This week I interview Mgr John Myler, STD, who is the Rector of the Catholic Cathedral of St Peter, Belleville, IL. Fr John is an expert in Marian sacred art (it was the subject of his Sacred Theology Doctorate) and in Marian devotion in general. He is currently recording a course on Marian sacred art, both liturgical and devotional, for Pontifex University which we hope will be ready by the Fall.

This is an audio podcast so it is difficult to talk about art in detail. Instead, we focus on Our Lady herself.

Fr John gives a fascinating account of how Marian devotion nearly disappeared altogether in the years after the Second Vatican Council through a misinterpretation (sometimes willful) of its documents. Then he goes on to describe how beginning with Paul VI’s Marialis Cultus - for the right ordering and development of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1974, we see a rise in devotion to Mary. Pope St John Paul II is the man who popularized and renewed Marian devotion more than any other. .

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