Memory of the Sorrows of Mary

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The Mother of God from Warfhuizen

Memory of the Sorrows of Mary , Latin " [Memoria] Beatæ Mariæ Virginis Perdolentis" ("[Memory] of the Blessed, Sorrowful Virgin Mary"), until the liturgical reform the feast of Septem Dolorum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis ("[Feast] of the seven sorrows of Mary" ). The day of remembrance in the church year of the Roman Catholic Church is celebrated on September 15 and has its own sequence , the stabat mater . The iconography depicts Mary as Mater Dolorosa ("Mother of Sorrows").

The feast in the liturgical calendar

The day of remembrance of the Sorrows of Mary immediately follows the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14th and is closely related to it. If at the exaltation of the cross we look at the cross of Jesus Christ as a sign of victory and tree of life, the next day the pity of Mary as the mother and embodiment of the church and an example for all believers is praised.

The pre-conciliar designation of this festival of ideas was seven pains of Mary , whereby the number seven denoted a totality, but in popular piety it was also connected with individual life stations of Mary. The seven sorrows of Mary are the antithesis of the seven joys that were previously commemorated on the day of remembrance of Maria Lätitia .

The 15th of September with the commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of Mary , was introduced by Pope Pius VII in 1814 for the universal Church, after it had been celebrated by the Servite Order since 1667 . Until the liturgical reform, a feast of the seven sorrows of Mary was celebrated on the Friday after Passion Sunday; The measurement form was identical except for the Collecta . The celebration in the Passion Week was initiated by Pope Benedict XIII. Prescribed in 1727. Since 1423, the fourth Friday after Easter has been the historical calendar date on which the festival is celebrated in the Catholic Church as the so-called Compassion Festival, the festival of the “Sorrow and Sorrows of Mary under the Cross”.

In 1927 was the papal decree gentem Celebre apud Slovaccham the Lady of the Seven Sorrows of the patroness of Slovakia explained. September 15th is therefore a public holiday in Slovakia .

The seven sorrows of Mary

Mary surrounded by representations of the seven sorrows
Pietà by Michelangelo in St. Peter's Basilica

The seven sorrows of Mary are:

  1. Presentation of Jesus in the temple with Simeon's prophecy ( Lk 2.34–35  EU )
  2. Flight to Egypt from the child murderer Herod ( Mt 2,13-15  EU )
  3. Loss of the twelve year old Jesus in the temple ( Lk 2.43–45  EU )
  4. Jesus meets his mother on the way of the cross (unbiblical scene)
  5. Crucifixion and death of Christ ( Joh 19,17-39  EU )
  6. Descent from the cross and delivery of the body to Mary ( Lamentation of Christ ) ( Mt 27.57-59  EU )
  7. Entombment of Christ ( Joh 19,40-42  EU )

The pain of Mary consists on the one hand in compassion for the Passion of the Son. According to the account of the Gospel of John , she is under the cross. One of the stations of the Stations of the Cross is the meeting of Jesus with his mother on the way to Golgotha . One of the most common Christian motifs of all is the Vesper picture , the Pietà : After the Descent from the Cross, Mary holds the body of her son in her arms. Here in particular, Maria is a figure of identification for those who suffer and those who mourn.

But Mary's pains also include the alienation from her incomprehensible Son. According to the account of Luke's Gospel in Jerusalem, the twelve-year-old already separates from his parents to stay in the temple , his father's house ( Lk 2,41ff  EU ). At the wedding in Cana , Jesus abruptly pushes Mary back when she draws his attention to the lack of wine ( Jn 2  EU ). And when she and several family members asks about him while he teaches and heals in public, he does not accept any family affiliation other than that mediated by obedience to God's will ( Lk 8 : 19-21  EU ). It is remarkable that Mary does not allow herself to be deterred by all this, but sticks to her original words: it will happen to me according to your word ( Lk 1.38  EU ) and: What he tells you, do it ( John 2.5  EU ).

Patronage and adoration

Numerous churches and chapels are dedicated to the Sorrows of Mary, including the Nüchternbrunn pilgrimage chapel in Warngau in Upper Bavaria . There is a pilgrimage to her every year on September 15th .

First station of the Way of the Cross of the Seven Sorrows of Mary in Tauberbischofsheim with mosaic pictures on which a sword can be seen that sticks each time into the heart of the mother of Jesus

Station routes (partly titled Via Matris ), similar to the Way of the Cross , with depictions of the seven sorrows of Mary, are among others in the following places:

literature

Web links

Commons : Memory of the Sorrows of Mary  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Schäfer: Maria - Lätitia - "seven joys of Mary". In: Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints . March 31, 2019, accessed September 16, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Klauser Chapel "Maria im Schnee" near Kornelimünster. In: euregio-im-bild.de. Retrieved September 29, 2017 (photos).
  3. ↑ Reinhard Köninger: Via Matris. (No longer available online.) Propsteipfarrei St. Urbanus, archived from the original on April 18, 2014 ; accessed on September 16, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Franziska Seliger: New Stelenweg inaugurated. In: Merkur.de . September 17, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .