Why don't we call Mary "St. Mary"?

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I was looking at a calendar from my parish and noting the feast days when this kind of struck me. Every other saint, we call St. Name. But with Mary, we don’t have the preceding “Saint.” I’m just wondering about the origins of it.
 
I assume just to recognize that Mary is in a class by herself
 
Our Lady is indeed in a class by herself, hence the more exalted name. However, there are plenty of churches named St. Mary, including the one in which I grew up. Google and you’ll see an abundance. Just St. Mary, St, Mary Mother of God, St. Mary of the Assumption, St. Mary of the ________. Plenty of them.
 
Also, there are other St Marys, for instance Mary Magdelene, Mary Cleopas, Mary Salome…
 
Often she is referred to as “Our Lady”. This is unique as nobody else in our faith is referred to as Our lady.

There are thousands/millions
/ unknown number of Saints but only one “Our Lady”
🙂

Calling her “Our Lady” implies that she really is the mother of us all.
 
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One of the hospitals in the town I grew up was St. Mary’s, named after her. I think in her case, “Saint” is just one of many possible titles used to describe her, so we don’t hear it as often.
 
I believe St Mary (with regard to the Blessed Mother) is often used for parishes in the Episcopal tradition). I think that some even refer to the August Feast of the Assumption (Aug 15), as “The Assumption of St. Mary”. Been quite a while since I was over at one of their churches and checking out a missal, so it might have been more of a local thing when I had read the above.
 
Seagull said:
Some people call her mom 😛
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That’s what I do! I told my spiritual director that I didn’t know if it was too familiar or something, given that she’s the Queen of Heaven and was never tainted by original sin, but can you guess what she told me? I think it does help us since we see through human blinders, and it is in line with John 19:27. I had always thought that He was just asking John to care for his mother but read somewhere recently that he was giving humanity his mother just as he gave us everything he had, like even his very body to eat and blood to drink.

OP, FWIW, I attended St. Mary’s school on the grounds of St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Annapolis for two years as a boy. I went to to the website (to check if it was named for the other Marys) and even the pics are just like I remember. At the risk of steering your thread in an unintended direction, that’s what’s so beautiful about our faith. It’s not the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow like God is, but it’s close! 😃
 
There’s also a group of individuals we believe are saints but who are not individually referred to with the title: Old Testament saints. How come no St. Abraham, St. Moses, or St. Elijah? My guess would be it’s just a accident of history.
 
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mVitus said:
I was looking at a calendar from my parish and noting the feast days when this kind of struck me. Every other saint, we call St. Name. But with Mary, we don’t have the preceding “Saint.” I’m just wondering about the origins of it.
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BoomBoomMancini said:
I assume just to recognize that Mary is in a class by herself
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Just so. She is not merely a Saint. She is the Blessed Virgin. ✝️
 
We do call Mary “St Mary” .

The notice board of our neighbouring parish…

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BoomBoomMancini said:
I assume just to recognize that Mary is in a class by herself
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In the Early days of the church saint was a term for Christians who made it to heaven, everyone was a saint.

Mary on the other hand was perfect, she was without sin. The perfect human. She is totally in a class all her own.
Frankly if God was as selfish as we are he’d be like “Okay guys pack it up, we perfected the formula. Good game everyone.”
 
BoomBoomMancini said:
I assume just to recognize that Mary is in a class by herself
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Indeed she is blssed, but I’m not so sure she is “in a class by herself”, as the Lord tells us “Whoever obeys my commandments is my brother, my sister, and my mother”…so those hwho do are in the same class with her.
 
We? In the same class as Mary? Not even CLOSE!!! Even the greatest of Saints, Aquinas, Augustine, Therese, or you name it, are on a par with the Virgin. I repeat…no one!!! She is, as others have stated, in a league all of her own. Full stop.
 
Mark121359 said:
Even the greatest of Saints, Aquinas, Augustine, Therese, or you name it, are on a par with the Virgin.
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I guess i missed the exculpatory clause when Jesus said the least would be first…my bad…i guess some get a better view of the beatific vision than others…i never have seen a church teaching that stated some saints are better than others…i guess you and i will end up in the nosebleed seats if we make it to heaven…LOL
 
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Oh really, the snark level is worse than the pollen today.

Seriously, if you want to class the Blessed Mother lower than or equal to "any other saint’, it’s your prerogative. But don’t try to tell anybody else we have to do the same.
 
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