mentioning use of the image of Mary by US tobacco companies to promote cigarettes
• Anno Domini – Link on the designation of Mary as 'Our Lady' in the late middle ages in an era of 'courtly love'
• BBC News report on Marian statue purportedly weeping blood
• Religious Tolerance webpage on Mary
• Right wing fringe US Catholic website based on apparitions and prophesies of Veronica Lueken
• Catholic Pages Directory entry on the Virgin Mary
• Catholic Apologetics of America
• Virgin Mary in Akita, Japan, and the persecution of syster Sasagawa by japanese clergy
• The Unknown Lives of Jesus and Mary from the Apocrypha and other little known sources.