Feast day: September 15

Our Lady of Sorrows

Marian Feast

Patron of Those who grieve

Commemorates the seven sorrows of Mary, from Simeon's prophecy to the burial of her Son — the mother who stood at the cross when standing was all she could do.

The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows honours the Blessed Virgin Mary in her suffering — the mother who shared, more deeply than anyone, in the Passion of her Son. It gathers up a devotion that runs through the whole Gospel: Mary not as queen in glory, but as the grieving mother standing at the foot of the Cross.

The devotion traditionally meditates on seven 'sorrows' that pierced Mary's heart in the course of her life: the prophecy of Simeon, who foretold that a sword would pierce her soul; the flight into Egypt; the loss of the child Jesus in the Temple; the meeting with Jesus carrying his Cross; the Crucifixion; receiving his dead body taken down from the Cross; and his burial.

Its origins lie partly with the Servite Order, founded in the thirteenth century, which took the sorrows of Mary as its special devotion and did much to spread it. The feast itself grew through the later Middle Ages and was eventually extended to the whole Church, kept on the day after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Through this feast Mary is honoured as the model of those who suffer in faith and as the compassionate mother of all who grieve — the one who, having lost her own Son, stands beside every person in their sorrow. The mournful hymn 'Stabat Mater' belongs to its devotion.

The feast falls the day after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: first the cross, then the one who stood beside it.

Image: Zarateman (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/14151b.htm