Signum Magnum

Lastly, venerable brothers, we express the trust that, thanks to your encouragement, the clergy and the Christian people entrusted to your pastoral ministry will respond in a generous spirit to this exhortation of ours so as to demonstrate toward the Virgin Mother of God a more ardent piety and a firmer confidence. Meanwhile while we are comforted by the certainty that the glorious Queen of Heaven and our most sweet Mother will never cease to assist all and each one of her sons and will never withdraw from the entire Church of Christ her heavenly patronage, to you yourselves and to your faithful, as a pledge of divine favors and as a sign of our benevolence, we wholeheartedly impart the apostolic blessing.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter, on the 13th day of the month of May in the year 1967, the fourth of our pontificate.

Notes

1. Cf. Rev 12:1.

2. Cf. Epistle of Mass for the feast of the Apparition of Mary Immaculate, Feb. 11.

3. Cf. Acta Apostolica Sedis 57, 1965, pp. 1-67.

4. Cf. Lk 1:38.

5. Ibid., 1:46 and 48-49.

6. Radio message of Pius XII, May 13, 1946, given for the Christians of Portugal, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 38, 1946, p. 264.

7. Cf. chapter VIII, paragraph III, on the Blessed Virgin and the Church, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, pp. 62-65.

8. Cf. ibid. n. 53, p. 58.

9. Cf. ibid.

10. Ibid. n. 54, p. 59.

11. Ibid. n. 55. p. 59.

12. Ibid. n. 66, p. 65.

13. Allocution to the Council Fathers in the Vatican Basilica on the feast of the Presentation, third session of the Council, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 56, 1964, p. 1016.

14. Cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 66: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 65.

15. Cf. ibid., n. 67, p. 65.

16. Pius XII, encyclical letter Mediator Dei: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 38, 1947, p. 541.

17. Cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 66: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 65.

18. Ibid. n. 66, p. 65.

19. Ibid. n. 55, p. 60.

20. Ibid. n. 65, p. 64, also n. 63.

21. Cf. ibid. n. 58, p. 61; Leo XIII encyclical letter Adiutricem populi, Acts of Leo XIII, 15, 1896, p. 302.

22. Dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 58; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1967, p. 61.

23. Heb 7:25.

24. Cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 62: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 61.

25. Cf. Dom F. Mercenier, L'Antienne Mariale grecque la plus ancienne in Le Museon 52, 1939, pp. 229-233.

26. Cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 62: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 63.

27. Ibid. n. 65, p. 64.

28. Second Antiphon of lauds, feast of the Immaculate Conception.

29. Lk 1:38.

30. Cf. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:33.

31. Cf. St. Leo, martyr, letter, Lectis dilectionis tuae to Flavianum; PL 54, 759; idem, letter, Licet per nostros to Julian, Ep. Coensem: p. 54, 803; St. Hormisdas, Ep. Inter ea quae to Justinian, emperor, PL 63, 407; Lateran Council, October, 609, under Martin I, canon 3: Caspar, ZKG, 51, 1932, p. 88; Conc. Tolet. XVI, Symbol. article 22: J. Madoz El Simbolo del Concilio XVI de Toledo in Estudios Onienses, ser. I, volume 3, 1946; dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, nn. 52, 55, 57, 59, 63; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, pp. 58-64.

32. Cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I, q. 25, a. 6, ad. 4.

33. Cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 56; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 60.

34. Orat. 54, PL 158, 961.

35. Dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 67; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 66; confer St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part II-II, q. 81, a. 1, ad. 1; Part III, q. 25, aa. 1, 5.

36. Mt 12:50.

37. Cf. Titus 3:4.

38. Jn 8:29.

39. Cf. St. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. III, 22, 4: PG 959; St. Epiphanius, Haer. 78, 18: PG 42, 728-729; St. John Damascene, first homily on the birth of Mary: PG 96, 671 ss; dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 56; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, pp. 60-61.

40. Gal 4:4.

41. Lk 2:25-26.

42. Serm. 215, 1: PL 38, 1074.

43. 1 Cor 4:16.

44. Cf. Lk 1:48.

45. Cf. dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 61; Acta Apostolicae Sedis 57, 1965, p. 63.

46. Mk 1:15; cf. Mt 3:2; 4:17.

47. Lk 13:5.

48. Cf. Mt 25:41; dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, n. 48: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 57, 1965, p. 54.

49. Gal 2:20; cf. Eph 5:2.

50. Second homily super Missus est, n. 2: PL 183, 64.

51. Heb 13:8.

52. Dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium, nn. 53: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, n. 53, 57, 1965, p. 59.

53. Cf. discourses and radio messages of Pius XII, volume IV, pp. 260-262; cf. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 34, 1942, pp. 345-346.

54. cit. Apostolicae Sedis, 56, 1964, p. 1017.

55. Cf. oration for feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Aug. 22.