Statues of Our Lady: What Each Image of the Mother of God Means

A woman in a white gown with a blue sash, a crowned mother with the Child on her arm, a virgin with outstretched hands: every statue of Our Lady shows the same person and yet tells something different. Anyone looking for a statue of the Mother of God for the home soon faces the question of which image means what. This guide explains the six common forms, how to recognise them, their feasts in the 1962 calendar and the teaching of the Church on the veneration of sacred images.

What is a statue of Our Lady?

A statue of Our Lady is a carved, cast or moulded figure of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. It stands in churches, at wayside shrines and on the home altar in many Catholic houses, so that the faithful, on seeing it, think of the Mother of God and ask her intercession.

The Church has always approved images and statues of the Mother of God. In December 1563 the Council of Trent decreed that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God and of the other saints are to be had and kept, especially in churches, and that due honour and veneration are to be given them. The 1917 Code of Canon Law calls it ‘good and useful’ to invoke the saints and to venerate their images, and adds that above all others all the faithful should honour the Most Blessed Virgin Mary ‘with filial devotion’ (can. 1276).

A statue is nothing other than an image in three dimensions. The Rituale Romanum has its own blessing for images; its prayer speaks of images that are ‘sculpted or painted’ and expressly names sculpture.

Which images of Our Lady are there?

The common statues of Our Lady show the Immaculata, Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Sorrows, the Virgin and Child and the Queen of Heaven. To these is added the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Each image emphasises a different mystery in the life of the Mother of God.

These are the feasts as they stand in the calendar of the 1962 Missale Romanum; 11 October is the feast of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary. An overview of all our statues of the Mother of God shows how differently the same figure can appear.

What does the Immaculata with crescent moon and serpent mean?

The Immaculata shows the Most Blessed Virgin as conceived immaculate, free from original sin from the first moment of her conception. The crescent moon and crown of stars come from the Apocalypse, the serpent beneath her foot from Genesis. Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma on 8 December 1854.

In the Apocalypse there appears in heaven ‘a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars’ (Apoc 12:1). The Church reads this verse in the Mass of 11 February. In the Tract of this Mass, the chant before the Gospel which the Church sings in the pre-Lenten season from Septuagesima, we read: Felix es, sacra Virgo Maria … quae serpentis caput virgineo pede contrivisti, ‘Happy art thou, holy Virgin Mary, … who with virginal foot didst crush the serpent’s head’ (our translation).

Many statues of the Immaculata also show Mary with her hands slightly opened and lowered. Our Immaculata statue is of this type.

‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.’

Gen 3:15, Douay-Rheims

How do you recognise Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima?

Our Lady of Lourdes wears a white gown, a white veil and a sky-blue sash, her hands folded, the rosary on her arm. Our Lady of Fatima wears a white mantle with a gold hem, usually a crown, and likewise a rosary. Both statues recall apparitions recognised by the Church.

In these features, statues of Lourdes follow the description given by St Bernadette Soubirous. Henri Lasserre renders it thus in his book on Lourdes: a white gown, a sash ‘blue as the sky’, a white veil, a golden rose on each foot and a rosary of white beads on a golden chain. The apparitions took place in 1858; the Bishop of Tarbes recognised them on 18 January 1862.

At Fatima three shepherd children saw the Mother of God at the Cova da Iria from 13 May to October 1917. The Bishop of Leiria declared the apparitions worthy of belief in his pastoral letter of 13 October 1930 and officially permitted the devotion. On 13 May 1946 the Cardinal Legate of Pope Pius XII crowned the miraculous statue at Fatima. Our Fatima statue also wears a crown.

What do Our Lady of Sorrows, the Virgin and Child and the Queen of Heaven show?

Our Lady of Sorrows shows the Mother of God beneath the Cross, often with swords in her heart or with her dead Son in her lap. The Virgin and Child shows her as Mother of God. The Queen of Heaven wears crown and sceptre, because Christ, her Son, is King.

The swords of Our Lady of Sorrows go back to the prophecy of Simeon: ‘and thy own soul a sword shall pierce’ (Lk 2:35). On 15 September the Church keeps the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady and sings the Sequence, the chant before the Gospel, Stabat Mater dolorosa, ‘The sorrowful Mother stood’ (our translation). The Pietà, the Mother with the body of her Son, belongs to the same devotion.

The Virgin and Child shows the ground of all Marian devotion: the Most Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God. Against Nestorius, the Church at the Council of Ephesus in 431 confessed the Most Blessed Virgin as the God-bearer (Theotokos). Since the encyclical Ad caeli reginam of Pius XII of 11 October 1954, the Church has kept the feast of the Queen of Heaven on 31 May. In the Hail, Holy Queen she greets the Mother of God as ‘Queen, Mother of mercy’. The Immaculate Heart of Mary has its feast on 22 August; on 31 October 1942 Pius XII consecrated the Church and the whole human race to it.

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae; ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrymarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende, o clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Salve Regina. Latin according to Preces et pia opera (1952), no. 332, from the Roman Breviary; English in the wording of our Rosary prayer companion

Do Catholics worship a statue of Our Lady?

A statue of Our Lady is not worshipped. Adoration is due to God alone. The Church honours the Mother of God herself with a special veneration that stands above the veneration of the saints, and the statue is honoured only for the sake of the person it represents.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law distinguishes precisely: to God is due adoration (cultus latriae), to the Most Blessed Virgin hyperdulia, that is, the highest veneration due to a creature, and to the other saints dulia, the veneration of the saints. Images are due a veneration that refers to the person represented (can. 1255). The Council of Trent says that images are not venerated as if some divinity or power dwelt in them, nor is trust placed in them, as the heathen once did in their idols. The honour passes to the prototypes which they represent.

A statue therefore does not work of itself. Whoever prays before it turns to the Mother of God in heaven and asks her intercession with God.

Which statue of Our Lady suits your home?

Which statue of Our Lady suits you depends on your devotion. Those who pray the Rosary often choose Lourdes or Fatima; those who keep the liturgical year at the home altar, the Immaculata or Our Lady of Sorrows. For a chest of drawers or a wall shelf, a statue about 30 centimetres high is suitable.

Three questions help with the choice. Which mystery of the Mother of God is especially close to your heart? Is there a place of pilgrimage, a name day or a feast in your family that the statue should recall? And where is it to stand: on the home altar, in a child’s room or by a sickbed? Besides statues we also carry wall pictures of the Mother of God, such as the Mater Dolorosa wall picture, a Pietà after Michelangelo.

A statue for the home need not be blessed. The Rituale Romanum, however, allows any priest to bless an image or statue privately without the permission of the Ordinary, as a rule the bishop. The prayer of blessing says that God does not reject the sculpting or painting of images of the saints, so that as often as we look upon them with bodily eyes, we may contemplate and imitate their deeds and their holiness.

The Church then asks that whoever humbly venerates and honours the Most Blessed Virgin before it may, through her merits and intercession, obtain grace in this life and eternal glory. Blessed objects are treated with reverence and not put to profane use (CIC 1917, can. 1150).

Mentioned in this article Statue of Our Lady, Immaculata The Immaculate Conception, 31 cm high, made of resin and hand-painted in colour. View the statue

Frequently asked questions about statues of Our Lady