September 15 - Our Lady of Sorrows, or more often: Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, and invoked in Latin as Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens, or Mater Dolorosa, is one of the many titles by which the Catholic Church venerates the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus.
The title emphasizes the association of the mother with the suffering of her son. The "Seven Sorrows" refer to the events, recounted in the Gospels, that caused the mother of Jesus to suffer as she accompanied her son in his mission as Redeemer.
The cult of the Mater Dolorosa appears officially in 1221, in the Monastery of Schönau, Germany. In 1239, in the Diocese of Florence, Italy, the Order of the Servants of Mary (Ordo Servita), whose spirituality is very attached to the Blessed Virgin, set the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows for September 15. This title owes its name to the seven Sorrows experienced by the Virgin Mary :
- The Prophecy of Simeon on the Child Jesus. (Lk, 2, 34-35).
- The flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. (Mat, 2, 13-21)
- The disappearance of Jesus for three days in the temple. (Lk, 2, 41-51)
- The meeting of Mary and Jesus on the via crucis. (Lk, 23, 27-31)
- Mary contemplating the suffering and death of Jesus on the Cross. (Jn, 19, 25-27)
- Mary welcomes her dead son in her arms during the Descent from the Cross. (Mat, 27, 57-59)
- Mary abandons the body of her son at the time of the burial. (John 19, 40-42).
