1. When I pronounce the name of Mary, I feel myself inflamed with such love and joy, that between the tears and happiness with which I pronounce this beautiful name, I feel as though my heart might leave my breast! For this sweet name is like a honey-comb dissolving in the innermost recesses of my soul.
-Blessed Henry Suso supra, cited in booklet Mary, Our Mother, p. 52 (Clyde, Mo., 1921).
2. Give me, O glorious Virgin, the strength, talent, and speech, that I may announce to the faithful and to your clients the glory of your name. Not how much it is, nor what it is; but that I, your little servant, may tell something of your immense praises, to your glory, to my devotion, and the solace of all the readers.
-Saint Bernardin of Siena, O.F.M. (+1444), cited in Foreword to Fr. Fulgence's Who is She? (Cincinnati, 1935).
3. The name of Mary is joy to the heart, honey to the mouth, music to the ear.
-Saint Antoninus, O.P. (+1459), quoted in Abp. Kenrick's Month of Mary.
4. The devils fear the Queen of Heaven to such a degree, that only on hearing her great name pronounced, they fly from him who does so as from a burning fire.
-Venerable Thomas a' Kempis (+ 1471): Ad Nov., s. 23.
5. The name of Mary should be highly esteemed by all pious persons. It should be embraced by religious, recommended to seculars, preached to sinners, whispered to the sorrowing, and invoked by all men in time of danger.
-Venerable Thomas supra, cited in booklet Devotion to Mary (Clyde, Mo., 1943).
6. The name of Mary is glorious, holy and sweet. It is glorious because it means Lady and Queen, not of one province only, but of all created things in Heaven, on earth, and in hell . . . Mary means "full of light," and "light-giving," inasmuch as, being filled with light from Heaven, she has shed brightness upon the whole world, by giving birth to Eternal Light, Our Lord Jesus Christ, whilst still remaining in the glory of her virginity.
-Fra Girolamo Savonarola, O.P. (+ 1498), as quoted by Fr. Stanislaus Hogan, O.P. in art. "Savonarola's Devotion to Mary, the Mother of Christ," in Ecclesiastical Review, May, 1919.
7. After the most holy and adorable Name of Jesus, there is no name more glorious or more powerful than the name of Mary. At the mention of this name, the angels rejoice and the devils tremble; through the invocation of this name, sinners obtain grace and pardon.
-Saint Peter Canisius, S.J., Doct. of Church (+ 1597), cited in Mysteries of Mary.
8. I would exchange all my learning for the merit of a single devout Hail Mary.
-Francisco Suarez, S.J. (+ 1617), cited in Mary, Our Mother, p. 43.
9. As often as the sweet name of Mary comes to your lips, you ought to represent to yourself a masterpiece of God's power, so perfect and so sublime that even the arm of the Almighty could not produce anything more perfect in the shape of a pure creature.
-Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, O.F.M. (+ 1751), cited in Fr. Griffith's booklet The Hail Mary, p. 19 (Dublin, 1926).
10. Salvation is occasionally more easily obtained, says Saint Anselm [De Excell. Virg., c. 6] by calling on the Name of Mary than by invoking that of Jesus. Not that he is not the source and Lord of all graces, but because, when we have recourse to the Mother, and she prays for us, her prayers have greater efficacy than ours, as being those of a mother.
-Saint Alphonsus Liguori, C. SS. R., Doct. of Church (+ 1787): Glories of Mary, pt. II, disc. v, p. 389 (ed. Grimm).
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