The Legion of Mary was founded by Frank Duff, a Servant of God, on Sept. 7, 1921. The Legion of Mary honours Our Lady under the title of “Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of all Graces.”

In his 1894 Rosary encyclical Iucunda Semper Expectatione, Pope Leo XIII emphasized Our Lady as “Mediatrix of Divine grace.” He wrote:

“The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace; being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and, therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven. Now, this merciful office of hers, perhaps, appears in no other form of prayer so manifestly as it does in the Rosary.”

Leo XIII invited the faithful to contemplate the Blessed Mother as “Mediatrix of Divine grace” in the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary:

“First come the Joyful Mysteries. The Eternal Son of God stoops to mankind, putting on its nature; but with the assent of Mary, who conceives Him by the Holy Ghost. Then St. John the Baptist, by a singular privilege, is sanctified in his mother’s womb and favoured with special graces that he might prepare the way of the Lord; and this comes to pass by the greeting of Mary who had been inspired to visit her cousin. At last the expected of nations comes to light, Christ the Saviour. The Virgin bears Him.”

Regarding the Sorrowful Mysteries, Leo XIII wrote:

“She knew beforehand all these agonies; she knew and saw them… It is certain, therefore, that she suffered in the very depths of her soul with His most bitter sufferings and with His torments. Moreover, it was before the eyes of Mary that was to be finished the Divine Sacrifice for which she had borne and brought up the Victim.”

Regarding the Glorious Mysteries, Leo XIII wrote:

“Though worthy of Heaven, she abides a while on earth, so that the infant Church may be directed and comforted by her… Mary is in the room, and there, praying with the Apostles and entreating for them with sobs and tears, she hastens for the Church the coming of the Spirit, the Comforter, the supreme gift of Christ, the treasure that will never fail. And later, without measure and without end will she be able to plead our cause, passing upon a day to the life immortal.”

St. Bernardine of Siena said, “Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order; for by God it is communicated to Christ, from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it descends to us.” Leo XIII commented:

“And we, by the very form of the Rosary, do linger longest, and, as it were, by preference upon the last and lowest of these steps, repeating by decades the Angelic Salutation, so that with greater confidence we may thence attain to the higher degrees — that is, may rise, by means of Christ, to the Divine Father. For if thus we again and again greet Mary, it is precisely that our failing and defective prayers may be strengthened with the necessary confidence; as though we pledged her to pray for us, and as it were in our name, to God.”

The following prayer in honour of Our Lady as “Mediatrix of all Graces” is recited daily by members of the Legion of Mary all over the world:

“O Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator with the Father, you have been pleased to appoint the most Blessed Virgin, your Mother, to be our mother also, and our mediatrix with you, mercifully grant that whoever comes to you seeking your favours may rejoice to receive all of them through her. Amen.”

The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council pointed out that invoking the Blessed Virgin under the title of Mediatrix

“is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator…. Just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by the ministers and by the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is really communicated in different ways to His creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.”

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