History's Queen

Exploring Mary's Pivotal Role from Age to Age

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Pub Date 11 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 12 Jan 2021
Ave Maria Press | Ave Maria Prss

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Description

The Virgin Mary’s part in history doesn’t begin and end with her yes to God. Popular Catholic author Mike Aquilina points out that Mary is at the center of history from creation to the end of time and everywhere in between. In History’s Queen, you’ll learn about the many ways the mother of humanity has left her mark on the great events of time, not only as we see them in the Bible, but also in pivotal events such as Fatima, the battle of Lepanto, and the plague.

In this journey through two thousand years of Mary’s active participation in world events, each chapter of History’s Queen highlights a Marian intervention that is emblematic of a particular era, and opens our eyes to the ways in which Mary provides a vital key for understanding both our past and our future.

Mike Aquilina—author of The History of the Church in 100 Objects and editor of the Reclaiming Catholic History series—provides a fresh, fascinating, and classical view of history to today’s readers, exploring:

· Mary’s centrality in the Church Fathers’ view of history;

· Mary’s role in preserving Byzantium during the explosive rise of Islam;

· Marian devotion in medieval Ireland that inspired generations of great missionaries;

· Mary’s role in military victories at Lepanto and Vienna; and

· the message of peace received by three shepherd children in Fatima that sustained the world through a century of unprecedented violence and apostasy.

The Virgin Mary’s part in history doesn’t begin and end with her yes to God. Popular Catholic author Mike Aquilina points out that Mary is at the center of history from creation to the end of time...


A Note From the Publisher

Mike Aquilina is a Catholic author, speaker, poet, and songwriter who serves as the executive vice president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He is a contributing editor to Angelus News and his podcast, Way of the Fathers, drops twice monthly at CatholicCulture.org.

Aquilina is the author or editor of more than sixty books, including The Fathers of the Church, The Mass of the Early Christians, and Angels of God. Aquilina has cohosted eleven series on EWTN and hosted two documentaries. Aquilina wrote the companion volumes to the NBC miniseries A.D.: The Bible Continues (2015) and the MGM remake of the movie Ben-Hur (2016). His book A History of the Church in 100 Objects earned an honorable mention in the 2018 Catholic Press Association awards. He is the editor of the Reclaiming Catholic History series and wrote The Church and the Roman Empire (301-490).

He has published hundreds of articles, essays, and reviews in periodicals such as First Things, Crisis, National Catholic Register, The Priest, Columbia, and Our Sunday Visitor. He is a frequent guest on TV and radio, including a weekly appearance on the Son Rise Morning Show.

Aquilina previously served as editor of New Covenant magazine and The Pittsburgh Catholic. He has received honors from the Catholic Press Association, including “Best Magazine” for New Covenant during his editorship and best book in the category of biography.

Mike Aquilina is a Catholic author, speaker, poet, and songwriter who serves as the executive vice president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He is a contributing editor to Angelus News...


Advance Praise

“Drawing on Scripture, Catholic tradition, popular devotion, and some of the most significant moments of Mary’s miraculous intercession, Mike Aquilina’s insightful and engaging History’s Queen provides us with an opportunity for deepening our love for the Mother of God and growing our understanding of Mary’s unique role in salvation history.”
Michael O’Neill 
The Miracle Hunter 
Coauthor of Virgin, Mother, Queen 

“A very impressive book that is much needed in our time.”
Steve Weidenkopf 
Adjunct Professor 
Christendom College Graduate School of Theology
Author of Timeless: A History of the Catholic Church 

“Mary has been central to the history of Christianity since the beginning when Luke painted her portrait in his infancy narratives. Theologically, devotionally, and culturally, Christianity is inconceivable without her. In History’s Queen Mike Aquilina deftly disentangles the various threads by which God wove Mary into the story of his Incarnation and love. It is a story that has delighted and challenged Christians from Genesis to Revelation and from antiquity to the present day, here told with sensitivity to its scriptural roots and its significance for how Christians define themselves through devotion to Mary as the Mother of God.”
Rachel Fulton Brown 
Associate Professor of History 
The University of Chicago 
Author of Mary and the Art of Prayer

“Drawing on Scripture, Catholic tradition, popular devotion, and some of the most significant moments of Mary’s miraculous intercession, Mike Aquilina’s insightful and engaging History’s Queen...


Available Editions

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ISBN 9781594719875
PRICE $16.95 (USD)

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Featured Reviews

When Mary says yes, the world changes.

