In popular devotion, especially in the center-south, by ancient tradition, the Friday preceding Palm Sunday, also called “Friday of pain”, is dedicated to the memory of the Virgin grieved. The statue of Mary, dressed in black as a sign of mourning and with the heart symbolically pierced by a sword, is brought to procession accompanied by poignant funeral marches. These are the rites, suggestive and very participated, which introduce the beginning of Holy Week.
TO Gallipoliin Salento, the simulacrum of the Addolorata (in the photo above), at 12 o’clock out of the cathedral and runs through the whole city to return in the evening when the sailors bless the sailors from the bastion of the port.
Cult
The devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows took particular consistency from the end of the 11th century and was anticipating the liturgical celebration, established later. The Liber de Passion Christi et pain et planku matris eius of unknown (erroneously attributed to San Bernardo), constitutes the beginning of a literature, which leads to the composition in various languages of the “cry of the Virgin”. Testimony of this devotion is the very popular Stabat Mater in Latin, attributed to Jacopone da Todi, who also composed the famous in vulgar Laudi; From this devotion originated the feast of “Seven pains of Mary Most Holy”.
In the fifteenth century there were the first liturgical celebrations on the “compassion of Mary” at the foot of the cross, located in the time of passion. In the middle of the thirteenth century, in 1233, the order of the friars “Servi di Maria” was arose in Florence, founded by the Ss. Seven founders and inspired by the Virgin. The order that already in the name qualified for the devotion to the Mother of God, distinguished itself over the centuries for the intense veneration and spread of the cult of the Addolorata; On June 9, 1668, the Holy Congregation of Rites allowed the order to celebrate the votive mass of the seven pains of the Blessed Virgin, mentioning in the decree that the friars of the servants brought the black dress in memory of the widower of Mary and the pains that it supported in the passion of the son.
Subsequently, Pope Innocent XII, on 9 August 1692 authorized the celebration of Seven pains of the Blessed Virgin on the third Sunday of September.
But the celebration still had stages, as the cult spread; On August 18, 1714 the Sacred Congregation approved a celebration of the seven pains of Mary, on the Friday preceding Palm Sunday and Pope Pius VII, on 18 September 1814 extended the liturgical feast of the third Sunday of September to the whole church, with insertion in the Roman calendar.
In the end Pope Pius X (1904-1914), set the definitive date of the September 15, the day after the feast ofExaltation of the Holy Crosswith memory no more than the “seven pains”, but more appropriately as “Blessed Virgin Mary Addolorata”.
How is the Addolorata depicted?
It is usually dressed in black for the loss of the child, with a sword or with seven swords that pierce the heart. The black dress of the Addolorata is a tradition imported into the center-south of Italy with Spanish domination.
Another very represented subject is the Compassionthe penultimate act of the Passion, who lies between the deposition and the burial of Jesus, in which the mother supports the body of the dead son on his knees.
The procession of the Addolorata in Gallipoli
Popular rites
In honor of the Addolorata several prayers have been composed. The most famous is the one that contemplates i Seven pains of Marywhich correspond to as many episodes narrated in the Gospel: 1) the prophecy of the elderly Simeone, when Jesus was brought to the temple “and a sword will also pierce the soul to you”. 2) The Holy Family is forced to escape to Egypt “Giuseppe Destatoso, took the child and his mother in the night and fled to Egypt”. – 3) The finding of the twelve -year -old Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem “Your Father and I was distressed”. – 4) Mary Addolorata, meets Jesus who brings the cross to the Via del Calvario. – 5) The Madonna at the foot of the cross in full adhesion to the will of God, participates in the sufferings of the crucified and dying son. – 6) Mary welcomes the dead son deposed by the cross in his arms. – 7) Mary entrusts the body of Jesus to the sepulcher, pending the resurrection.
The liturgy and devotion also compiled the Handicy’s litanieswhere the Virgin is implored in all needs, recognizing them all the titles and merits of his personal suffering. Popular tradition has identified the meditation of the seven pains, in the pious practice of the Via Matriswhich like the Via Crucis, traces the historical stages of Mary’s sufferings and more and more numerous these prison itineraries arise, especially near Marian sanctuaries, represented with sculptures, ceramics, wooden groups, frescoes.
The penitential processions, typical of the period of the Passion of Christ, also include the figure of the painful mother who follows the dead son, the meeting on the ascent of Calvary, Maria placed at the foot of the Crucifix; In certain municipalities, devotional processions take on the aspect of real highly suggestive representations, especially those of the meeting between the simulacrum of Mary dressed in mourning and that of Jesus who transports the bloody and suffering cross.
In certain locations these processions, which in the Middle Ages also gave rise to sacred representations called “mysteries”, take on an imposing popular participation, to be constituted an attraction as well as devotional and penitential, also tourist and folkloric, starting with the great Baroque procession of Seville.
