Redemptoris Mater Latin for 'Mother of the Redeemer' Encyclical ofPopeJohn Paul II
Signature date	25 March 1987
Subject	The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church
Pages	95
Number	6 of 14 of the pontificate
Text	In Latin In English
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Redemptoris Mater (Latin:Mother of the Redeemer) is anencyclical byPope John Paul II delivered on March 25, 1987 inSaint Peter's Basilica inRome. SubtitledOn the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church, the text addresses a number of topics inMariology.

Redemptoris Mater, which the Pope called his "reflection on the role of Mary in the mystery of Christ and on her active and exemplary presence in the life of the Church"^[1] waspromulgated by John Paul II in connection with theMarian year declared for 1987/88.

The encyclical starts by discussing the special place of theBlessed Virgin Mary in the plan of salvation and continues to focus on Mary's role in theMystery of Christ in Part I of the encyclical.

Part II discusses Mary's role as theMother of God at the centre of the Pilgrim Church. "The Mother of that Son, therefore, mindful of what has been told her at the Annunciation and in subsequent events, bears within herself the radical "newness" of faith: the beginning of the New Covenant."^[2] This is built on later in Part III wherePope John Paul II confirmed the title,Mother of the Church, proclaimed byPope Paul VI at theSecond Vatican Council on November 21, 1964. This encyclical states:

Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church's model.

Part III also deals withMaternal Mediation and the role of the Virgin Mary as aMediatrix. The pontiff said:

Thus there is a mediation: Mary places herself between her Son and mankind in the reality of their wants, needs and sufferings. She puts herself "in the middle," that is to say she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows that as such she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind, and in fact, she "has the right" to do so. Her mediation is thus in the nature of intercession: Mary "intercedes" for mankind.

The Pope notes the special honor in which Mary is held by the Orthodox Church and the ancient Churches of the East, and mentions the extensive artistic tradition which depicts her as the god-bearingTheotokos; theHodegetria, "she who shows the way"; and theEleusa, or Virgin of Tenderness.

This encyclical reflects the influence of SaintLouis de Montfort'sMarian teachings onPope John Paul II. The pontiff singled out Saint Louis (who also inspired the pontiff's mottoTotus Tuus) in this encyclical, saying that:

I would like to recall, among the many witnesses and teachers of this spirituality, the figure ofSaint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort who proposes consecration to Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means for Christians to live faithfully their baptismal commitments.

The seeds of this encyclical may be traced to the statement byPope John Paul II that as a young seminarian he "read and reread many times and with great spiritual profit" a work ofSaint Louis de Montfort and that:^[3][4]

"Then I understood that I could not exclude the Lord's Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God-Trinity"

In the conclusion to the encyclical the pontiff stated: "The Church sees the Blessed Mother of God in the saving mystery of Christ and in her own mystery".

• Marialis Cultus
• Catholic Mariology
• Mariological papal documents
• Redemptoris custos
• Lumen gentium

• Redemptoris Mater (English text from the Vatican website)

• Catholic spirituality
• 1987 documents
• 1987 in Christianity
• March 1987
• Encyclicals on the subject of Mary

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Latin-language text