11 October


. . .is the feast in the traditional calendard of the Motherhood of Mary. The new calendar has much the same feast on the first of January which is listed as The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

The old second nocturn at Matins gives the background for today's feast:

"In the yar 1931 a jubilee marking the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus was celebrated to the great joy of the whole Catholic world. The fathers at that Council, under the guidance of Pope Celestine, formally condemned the errors of Nestorius and declared as Catholic faith the doctrine that the Blessed Virgin Mary, who gve birth to Jesus, was truly the Mother of God. Prompted by holy zeal, Pope Pius XI determined that the memory of so important an event continue alive in the Church. Accordingly he ordered the renovation of Rome’s famous memorial to the Council of Ephesus, namely, the triumphal arch and transept in the Basilica of St. Mary Major on the Esquiline. His predecessor Pope St. Sixtus III (432-440) had embellished that arch with a beautiful mosaic, but time had done it damage.

In an encyclical Pius XI, morerover, underscored the principal teachings of the General council at Ephesus, developing in detail and with loving affection the singular privilege of divine Motherhood granted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. For so sublime a mystery should ever become more firmly anchored in the hearts of the faithful. At the same time the Pope singled out Mary, the Mother of God and the one blessed among women together with the holy Family of Nazareth as the foremost model of the dignity and sanctity of chaste married life and for the religious education of youth. Lastly, in order that this event should likewise have its liturgical memorial, the Pope decreed that a feast in honor of the divine Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a proper Mass and Office rated as a double of the second class be celebrated annually throughout the Church on October 11.”
-quoted text is taken from Pius Parsch's "The Church's Year of Grace", volume V, pp 277-8.