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A friend of mine is completing a small statue of the Virgin Mary under the new title of Our Lady, Turner of Hearts. As it turns out, he would like to put the inscription of "Our Lady, Turner of Hearts, pray for us" on the base. I would like to be able to suggest to him putting the title in Latin, but my Latin is not so strong. Notwithstanding, I believe there are at least three possible solutions:

Sancta Maria Verticordia, ora pro nobis.

Sancta Maria de Verticordiam, ora pro nobis.

Sancta Maria a Verticordia, ora pro nobis.

Personally I prefer the title "Sancta Maria a Verticordia, ora pro nobis." Do any of you know which of these three titles would best used in ecclesiastical Latin. Please fell free to suggest a different form, if you have the ability in the Latin language.

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  • Just interested: What does your friend mean with "Turner of Hearts"?
    – K-HB
    Mar 11, 2019 at 11:01

1 Answer 1

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The standard way of addressing the Virgin Mary under a (substantive) title is to use an appositive noun, in the same case. There is no need to add a or de.

As you can see in the Litany of Loreto, all the titles follow this pattern:

Virgo fidelis,
Speculum iustitiae,
Sedes sapientiae,
Causa nostrae laetitiae
etc.

I would thus say Sancta Maria, Verticordia: please be aware, though, that this epithet has also been applied to Venus, though in a context that might be appropriate.

Note that a(b) is commonly used with names to indicate origin or religious names, e.g.: Ioannes a Cruce (John of the Cross) or Theresia ab Infante Iesu (Therese of the Child Jesus). This is fundamentally different, though, since we are not indicating what this saint is.

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