Fourteen
Marian Titles: Reparatrix, Dispensatrix, Mediatrix, Advocate, Supreme Minister of the distribution of graces
In his 1904
Marian Encyclical Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum, Saint
Pope Pius X wrote, “Hence that uninterrupted community of life
and labours of the Son and the Mother, so that of both might have been uttered
the words of the Psalmist "My life is consumed in sorrow and my years in
groans" (Ps xxx., 11). When the supreme hour of the Son came,
beside the Cross of Jesus there stood Mary His Mother, not merely occupied in
contemplating the cruel spectacle, but rejoicing that her Only Son was offered
for the salvation of mankind, and so entirely participating in His Passion,
that if it had been possible she would have gladly borne all the torments that
her Son bore (S. Bonav. 1. Sent d. 48, ad Litt. dub. 4)
And from this community of will and
suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world (Eadmeri
Mon. De Excellentia Virg. Mariae, c. 9) and Dispensatrix of all the gifts that Our
Saviour purchased for us by His Death and by His Blood.
It cannot, of course, be denied that the dispensation of these treasures is the particular and peculiar right of Jesus Christ, for they are the exclusive fruit of His Death, Who by His Nature is the Mediator between God and man. Nevertheless, by this companionship in sorrow and suffering already mentioned between the Mother and the Son, it has been allowed to the august Virgin to be the most powerful mediatrix and advocate of the whole world with her Divine Son (Pius IX. Ineffabilis). The source, then, is Jesus Christ "of Whose fullness we have all received" (John i., 16), "from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in charity" (Ephesians iv., 16). But Mary, as St. Bernard justly remarks, is the channel (Serm. de temp on the Nativ. B. V. De Aquaeductu n. 4); or, if you will, the connecting portion the function of which is to join the body to the head and to transmit to the body the influences and volitions of the head - We mean the neck. Yes, says St. Bernardine of Sienna, "she is the neck of Our Head, by which He communicates to His mystical body all spiritual gifts" (Quadrag. de Evangel. aetern. Serm. x., a. 3, c. iii.).
We are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of God a productive power of grace - a power which belongs to God alone. Yet, since Mary carries it over all in holiness and union with Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of redemption, she merits for us de congruo, in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us de condigno, and she is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces.
Jesus "sitteth on the Right Hand
of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews i. b.). Mary sitteth at the
right Hand of her Son - a refuge so secure and a help so trusty against all
dangers that we have nothing to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her
patronage, her protection. (Pius IX. in Bull Ineffabilis). “45
Thus, Mother Mary is acknowledged by Saint Pope Pius X as Reparatrix, Dispensatrix,
Mediatrix, Advocate and Supreme Minister of the distribution of graces.
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45. Vatican va. Ad diem
illum laetissimum. Numbers 12 to 14. 1904. Accessed 15 August 2026 https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-x/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_02021904_ad-diem-illum-laetissimum.html
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