Origin of Our Lady of Sorrows

The liturgy celebrates Our Lady of Sorrows twice a year: on September 15, immediately after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and, until the reform of Pius XII, in a second feast in March, close to Holy Week. This duality is often overlooked: the devotion to the Sorrows of Mary was not born of a single impulse but of two distinct theological traditions, which arose in different historical contexts. The first goes back to the thirteenth century and to the founding of the Order of the Servites in Florence. The second is rooted in the poetic and liturgical world of the Stabat Mater and in the scholastic meditation on the compassion of Mary at Calvary.

The seven scenes of Mary’s co-participation in the redemptive way: from the prophecy of Simeon (Lk 2:34-35) to the laying in the tomb

Catholic piety has identified seven scenes in the life of Mary in which her soul was pierced by suffering. Each of them is a mystery of co-participation in the redemptive way of the Son:

1. The prophecy of Simeon (Lk 2:34-35). In the Temple of Jerusalem, the old man takes the Child in his arms and prophesies to Mary: “A sword will pierce your own soul”. The sorrow begins as a word before being fulfilled as reality.
2. The flight into Egypt (Mt 2:13-15). Joseph is warned in a dream: Herod wants to kill the Child. The Holy Family sets out by night for an exile whose end it does not know, like every exiled person who trusts more in God than in returning.
3. The loss of Jesus in Jerusalem (Lk 2:41-50). During the Passover pilgrimage, Jesus remains in the Temple without telling His parents. Mary spends three days searching for her Son, in an anguish that prefigures the three days of the tomb.
4. The meeting on the way to Calvary. Tradition contemplates the meeting of Mary with Jesus carrying the Cross. The Gospel does not describe it, but Christian piety has always recognized it as one of the most heartrending moments of the Passion.
5. The crucifixion and death of Jesus (Jn 19:25-27). Mary remains standing beside the Cross. Jesus gives her the beloved disciple as a son. It is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Simeon and the birth of Mary’s spiritual motherhood for all the faithful.
6. The descent from the Cross. Mary receives in her arms the dead body of Jesus. This moment, which Christian art immortalized in Michelangelo’s Pietà, sums up all maternal sorrow in a gesture of silent adoration.
7. The burial of Jesus (Jn 19:38-42). Mary accompanies the laying of her Son in the tomb. She remains alone with faith, in the silence of Holy Saturday, awaiting what no creature has yet seen.

From the medieval devotion to the five swords (11th century) to the institution of the Servites and to the liturgical feast in the Tridentine calendar

Devotion to the Virgin of Sorrows developed from the end of the eleventh century, with a first mention of the celebrations of her five sorrows, symbolized by five swords, which precede the liturgical celebration instituted later. In the twelfth century, also as a result of apparitions of the Virgin, this cult grew and the Stabat Mater, attributed to Jacopone da Todi, appeared. Initially, the cult of the Virgin of Sorrows was closely linked to Holy Week. For this reason, especially in the countries of the Mediterranean, images of Our Lady of Sorrows are carried in procession during the days of Holy Week.

The Servites, the Order of the Servants of Mary founded in Florence in 1233 by seven Tuscan noblemen, were the principal promoters of this devotion. On August 18, 1714, the Sacred Congregation of Rites granted the Order that the “Solemn Commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary” be celebrated throughout the Order on the Friday of Passion Week. On April 22, 1727, Pope Benedict XIII extended the feast of the Seven Sorrows to the whole Latin Church. With the liturgical reform of Pius X, the feast was fixed on September 15, the date on which it was already celebrated in the Ambrosian rite. The 1969 calendar kept this date, designating the day as “Our Lady of Sorrows”.

The Pietà, the seven swords and the Stabat Mater: iconography and popular devotion in the Iberian and Flemish traditions

Devotion to the seven Sorrows of Mary inspired one of the richest artistic traditions of the Western Church. In iconography, Mary is represented with her heart pierced by seven swords, in reference to the prophecy of Simeon. In Iberian Holy Week sculpture, the “Dolorosa” appears with crystal tears, mourning garments, and hands joined in prayer. In Reggio Calabria, Jesus and Mary are represented by two large statues carried on the shoulders along two different routes. When they meet at a bend in the street, a chorus of laments and prayers rises from the two rows to evoke the sorrow of Mary on meeting Jesus on the way to Calvary. In El Salvador, on Good Friday, men and women dressed in mourning follow the image of Our Lady of Sorrows in procession to adore Jesus Crucified.

In devotional sculpture, Francisco Salzillo represented Our Lady of Sorrows on her knees, with her arms open and her heart pierced by seven swords. In the crypt of the Shrine of the Madonna del Divino Amore in Rome, the sculptural group shows Our Lady of Sorrows kneeling as she dries the blood of Jesus taken down from the Cross, while she looks at the pilgrim and invites him to join her in that pious ministry. In music, composers such as Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Haydn, Schubert, and Dvořák composed versions of the Stabat Mater, the medieval sequence that meditates verse by verse on the sorrows of Mary at the foot of the Cross.

The theological meaning of the seven sorrows: Mary Co-Redemptrix, the Stabat Mater and the feast of September 15

Our Lady of Sorrows is not merely a devotional title. It expresses a central theological conviction: Mary participated actively in the redemptive mystery of her Son, not as an agent of salvation, but as the creature who most completely united herself to the offering of Christ. Her sorrow was not passive, but active, because it was born of love. This is why tradition calls her Co-Redemptrix, a title that does not equate her with Christ, but underlines the uniqueness of her co-participation in the mystery of the Cross.

The feast of September 15, placed immediately after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), has a precise contemplative logic: after contemplating the mystery of the Cross, the Church contemplates the Mother who stood beside it. The two feasts form a single meditation on the heart of the Christian mystery.

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