Especially: Sacerdotium Mysticum Marianum[=‘The Mystical
Priesthood of Mary’], written before 1647, unpublished manuscript known
from later writers; Leonis Imperatoris Mariale [=‘Marian Commentary
according to Emperor Leo’], printed Rome 1651; and the Polyanthea
Mariana [=‘The anthology of Mary’s titles’], written in
1648, published in Cologne in 1683
Born in Torcilliano, Italy, Ippolito Marracci entered the order of the
Friars Regular of the Mother of God in 1621. When he was 34 years old he became
vicar general of his order, and looked after the parish of Santa Maria in
Campitelli. His main passion was research on Mary: he wrote 100 books on her of
which 32 were published and which contain valuable information about the
writings of earlier theologians that are now lost. He became known as a strong
proponent of Mary's Immaculate Conception, on account of which he was
investigated by the Holy Office. He was arrested and kept imprisoned in a
sjmall cell for many months.
Passages quoted in French by Réné Laurentin (in
Maria, Ecclesia, Sacerdotium, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, Paris
1952, pp. 327 - 336) and translated into English by John Wijngaards.
A synopsis of Marracci’s views from various texts shows that
(1) he calls Mary a ‘priest’ [=sacerdos] , a
‘priestess’ [sacerdotissa] and even ‘the priesthood’
[=sacerdotium]. (2) Mary’s priesthood is often, however,
qualified as a spiritual priesthood: ‘constituted a spiritual
priest’ . . . ‘she sacrificed as a spiritual priest’ . . . .
‘spiritual priestess’ . . . .‘consecrated to be a spiritual
priest’ . . . . ‘The Virgin was spiritually a priest’. (3)
The term ‘spiritual’ is explained as implying an interior anointing,
an anointing by the Holy Spirit: ‘The Blessed Virgin can be said to have
been anointed not externally but interiorly, and thus ordained a spiritual, not
a legal, priest.’ -- ‘The glorious Virgin, anointed not externally
but interiorly, was ordained a priest, not according to the law, but according
to the Spirit.’ -- ‘More than any other woman and differently, Mary
was anointed with invisible oil. Otherwise, how could Christ have been born
from a Virgin, unless the Virgin had been anointed with heavenly oil [=the oil
of the Holy Spirit].’ (4) At times he uses for this the synonym:
‘mystical priest’, which he derived from Andrew of Crete (740
AD).
“Mary possessed the dignity, the task and the office of the New
Testament priesthood . . . . At the Purification, Mary offered her Son to God
with priestly hands . . . . .With the hands of a priest she offered her Son to
God and through this sacrifice she herself was constituted a spiritual
priest.” Leonis Mariale, 1651, ‘No 1. In
Purificationem’, pp. 151-152.
“
The little that you would like to offer, make sure that you make it pass
through the very agreeable and very worthy hands of Mary, if you do not want to
risk a refusal . . . . It is to Mary that we must confide our goods and our
works of charity. Let us therefore offer today the good that we have done. Let
us offer it to his Son through the virginal hands of Mary in order to make a
refusal impossible. The Magi have made an offering, but it was by means of the
Virgin as Novatus proves. They showed therefore that we must offer through the
hands of Mary everything that we have in our heart to offer to God. Mary is in
fact, the golden thurible (Rev 8,3) through which we must offer to God in order
to please him, not only the incense of our prayers, but also of all our good
works. She is also the gate to heaven; she received our requests, our desires,
our sighs, our tears as arrows which she throws towards heaven, which she
plunges deeply into the heart of God. She is the spiritual priest through whose
very pure hands the sacrifices of our good works must be presented to God who
is so good and so great, in order that they not be rejected.” Leonis
Mariale, 1651, ‘No 8. In Purificationem’, pp. 154-157.
