We easily recognize the Blessed Virgin Mary under some of her most popular titles — the Immaculate Conception, Queen of Heaven, Help of Christians, Star of the Sea, Seat of Wisdom. Yet we need to be familiar with another of her major titles that we sometimes miss — Our Lady of Sorrows.

 “Under that title she’s probably the most universally experienced,” says Servite Father Frank Falco at the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows in Chicago (ols-chicago.org). “Everybody experiences sorrow and sadness in their lives.”

Mary consoles us and shows how our crosses and sadness can lead to victory with her Son. That’s one reason the Church places the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on Sept. 15, just one day after the Sept. 14 feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

“I like to highlight the fact that these two feasts are back-to-back,” says Holy Cross Father Arthur Colgan, provincial superior of the eastern province of his congregation. The order is under the patronage of Our Lady of Sorrows, and her feast is their patronal feast. 

“Her whole life is associated with Jesus and the mystery of our redemption and salvation through the cross,” the priest explains. “Her life was marked by sorrow and suffering. And that’s part of following Jesus, taking up our own cross.”

“As disciples of Jesus, all of us face difficulties and sufferings in our lives,” he continues. “Mary and Jesus himself, on the cross, teach us that suffering can be transformed and turned into a redemptive work.”

Both feasts have reminded Christians of the “Holy Cross-Sorrows” connection from ancient times.

The Church has celebrated the Exaltation of the Holy Cross from 326, when on Sept. 14 St. Helen found Christ’s True Cross in the Holy Land. The feast became prominent in the west in the seventh century after Heraclius rescued the True Cross from pagans who took it from Jerusalem in 627.

Also in the fourth century, Ephrem the Syrian and St. Ambrose celebrated and venerated Mary’s sorrows and compassion. In 1239 the sorrows of Mary standing under the cross became the main devotion of the new Servants of Mary, the Servites. The Holy See granted them the feast of the seven dolors (sorrows). In 1814, Pope Pius VII placed the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Roman calendar.

“We introduced that feast into the universal Church,” says Father Falco. “It all begins with Mary at the foot of the cross. From that experience of suffering with her son at Calvary, the Church began to look at other moments in Mary’s life where she experienced sadness and sorrow. That’s when the devotion began to expand.”

These seven sorrows of Mary were fixed: The prophecy of Simeon, the Flight into Egypt, the Loss of Jesus for Three Days in the Temple, Meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary, Jesus’ Crucifixion and Death, Jesus Taken Down from the Cross, Jesus Laid in the Tomb.

“Each one of the Seven Sorrows of Mary touches the lives of people,” says Father Falco. “You can find something of yourself in each one of them.”

He points out how the third sorrow can relate to the terror that any family goes through when a child gets lost in a crowd.

In Munster, Ind., Dorothy Giannini learned devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows as a youngster, picking it up from Servite priests. She continued as an adult, turning to our Lady when, for example, her high schoolers weren’t home on time after an evening out.

“I’d be praying Hail Marys and the Rosary, trusting they’d be kept safe,” says Giannini. And so they were.

Miracles Happen

Father Colgan calls the other great lesson of Our Lady of Sorrows the sheer beauty of Mary standing by Jesus, together with Mary Magdalene and John.

“When everyone else has abandoned our Lord, they stand firm at the foot of the cross,” he says. “She teaches us to do the same. She calls us to solidarity with those who are suffering today.”

Especially in sickness and when family members are dying, he says, there’s a great consolation in going to Our Lady of Sorrows. “Mary gives us the strength to stand by those family members and be faithful to the end.”

In sickness and hard times, Giannini has turned to Our Lady of Sorrows and trusted. She remembers when her husband, Art, was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo treatments for an entire year. He’s been in remission 10 years now. “It was a miracle,” she says.

And she recalls how the devotion got her over the awful disappointment of not being hired for a job she wanted. Our Lady of Sorrows helped her carry that cross and find other work.

“What I’ve gotten from this lifelong devotion,” she says, “is real trust.”

Turning to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Father Colgan looks to John 3:14-15 as Jesus speaks of being “lifted up,” pointing out there are many meanings of being “lifted up.” One refers to being crucified.

 “But it also refers to his cross being raised up and being a focal point in our lives,” he says. “The cross lifted on high is a beacon in our lives. It tells us of God’s enormous love for us and where we go to find love and mercy in our own lives. That’s our work as disciples too — to raise the cross on high so it becomes a beacon in others’ lives.”

The Sisters of Jesus Crucified and the Sorrowful Mother have provided a good example of exalting the cross and comforting sorrows since the order was founded in Scranton, Pa., to care for the widows and orphans of immigrant Lithuanian coal miners. In the Boston Archdiocese, they cared for AIDS patients when no one would, and today care for elderly at their nursing home.

At Our Lady of Sorrows Convent in Brockton, Mass., the sisters vigorously promote public devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, from the major feast celebrated on the grounds on Sunday near Sept. 15, to the centuries-old devotion, the Chaplet of the Seven Dolors of Our Lady.

“We’re promoting the chaplet because especially in this day and age a lot of people have a lot of sorrows and heartaches,” says Sister Baptista at the convent. (Her community is on the Internet at cjcbrockton.org.)

“With all the things going on in the world, such as the war, they can realize and see in Mary how she suffered,” adds Sister Baptista. “Each bead paints the picture of what she had to go through. She willingly accepted it, and that gives people the courage to go through their trials and tribulations, able to carry their cross.”

In this beautiful chaplet devotion, Father Colgan finds a special route people travel while meditating on the sorrows of Mary. 

“Those seven moments in the life of Mary from the Gospels,” he says, “lead us always back to Jesus and the story of salvation.”

Contemplating them, we see Mary showing us that sorrows needn’t overwhelm us. In her Son’s hands, they can lead us to the greatest triumphs of all: our sanctification and salvation.

Staff writer Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.