Spirituality: Our Lady Queen of Palestine

October 25th is the feast day of Our Lady Queen of Palestine.

Our Lady was first invoked under this title by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem as he entered the Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and consecrated the diocese to Mary on July 15, 1920. He asked her protection over the homeland of the Holy Family because of the ancient and growing tensions that had been threatening its people for generations.

He established this titular feast in her native land in 1927, wrote a special prayer for recitation before the Blessed Sacrament, and erected a church in her honor. The Holy See approved the feast day for the liturgical calendar in a decree asking the faithful to pray to Our Lady as Queen of Palestine for protection over the Holy Land.

After the first Crusade, its leader, Godfrey of Boullion, Duke of Lower Lorraine in France, founded the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem to defend the Holy Sepulchre and Christians in the Holy Land. The Order still exists today, has its own Constitutions, and is governed by canon law.

In 1983, Pope St. John Paul II addressed an audience of Knights and Dames of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, exhorting them to continue their work in the Holy Land under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Later, the Grand Master of the Order wrote the pope, requesting that he name Mary Queen of Palestine as the official patroness of the Order. The pope issued the decree in 1994.

The work of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem has evolved over time. It no longer involves the physical protection carried out by the knights of old. This important institution of the Vatican State now provides for the material needs of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and financially supports initiatives that aid Holy Land Christians. 

The Order financed a large portion of Our Lady Queen of Palestine's shrine. The Knights and Dames of the Order strive to sustain and aid charitable, cultural, and social works to benefit those living in the Holy Land.