Our Lady of Victory? Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception? Our Lady of Perpetual Help? Which of Mary’s titles is most appropriate for men overcoming lust to invoke? I propose that men who seek purity invoke Mary under her title Maria Lactans. This is the title given to our Blessed Mother breastfeeding the infant Christ. Also known as Madonna Lactans or Our Lady of the Milk, artistic representations of Maria Lactans have been widely popular throughout Christian history, being painted by famous artists such as Michelangelo and da Vinci. The earliest drawing of Maria Lactans has been discovered on the walls of the catacombs under Rome, and is likely the earliest artistic depiction of Mary ever. A devotion to Maria Lactans is very beneficial to men overcoming lust for many reasons, three of which are highlighted here.

First, Maria Lactans teaches that the body is a gift. The second Person of the Trinity became a helpless infant. Like us, He needed food to survive. As His Mother, Mary indeed provided Our Lord with this food, feeding Him with her own body as she breastfed Him. She gave to Him the gift of her body for nourishment, just as Christ would later nourish us with His own body as a gift:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed (John 6:53-55).

When men learn to fully appreciate and live out this concept of the human body as gift, there can be no more room for lust in his heart.

Second, Maria Lactans challenges men to appreciate the beauty of the naked female body without lusting. Because she is breastfeeding, she is depicted as being partially topless. Typically, one of her breasts is clearly exposed. While many men would attempt to shield their eyes, Maria Lactans speaks to us all, “Feast your eyes upon my body. See with your own eyes the breasts which fed the Word Made Flesh.” For what man would dare lust after the Mother who is at once the Mother of God and their own Mother also? Men overcoming lust would do well to not only look at artistic depictions of Maria Lactans often, but to prayerfully meditate on the beauty of her body. Men can then ask her to aid them in seeing all women in the same manner: beautiful and made in the image of God.

Finally, Maria Lactans highlights the motherhood of Mary. As Mary once fed the physical body of Christ, now she continues to feed the mystical body of Christ, the Church: Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior (Ephesians 5:23). Scripture sometimes uses female breasts as metaphor for God’s mercy and love, such as with Jerusalem in Isaiah 66:11:

You may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory.

Like Jerusalem of old, Maria Lactans feeds us not with milk, but rather with the love and knowledge of God. Through her intercession, we can draw closer to the Lord, who is purity itself. Let us all continually call upon the name of the Lord, and also His mother for the grace to do God’s will.

Lord, have mercy on us!

Maria Lactans, pray for us!