Mary wears combat boots (see Song of Songs 6:10).
One of her titles is the Destroyer of Heresies (She was given this title by Pope Pius X in his 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, which spoke out against modernism—what Pius called the “synthesis of all heresies.”
- Through men such as St. Bernard, St. Albert, and St. Thomas, Mary has also been known as the Destroyer of Heresies.
- “But how? How does she destroy heresies?” Father Paul Scalia asks. “Mary never preached a sermon against error,” he continues. “She never conducted an inquisition or excommunicated anyone. She never (God forbid) presented a paper at a theological conference.”12 She does it, Father Scalia explains, by inspiring zeal: “In one of those beautiful Catholic paradoxes, these men became fierce defenders of the faith by first becoming childlike towards her. Devotion to her brings purity to the soul and therefore clarity to the mind.”13 It is Mary who weeds out the untruths; it is she who combats the lies of “that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rv 12:9). Like the pillar of fire that directed the journey of those carrying the Ark of the Covenant, Our Lady, the new pillar, is ever the sure guide for those who wish to avoid error. 48
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