Mary, for America
It’s always nice knowing someone’s watching out for you — even better when the one to have your back is Mary. Known by many names at shrines throughout the country — Our Lady of the Snows, Nuestra Señora de La Leche and Our Lady of Prompt Succor, to name a few — Mary is known as the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States.
For the 250th anniversary of the founding of the country, UD’s Marian Library has curated a digital exhibit exploring how Mary came to be named to the United States.
It started with the bishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, who consecrated the fledgling nation’s only diocese to her in 1791, after which the bishops at the Sixth Council of Baltimore in 1846 named her as patroness of the United States.
Calls for her heavenly intercession continue, including in the 1951 hymn “Mary Immaculate, Queen of America,” whose sheet music is part of the special exhibition. Also available online are prayer cards in the Marian Library’s collection and handwritten letters by Carroll, who in 1804 conveyed the need for priests to attend to the Catholics of the country’s westward expanse.
On the first floor of Roesch Library, a display case accompanying the digital exhibition includes visual examples of the relationship Americans have developed with Mary, including a red, white and blue-beaded rosary. Just as the founders in the Declaration of Independence stated their reliance on the protection of divine providence, the nation continues 250 years later under her watchful gaze.
A version of this article appears in print in the Summer 2026 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 21. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE