Saint of the week: Our Lady of Sorrows
- Aimee Boudreaux MacIver
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
Among the hundreds (if not thousands) of titles Mary has been given, Our Lady of Sorrows is a particularly poignant one—and perhaps among the most important. Contemplating her sorrow reminds us that Mary was free of sin, but not of suffering. She’s perfect in virtue, but not exempt from the brokenness of the world. Sometimes, because we are deeply aware of the damage caused by our own sin and selfishness, it’s easy to imagine that Mary slipped through this life in a protective bubble of God’s favor.
But that’s not what Scripture describes: instead, Luke 2:34–35 tells us that a sword would pierce her heart.
The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows originated with the medieval Order of the Servants of Mary (the Servites), founded in Florence in 1233. The spirituality of the seven founders drew strongly on Mary’s presence at the Cross. A hundred or so years later, the devotion to Mary’s suffering had become formally organized to focus on seven particular points of her life:
She received Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce her heart without knowing what that would mean.
She was forced to flee into Egypt to escape Herod’s death squads.
She became separated from an adolescent Jesus during their family’s pilgrimage to the Temple in a huge, transient city.
She met her Son as He carried His cross to Calvary, unable to stop her child’s agony.
She stood at the foot of the Cross and watched Him die.
She held His broken, dead body on the same lap where she had nursed and cradled Him.
She helped to place Jesus in the tomb, trusting but not knowing how God’s plan would triumph.
In these events, Mary suffered anxiety, stress, exhaustion, loneliness, panic, dread, grief, doubt, agony. And this is profoundly crucial for us to contemplate. When we consider Mary’s fiat, we must understand it in context. It makes a huge difference that she made this fiat not from behind a shield of grace, but steeped in the darkest sorrow. Saying yes to God was not easy for her, and precisely because of her perfect fullness, perhaps cost her more than it has ever cost any of us.
Our Lady of Sorrows reveals the true magnitude of her fiat and shines with hope that even the most painful sorrows cannot destroy our capacity for faith, hope, and love. Such Pieta strength is strength that approaches paradox: fervent trust rising in the ocean of loss; faith made to glow in the fire of suffering; hope billowing in the storms of doubt. Peace in the pieces. That kind of Pieta strength comes only from holding Jesus tightly in your arms, holding Him tightly against your heart, at the crescendo of suffering.
Let our souls proclaim, like hers, the eternal greatness of such a Lord.
The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is September 15.
P.S. I painted this piece depicting Our Lady of Sorrows in correlation with this essay, if you'd like to read it.
Pilgrimage with Our Lady of Sorrows in the United States
Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows
Run by the Servite Fathers since 1874, this Chicago basilica is one of the most significant U.S. centers of devotion to the Seven Sorrows. The basilica is stunning, with a grand interior and side chapels. Feast day processions are held September 15. It also houses a shrine to St. Peregrine, the Servite priest who is the patron of cancer patients.
This rural Missouri shrine includes an outdoor Stations of the Cross with life-size figures and a Lourdes Grotto replica. It has been receiving pilgrims since 1891. Inside, the altar of Our Sorrowful Mother is surrounded by crutches, braces, and other ex votos in honor of her intercession.
Founded by the Servites in 1850 to serve the increasing community of German immigrants, this beloved pilgrimage site remains under the operation of the Servite friars. You can enjoy a chapel, outdoor grottoes, prayer paths focused on Mary’s sorrows, and community meals in their public cafeteria.
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