History's Queen: Exploring Mary's Pivotal Role from Age to Age

Mike Aquilina has done it again: making history interesting by featuring key figures and events of the past and personalizing them. The key to bringing bygone times alive, it seems to me, is to highlight the people and places that shaped our world, making them real and relatable. Working through large swaths of history (the early Fathers, Byzantium, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance), shorter periods (the bubonic plague, the French Revolution) and more, Aquilina deftly shows how Mary's privileged place in salvation history made her a source of comfort and strength in the most trying circumstances, thus becoming an even greater encouragement for us today. I never cease to be astonished at how much I learn about the times that are the subjects of the various chapters -- understanding the broader context of events helps us appreciate them all the more.As is his wont, the author's style is fast-paced, making history come alive, keeping even the person who most finds reading such works a drudgery turning pages. And, coming in at under 150 pages, this is not an intimidating tome. In addition, the relatively short chapters and very short sections, allow the reader to slip in a page here, a couple pages there, as life permits, and still work through it in its entirety in a reasonable amount of time.Highly recommended for the avid reader, who will be thirsting for even more when done, the casual reader, who will feel quite satiated upon drinking it all in, and the reluctant reader, who will come away from the last page quite surprised that "boring history" is not so dull as he thought.

Like a good historical biography, Mike Aquilina's book illuminates our history through concrete anecdotes and testimonies, bringing into focus complex controversies of theology and philosophy, and how our ancestors coped with terrible diseases and stresses through their piety. Events and movements which may have seemed abstract or obscure will be memorable after reading this book.

As a Director of RCIA, I’m always looking for books I can recommend to inquirers and newcomers to the Church. Aquilina’s books are always top on my recommended reading lists because they are painstakingly and impeccably researched, orthodox, and supremely engaging. His writing, though truly erudite, always comes across in a brotherly, familiar voice marked by a kind of breathless Christian joy. Reading his books gives one the sense of being in a foreign land, led by the best tour guide available - the one who knows where to take you to get you to really experience the tastes, textures, and truths which make you feel at home and oriented. He knows just the right pace to keep you engaged with the tour and has the just the right timing for fun facts and smart quips to make the journey feel personal rather than an academic exercise. With Aquilina leading, you can relax and have confidence that you are in the hands of one of the best guides alive and working in the Church today.This latest release, History’s Queen, has now been added to my list of favorite recommended books on Mary. Since Mary is often a stumbling block for Protestants considering entrance into the Catholic Church, I found this new title by Aquilina of particulate interest.The reviewers on this site have done an excellent job explaining the content of the book, so I needn’t rehash that. I’ll simply say this: this book will be the one I recommend to my RCIA candidates and Catechumens as well as to anyone who wants to come to a deeper understanding of Mary’s key role in our redemption and also wants to come to a deeper love of our Queen Mother. Anyone who reads the book will come away with the clear conviction that even before the Church made her official pronouncements in Dogmas about Mary, her Queenship was well established in the hearts of even the earliest Christians and continues to the present day.To get back to my original tour metaphor, in History’s Queen Aquilina not only gives the reader a great scholarly tour of Mary’s central role in Salvation History; he orients the reader to his own place under Mary’s Queenship in that still unfolding story. It is a masterpiece of scholarship and catechesis which will both enlighten the reader and call her to more fervent and faithful devotion to her as Queen not only of the history of all creation, but of one’s own history as well.

Mike Aquilina has masterfully brought his talent for capturing the drama and narrative of history to bear on the subject of the Virgin Mary’s role in world history.This work shines in its multifaceted treatment of Mary by examining her role in history, theology, architecture, art, literature and mysticism. Of particular note for the Catholic and non-Catholic reader is the Biblical and early Church exploration of Mary’s role in salvation history, which have been lost sight of over the centuries. Many readers will also find the section on Mary’s place in Islam and Iconoclasm to be of interest given modern issues related to Christian-Muslim relations and religious art within modern Catholicism and Christianity generally since the Reformation.This is a solid introduction to the role of the Virgin Mary not just in Christianity, but in world history. It will open up avenues for the interested reader to pursue more deeply – and it will provide sustenance for the soul seeking greater encounter.