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The Centre for Marian Studies
Educational advancement in all matters regarding the Virgin Mary
Registered Charity 1183579
Past Events
8th - 10th July 2021
Bridges and Boundaries: The Role of the Virgin Mary in Faith and Culture - Virtual Conference
Conference information
The Centre for Marian Studies collaborated with the Institute of Theology and Liberal Arts at St Mary's University to host an online conference entitled ‘Bridges and Boundaries: the role of the Virgin Mary in faith and culture’ from 8th – 10th July 2021. Although we had originally intended to hold the conference on St Mary's campus in July 2020 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the CMS, we were delighted that the virtual format allowed so many people from different countries to join us as we welcomed eighteen Marian experts from the US, Mexico, Ireland, Germany, Taiwan and the UK. Although the Covid pandemic affected our original plans, the revised schedule proved to be a happy opportunity to celebrate our new home at St Mary's University and to acknowledge the twenty-sixth birthday of the CMS, which was first founded by Sarah Boss, Chris Maunder and other members of the Marian Study Group in 1995.
All the conference speakers offered fascinating insights into different aspects of Marian Studies, and we benefited from the vast range of presentations on Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Some of the papers and talks given at the Bridges and Boundaries conference will be published on our News and Views page or in the journal Maria, also available on this site.
The conference was free for everyone, and we thank everyone who made donations.
29th February 2020
'Marian Apparitions and Shrines'- One-day course led by Dr Chris Maunder
The CMS joined forces with Sarum College in Salisbury to
offer a number of one-day courses on the Virgin Mary. Chris Maunder author of
'Our Lady of the Nations' discussed facts and figures about 19th and 20th
century European apparitions of Mary whilst also offering an analysis of them. 2
8th December 2018
Miraculous Conceptions: The Origins of Mary and Jesus in Theology and Story-telling
Please click here to read the conference report
18th-20th August 2015
The Centre for Marian Studies and the Orthodox Network
Unwedded Bride: Marian Hymns in the Eastern Churches
A two-day conference on the Mother of God in the Orthodox and Oriental churches
Conference information
The earliest evidence for devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary comes from the Greek and Oriental churches, and the writings of the early authors of Eastern Christianity have influenced the cult of the Mother of God in both East and West. The Western church in recent decades has seen an upsurge of interest in the liturgy and theology of the East, and this conference will draw together scholars from both sets of traditions and from the secular academy to consider the rich Marian inheritance of Byzantine, Near Eastern and non-Chalcedonian Christians, with a focus on the tradition of hymnody.
PREVIOUS CONFERENCES BETWEEN 1996-2015
The Virgin Mary: Representation and devotion in Britain (1996), Holy Wisdom in Christian tradition (1997), Mary in modern Catholic theology (1998), Miracles of the Virgin (1999), Mary and Islam (hosted jointly with the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, 2000), Black Madonnas: Discerning the meaning in the mystery (2001), Nature and the Virgin Mary: Perspectives from theology and human ecology (2002), The Immaculate Conception (hosted jointly with the Franciscan Study Centre, Canterbury, 2004), Holy Wisdom (2006), The Origins of the Cult of the Virgin Mary (2006), The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Roman and Byzantine Christianity (2010), The Continuing Temple (2012), The Virgin Mary and Women in Christianity and Islam (2013), The Virgin Mary in Britain and Ireland (hosted jointly with York St. John University, 2014).
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