The memory of the sorrowful Virgin in the Catholic liturgy recalls the faithful to meditate on the decisive moment of the history of salvation and venerate the mother associated with the passion of the son and close to him raised on the cross. This anniversary of devotional origin was introduced in the Roman calendar by Pope Pius VII In 1814. The name Addolorata, in Latin Painfulhe had widespread diffusion in southern Italy. There is a tendency to replace it with its Spanish Dolores derivative.
Carlo Dolci, painful material
What are the origins and history of worship?
The devotion to the Madonna Addolorata, which originates from the steps of the Gospel, where we speak of the presence of the Virgin Mary on the Calvary, 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 eiiuS 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 “Laudi” in the vulgar language; The feast of the “seven pains of Mary Most Holy” originated from this devotion.
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 sacred 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 Mary’s widower and the pains that she supported in the passion of the son.
Subsequently, Pope Innocent XIIon 9 August 1692 he authorized the celebration of the 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.
Finally Pope Pius X (1904-1914), set the definitive date of the September 15, sUbito after the celebration of the exaltation of the cross (14 September), with memory no more than the “seven pains”, but more appropriately as “Blessed Virgin Mary Addolorata”.
The statue of the Addolorata of the Confraternity of Carmine Venerated in Gallipoli (Lecce)
Popular devotions: Mary’s seven pains
The seven pains of Mary 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 with him 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 into her arms; 7) Mary entrusts the body of Jesus to the sepulcher, pending the resurrection. The liturgy and devotion have also compiled the litanies of the Addolorata, where 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 matis, Which like the Via Crucis, retraces 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 appearance of real highly suggestive representations, especially those of the meeting between the simulacrum of Mary dressed in mourning and grieved and that of Jesus who transports the everything bloody and suffering cross.
In certain locations these processions, which in the Middle Ages also took place to sacred representations called “Mysteries”, They assume an imposing popular participation, to be constituted an attraction as well as devotional and penitential, also tourist and folkloric, I quote for all the great Baroque procession of Seville.
The artistic expressions: from music to art
To the text of the famous Stabat Mater, Musicians of every era were inspired; Among the most illustrious ones appear Palestrina, Pergolesi, Rossini, Verdi, Dvorak. The sorrowful Virgin has been depicted along the centuries in many expressions of art, especially painting and sculpture, the result of the work of the greatest artists who, according to their inspiration, wanted to express the great suffering of Mary primarily.
Giotto, late on the dead Christ
How is the Addolorata depicted?
It is usually dressed in black for the loss of the son, with a sword or with seven swords that pierce her heart. Another very represented subject is the Compassionpenultimate act of passion, which lies between the deposition and burial of Jesus.
The term “pity” indicates in art, the representation of the two main characters Mary and Jesus, the mother and the son; Maria supports him placed on his knees, or on the edge of the sepulcher together with s. Giovanni Apostolo (Michelangelo and Giovanni Bellini). Masterpiece of the intensity of the pain of those present, it is the “late on the dead Christ” of Giotto.
In the Sanctuary of the Addolorata di Castelpetroso (Isernia), according to the appearance of 1888, Jesus is placed on the ground and Mary is on his knees next to him and with his arms he cries and offers him at the same time.
What are the religious congregations dedicated to the cult of the Addolorata?
By virtue of the cult so widespread to the Addolorata, every city and every country has a church or chapel dedicated to her; various welfare and penitential confraternities, as well as numerous female religious congregations and some male, are placed under the name of the Addolorata, especially if connected to the ancient Order of the servants of Mary.
The love and veneration for the afflicted consoler and for her ‘compassion’, she produced, especially in the order of the splendid figures of saints, we mention some of it: the saints seven founders, Giuliana Falconieri, Filippo Benizi, Pellegrino Laziosi, Antonio Maria Pucci, Gabriele of the Addolorata (Passionist), without forgetting, first of all, St. John the apostle and evangelist, Always next to her to comfort her and share its unspeakable pain, accompanying her until the end of her life.
