From Life of the Blessed Virgin, by Msgr. Gentilucci:
The Fathers and writers unanimously affirm that this august name had been revealed by God Himself to Anne and Joachim. St. Bonaventure adds that God Himself pronounced that glorious name, and St. Jerome says that the angel who consoled the blessed couple in their sterility, commanded them to call by that name the bless daughter that was to be born of them.
The Holy Fathers find in the sacred name of Mary, three significations, each of which corresponds with the glory to which God had destined her. First, the name of Mary signifies “the sea,” and, in that sense, it symbolizes not only the graces with which the Almighty endowed her, but also the misfortune which man experiences in withdrawing from that sea. “Every grace”, cries St. Bonaventure, “enters in Mary: the grace of foresight which enriches the prophets, the apostles’s grace of zeal, the martyr’s grace of constancy, the virgin’s grace of purity, all are found superabundantly in Mary; and as earth far from the sea is arid, so souls which stray from this august Queen cannot produce fruits of life.”
..this name also signifies “sea of bitterness.” Who, as we shall see, ever had in her life greater bitterness than the holy Mother of God?…Ah!, as Jeremias says: “she was like a raging sea agitated by the most furious tempest.”
Finally, this beautiful name also signifies “Sovereign,” “Illuminated,” and “Illuminatrix.” [S]he received from [God] so great a light of grace, that she merited to be call the “illuminatrix” of the Church, who guards as a treasure all her words recorded in the gospel…
O blessed name! O glorious name! thous dost express all that is grand in sanctity, in merit, and in glory, and mortals can never sufficiently praise and bless thee!
What other name after the most sweet name of Jesus, is more worthy of our respect and love? What other can better excite our confidence and admiration? Can we be astonished that the Church has wished it particularly honored…? “That august name, which, as St. Ambrose assures us, signifies also ‘God is of my blood,’ is the key of the gate of paradise to him who invokes it,” says St. Ephrem.