I'm entirely desperate for a physical copy of this book now, so that I can see it in full, with all the beautiful illustrations I can only imagine.
Aquilina presents a history of Christianity, with Mary at the centre. For over two thousand years she has been the focus of fierce theological debate, countless pieces of art, relics and miracles. The sheer breadth of history here is staggering, and although I mourned to see vast swathes of it left untouched, what is here is both comprehensive and oddly moving.
The writing is both accessible and compelling, and Aquilina does his best to separate fact from fiction where possible, while acknowledging that is some cases there simply is no way to know.
My only issue, as mentioned, was simply that I wanted more. It is such an immense topic, and I can't blame Aquilina for cherry picking moments and scenes to save on words and research, but occasionally it's jarring. There's very little on the Catholic/Protestant tensions of the early 1500s - we see Martin Luther and his earliest arguments, but nothing of his later career, nothing on the English Reformation at all, and skip ahead almost directly to Lepanto (1571) and from there to the French Revolution (1789) with nothing of what happened in between. Given the absolute glut of art and mythmaking that was happening in Renaissance Europe, I was surprised to see it brushed off with barely a chapter.
It's a small criticism of what is otherwise a genuinely wonderful, thought-provoking book. Mary is beautifully presented here as the world's mother; full of grace and infinite love.

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An excellent book about the Virgin Mary. This is, most importantly, a book of history, looking at not just theology and apparitions. It looks at the role Mary has played in so many things, from literature to battles to archetecture. It's divided nicely into chapters and has lots of resources for discovering more.

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I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley for an honest review.

This book is a great look at how Catholic’s have venerated Mary, the mother of Jesus, throughout the history of the Church and will leave you wanting to read more in depth about her.

Mike Aquilina takes you from the Annunciation all the way until the 20th century showing how the faithful have honored Mary and how she has had her hand in so many things. It was great to see how everything linked together like how the statue that was found near the river of Guadalupe and then the apparition of Mary to Juan Diego was named Our Lady of Guadalupe.

I liked that he makes it clear that Catholics do not worship Mary but rather venerate/honor her. He does mention some lay people take their devotion almost to the level of worship but that the Church has always said that worship is only for God.

I’m not sure if I would recommend this book to someone who has no understanding of Marian doctrine but I find it to be a great resource for those who accept Marian Doctrine. As a convert, I have struggled with Marian Doctrine but this book helped me to see just how Mary fits into history.

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Mike Aquilina has masterfully brought his talent for capturing the drama and narrative of history to bear on the subject of the Virgin Mary’s role in world history.

This work shines in its multifaceted treatment of Mary by examining her role in history, theology, architecture, art, literature and mysticism. Of particular note for the Catholic and non-Catholic reader is the Biblical and early Church exploration of Mary’s role in salvation history, which have been lost sight of over the centuries. Many readers will also find the section on Mary’s place in Islam and Iconoclasm to be of interest given modern issues related to Christian-Muslim relations and religious art within modern Catholicism and Christianity generally since the Reformation.

This is a solid introduction to the role of the Virgin Mary not just in Christianity, but in world history. It will open up avenues for the interested reader to pursue more deeply – and it will provide sustenance for the soul seeking greater encounter.

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this was a really unique read, I loved that this book was about the Virgin Mary, the writing style was really well done and I enjoyed how much research was done.

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What a wonderful gift to the world this book is!

As a convert to the Church, coming from a Baptist background, Marian Doctrine was a big struggle for me. I very much wanted to embrace the teachings on Mary, but was a bit wary. And while now I love Marian Doctrine, books such as History's Queen are a brilliant tool in my Catholic arsenal. Mike Aquilina has such an easy and friendly writing style, while still conveying the depth of the topic. History's Queen begins with the Annunciation and hits key points in our history, all while showing the part that Mary played in each situation. It was enormously fascinating, very eye-opening, and quite comforting as well. The author was also careful to point out (how I love him for it) that Catholics do not worship Mary, but only honor her. I loved this book immensely and would recommend it to anyone, regardless of how much they may or may not know about Mary. It is a joy to read and tremendously helpful.

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This book was so good! I really loved it a lot. I have read a lot of Marian books and this one ranks right up there with the best. Mike Aquilina takes the monumental task of going through Christian history with Mary at the center. It was beautifully written.

This book does what Mike Aquilina is great at: taking history and making it interesting by focusing in on specifics. Even if you don’t read a lot of history books, I would recommend reading this one for a great look at the role of Our Lady, the Mother of God, in the whole of history.

I don’t know that I can pick a favorite part of this book but I can say that I especially loved the parts on Lepanto and Fatima. Lepanto was the naval battle against the Moors where Our Lady was called Our Lady of Victory and from where we get the title Our Lady of the Rosary. It is a wonderful story. And I just love hearing the story of Fatima, the apparition of Our Lady to the shepherd children.

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