1) Because of the paradoxical nature of her person: She
is the servant of the Lord and a non-descript Jewish girl, yet, at the same
time, called and invested with the grandeur of being the mother of the
God-made-man. Paradoxical means it is difficult to speak of her in an
uni-dimensional fashion. Mary's characteristics, whichever mentioned,
always require a complement in order to do justice to the whole picture.
This gives rise to many titles.
2) Because she is a person and not a system of
thoughts. As individuals we are ineffable, meaning nobody - except God - has
the last word on who we are and may become. The description of a living
human person - one's inner life especially - is inexhaustible. This applies
to Mary in a preeminent way, not least because of what is said in # 1 above.
The best way to speak about a person is symbolic language. This
leads to a multitude of images attempting to capture Mary's personality.
3) There is a third reason which deals with Mary's
intercessory role. Mary's role as mother and her intimacy with her Son made
her a powerful intercessor throughout Christian history. Since human needs
are countless, as numerous as the varied situations and expectations of
human life, Mary's help was and is sought for all of them. This led to the
formulation of many of her titles ( good counsel, good death, help of the
sick, mother of the "domestic church," etc).
4) Many titles are due to geographic and cultural
reasons. There were times when not only every country but also every little
village wanted to have their own lady chapel or lady image. This led again
to a multiplication of titles.
5) Titles related to apparitions are still another
category, but quite frequently they are connected to # 3 above. Apparitions
are often accompanied with healing and conversion. This makes it even more
plausible to coin a specific title as is the case for major sites like
Lourdes and Fatima.